Imagine this, you are traveling from Chennai - Hosur in Tamil Nadu SETC bus which is playing a super hit movie Billa (Rajinikanth) and bus reached Hosur when movie is about to reach climax. You get down in Hosur and board Tamil Nadu State Coporation Bus to Bangalore and you are amazed to see the movie continues here....?!!$#@%

This is what is happening in Tamil Nadu Governement Transport Corporation buses... They are all networked so that at a given point-of-time, all buses will be playing the same video which is almost like a satellite TV. Actually this setup also has a brand name "Boom TV" with caption "The next BIG Medium". This name comes from Build, Own, Operate and Maintain concept. Under this concept, private contractors would have to remit Rs. 262 a bus for a month for the broadcast rights and maintain the television sets and telecast the programmes

Thanks to Proxs Info for Technology, Peacock Media for OOH Idea, Airtel GPS (Platform).

All these buses are equipped with LCD Tv's connected to Windows PC's which run PxlView software. The moment this setup is switched on, Machine boots with PxlView -> Dials a predefined number through Airtel GPS modem -> Connects to PxlView Server -> Downloads the playlist which has details like which video or ad to play at what time -> Video Starts.

The LCD television with a unique inbuilt set top box would download the contents in compressed and encrypted files of MP4 and AV format while entering or halting at the wireless fidelity enabled depot. The contents can be adjusted according to the area within the stipulated time slots through GPS, which would allow local advertisement and contents to be displayed. Besides instant messages and warning could also be sent to the buses from the control room

Contractor taking up the work on BOOM concept could telecast commercial information, advertisements, road safety messages, important news items and announcements relating to public sector and government departments. The LCD plasma screens would be controlled from Chennai through GPS modem from a control room and the Government could run scroll messages of news value and government announcements. Programmes for telecast would be set every day through the GPS modem.

This project is a initiative of Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services

More info about this Product: http://www.proxsinfo.com/pxlview.php?id=1&b=1

The only disadvantage is that if you travel on Friday to Bangalore and travel back to Chennai on Sunday, you might see the same movie or video being played during both these journey :) Kind'a frustrating....

Here is a promotional video about BOOM Tv:


Screenshots:


Article originally published at http://indianinternetguru.blogspot.com/