Case Study: New technology for a tourist bus operator
Company
City Sightseeing (Stirling)
Glasgow Caledonian University Experts
Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing Research Group
Background
 |
| The current technology is outdated |
City Sightseeing Stirling Ltd. operates open top bus tours around Stirling and its environs throughout the summer period. During the course of a season they normally carry around 30,000 passengers who use the service both as an attraction in itself and a means of transport between the main visitor hotspots such as Stirling Castle, Bannockburn Heritage Centre, Old Stirling Bridge and the Wallace Monument with the current tour route taking approximately 90 minutes.
Throughout this time, various commentary systems have been used and live guides were employed for a number of years but due to operational costs and the logistics of retaining a large pool of staff it has been increasingly necessary to explore alternative forms of information delivery. This trend has been common across the industry with the move towards a pre-recording being more prevalent over the last several years. In Stirling the first application of pre-recording was initially to cover shoulder periods but since April 2007 it has moved almost completely to a pre-recorded commentary.
Development History
A range of technological solutions with varying degrees of success have been applied. Systems require to be robust in what is a very challenging environment and essentially they must be reliable, and simple to operate. Furthermore the systems must have an inherent flexibility to accommodate varying road and traffic conditions and be compatible with existing systems. Aside from the technical applications, of equal importance is the commentary content, which must be informative, entertaining, and relevant while creating a sense of continuity to the listener.
Initially modified cassette tape players were connected into the bus PA system and a tone-generated signal was recorded onto one channel of the tape at appropriate intervals, which periodically paused the commentary. The pause control was via a foot pedal which activated the tape. This system was inflexible due to the linier nature of information retrieval, the inability to move from section to section of the tape, the information storage capacity and the difficulties encountered in editing the tape.
Other City Sightseeing operators refined this system using CD disks but still using the tone regulated markers. The robustness of the hardware was improved but still there was little flexibility in the selection of tracks and the driver had little control over the commentary. Any deviation from the fixed route or running order could not be accommodated. Synchronisation of the commentary with the subject being observed was very difficult with the bus often having to wait to allow the commentary to catch up.
Across the organisation there has been a move towards multi lingual systems which have gone down the direction of digital technology delivering commentaries in up to six languages simultaneously to individual stations. This was a significant leap forward but capital and operating costs have proved prohibitive for modest applications. Again there was little scope to accommodate deviance from the prescribed route or running times. Harmonisation of track times in several languages necessitates compromise, and translation and recording costs are significant. While advances in this technology have been considerable it has brought its own constraints and application limitations
Stirling Bus Tours has continued with pre-recordings in English only at present, using low cost portable DVD players interconnected to the bus PA system. By segmenting the commentary into approximately 90 tracks it has given a degree of operator flexibility to select tracks as appropriate for traffic conditions. Some limited degree of deviation from the prescribed route is possible but since the tracks are listed numerically in anticipated running order, true freedom of track selection is restricted. They have now reached the operator’s limit of distraction and further enhancement of the commentary would be impractical without some degree of automation.
The Solution
Stirling Bus Tours would like to employ GPS technology to activate sections of commentary at pre determined locations. The Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing Research Group (MUCOM), based within the School of Engineering & Computing, are providing the expertise, funded by Kit-Out the Park, to develop an innovative solution that incorporates GPS technology.
