Starting off with a safety video, announcement of weather, fire safety guidelines and then entertainment of choice at a click of a button, getting onto a bus may soon resemble the experiences of long-haul flying.
A city-based company, Travelling Talkies, has launched a mobile entertainment system that has been tweaked for long-haul buses. “Just get into one of our app-enabled buses and see how it gets transformed into a flight!” says Naveen Krishnaswamy, founder of the three-year-old company.
The app can be connected to the touch screen on high-end buses. The three-year-old Travelling Talkies has been in the business of providing ‘info-driven platforms’ in buses. After downloading the app ‘Touring Talkies iPES (intelligent Personal Entertainment System)’, one can have film music, movies, TV shows, games, books and cartoons with internet options on touch-screen devices installed on the bus.
The app offers three choices: Elite, Superlite and Mobility. Elite allows access to movies and television shows. In Superlite, images on the screen are controlled by the bus attendant. The personalised high-end ‘Mobility’ allows passengers access to local wifi on the bus.
Nearly 150 buses with ‘Touring Talkies’ ply on the roads today and by the year-end the number is expected to cross a thousand. “The company’s tie-up with content houses for Hindi, Kannada and Tamil film music has them brimming with MP3 recordings of stars as S.D. Burman, A.R. Rehman or Yesudas amongst others. “We are soon bringing our own content in music choices,” says Mr. Krishnaswamy.