QUEEN’S ROAD: Bus journeys, especially the long-haul ones, can get boring. Turning this into a business opportunity, a company called Travelling Talkies has launched a unique mobile entertainment system.
Passengers can now just walk in with their smartphone and download an app on the bus. They can then access hours and hours of high-quality and legal entertainment on their mobile phones or tablets.
“We launched Mobility as a trial in November 2014 on a VRL bus and saw a huge demand for it,” said Naveen Krishnaswamy, one of the founders of Travelling Talkies.
The Bengaluru-based company was started in 2012, by Naveen and Thejaswi Gurumurthy.
Their app, called the Touring Talkies iPES (intelligent Personal Entertainment System) offers movies, music, games, books and more on touch-screen devices installed on the bus.
Currently, Touring Talkies offers three products — Elite, Superlite and Mobility.
The Elite lets passengers pick their programming on a device in front of their seats. The choice includes all kinds of movies and television shows, personal wake-up calls and safety videos.
The Superlite offers the same product, but passengers cannot choose what will be broadcast. The choice is controlled by the bus attendant.
Mobility lets buses instal a central server, using which passengers can download the app, and then enjoy the services on their phones. “The end users will not have to use any Internet at all, thanks to the local Wi-fi made available on the bus,” Naveen told City Express.
Touring Talkies has tied up with content houses covering the Hindi, Kannada and Tamil film industries, and is also looking to create its own content.
“A bus gets converted to a flight. We offer flight-like announcements, dropping point announcements, infotainment, cricket scores, a GPS system, wake-up alarm and more,” Naveen said.
Currently focused on business class buses (Volvo and Mercedes), the company wants to “change the way entertainment is consumed” in regular buses. They are talking to investors for funding.
info@touringtalkies.in. Call Naveen Krishnaswamy on 95359 82121