Cabvision
Encyclopedia
Technology and content
Cabvision started in 2000 with the London Millennium golden taxis campaign. Over thousand taxis installed with Cabvision operate in central London. The creators of Cabvision are media and advertising executives Jonathan Marquis, a former senior advertising director of the Dentsu Group and Peter Da Costa, proprietor of KPM Taxis. Supported by a number of media and technology companies including IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, Trident Microsystems
Trident Microsystems
Trident Microsystems is a supplier of display-processors for flat panel displays . At one time, Trident was also a supplier of PC graphics chipsets and sound controllers.- History :...
and Liquid Digital, The passenger is given several choices at the beginning of each journey and may select from a variety of channels or mute. Cabvision was created as an entertainment, infotainment
Infotainment
Infotainment is "information-based media content or programming that also includes entertainment content in an effort to enhance popularity with audiences and consumers." It is a neologistic portmanteau of information and entertainment, referring to a type of media which provides a combination of...
and advertising system, narrowcasting to a captive ABC1 London audience. Advertisers using the system have included Accenture
Accenture
Accenture plc is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company headquartered in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. It is the largest consulting firm in the world and is a Fortune Global 500 company. As of September 2011, the company had more than 236,000 employees across...
, Barclays Bank and HSBC
HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. it is the world's second-largest banking and financial services group and second-largest public company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine...
.
Cabvision was sold in 2010 to CNL and now forms part of Cabvision Network Ltd which designs, fits and operates payment systems, including passenger operated payment terminals to Licensed London Taxis. The company is regulated by Transport for London.
Cabvision is a digital information and advertising platform playing multiple channels. Channels are provided in recorded format segmented by commercial breaks. Know London is produced by Cabvision and is the default channel on the network. The Know London channel delivers live news, weather, sport, business and a selection of London centric short films.
The passenger is given choices both at the start and throughout the journey to select from the variety of channels via an arm rest remote control pad. The passenger may also pause or mute the screen.
Taxi drivers are paid by Cabvision to run the system in their vehicles .
The system is built into a PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
located in the vehicle's boot
Trunk (automobile)
The trunk or boot of an automobile or car is the vehicle's main storage, luggage, or cargo compartment. Trunk is used in North American English and Jamaican English; boot is used elsewhere in the English speaking world. Trunk is also primarily used in many non-English speaking regions, such as...
running the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
operating system. The unit is designed to be housed in the new-style TX1
TX1
This is about the taxi in London. For the camera see Canon PowerShot TX-1. For the video game, see TX-1 .TX1 is a Hackney carriage introduced by London Taxis International in 1997 and designed to replace the aging Austin FX4...
, TXII
TXII
The TXII is a hackney carriage manufactured by LTI. It is the second model following the modernisation and re-design of the London taxi which began with the TX1...
and TX4
TX4
The TX4 is a purpose built taxicab manufactured by Manganese Bronze Holdings / LTC The London Taxi Company, formerly LTI London Taxis International. It is the latest in a long line of purpose-built taxis manufactured by LTC...
hackney carriage
Hackney carriage
A hackney or hackney carriage is a carriage or automobile for hire...
s and connected to a TFT LCD
TFT LCD
Thin film transistor liquid crystal display is a variant of liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality . TFT LCD is one type of Active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing...
screen between the fold-down passenger seats behind the driver.
Viewing data is collected and sent to the supplier via GPRS technology, emphasising the system's primary use as an advertising tool
United Kingdom
A similar system to Cabvision was licensed to Cabtivate, which was installed in taxis in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. According to the company's website, the system updates remotely without pre-recorded DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s or video tapes. The driver has no control over the Cabtivate system and individual vehicles can be programmed for specific content. However, the company behind Cabtivate has since experienced financial difficulties and is unlikely to install any further units despite provisional approval from the Public Carriage Office. Accordingly Cabvision is currently the only system authorised by the PCO operating in London.
Taxi TV is a more basic version of in-taxi TV installed in a number of taxis elsewhere in the United Kingdom, predominantly in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
.
Worldwide
Similar units (such as MICE TV) have also been trialled in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and in parts of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
with varying degrees of success