Raleigh, North Carolina buses get on-board DTV
By Donald Melanson 
posted Apr 14th 2009 5:21PM
posted Apr 14th 2009 5:21PM
Planning to hop on a bus in Raleigh, North Carolina anytime soon? Then there's a chance you could be treated to an added distraction during your trip, as the city has just rolled out its first CAT bus equipped with mobile DTV, which looks to be one of the first projects resulting from those MPH tests that took place last year. This little bit of magic also comes courtesy of a little help from LG and Harris Corp., who are supplying the displays and mobile transmission equipment for the pilot program, which will be expanded to five buses by August, with another 20 planned for the second phase that'll run though August 2010. Of course, your viewing options will be somewhat limited, with a simulcast of local station WRAL apparently the only channel on tap, along with some weather information and, of course, a healthy dose of advertising.
[Thanks, Dana]
[Thanks, Dana]
1. I hope these TV's get broken or ripped off
2. I hope that Raleigh transit doesnt cut services and raise prices or ask the Feds to bail them out when they realize they have no more money...
Thats sweet.. but whats up with the suits?
I remember reading about Los Angeles's Orange Line (BRT) getting TVs. The resulting comments were mainly complaints by the people who didn't like the additional noise. These things should be muted and have a low power FM transmitted for the audio, like they do in 24 hour fitness. I'm not sure what kind of chaos a fleet of buses with FM transmitters would cause for the radio stations though.
most la buses have had these for a couple years now. just not HDTV. most of them have been tagged on, are turned off (probably stopped working), or the audio is off. when they do work, the news text on the screen changes too quickly, the commercials are annoying, and the gps maps are zoomed so far out you can't tell what street is coming up anyway. talk about an annoying waste of money. i guess they thought they would profit from the ads. but instead they seem to just have ended up with a bunch of broken tvs that arent worth repairing constantly.
Nice, our tax dollars at work!