Public Transport companies must focus their attention on Passenger Information Services in order to further improve customer satisfaction and their public image. Telargo developed a Remote Content Management solution to help reach cost efficient, timely and reliable content distribution. It offers easily accessible and simple to use content editing and cost and time effective Over-the-air distribution of entered content to the displays and voice speakers on bus stops and/or vehicles.

Visual and audio announcements offer pertinent and timely information consisting of arrival information (current stop, next stop, ETA), public transport company messages (new schedules, minor route changes, traffic update, new prices, etc.) and commercial messages which offer additional revenue possibilities.

Content entry
Visual and audio content that is announced on-bus or on-stop is managed through the Public Transport portal by the fleet manager or the dispatcher. Entering of the desired content is user friendly and also enables graphic design of effects that are displayed on LEDs.

LED entry editor

LED graphic design editor

Content distribution
The fact that the content is entered on the portal and distributed over the air enables easy, quick and controllable distribution. All information sent for visual and audio announcements is archived with a time and location stamp. This kind of distribution is also cost effective as it eliminates the need to manually upload the content to each vehicle or bus stop separately.

Scheme of content distribution 

Content triggering
LED displays that are placed at the stop and inside the public transportation vehicle receive visual and voice passenger announcements that are triggered by the Telargo On-Board Unit installed on the bus. All information for triggering points as well as the displayed content is sent from the Public Transport portal to the unit via GPRS.

There are two ways of triggering announcement content:

• automatic (based on odometer readings)
• manual

Integration with Google Earth^TM enables public transit managers to view the exact location of the visual and voice announcement files triggering on the satellite maps. 

 
LED content, voice files and triggering locations on satellite view

Content priority
Information is displayed based on priority settings and validity data. An example of messages sorted by priority from highest to lowest could be: emergency message, current stop message, next stop announcement, general announcement, advertising message. The possibility of tracking and reporting the number of times the content is displayed is useful with commercial announcements.

Besides the general passenger information of on-bus or on-stop, Geo Information Services and Public Service announcements and alerts can appear as video and audio announcements as-well. This is particularly useful in cases of emergency where the passengers need to be informed in a timely manner.

LED display inside the vehicle