LiveTouch Platform moves to Barcelona!

In the run up to the Smart City Congress, an important technological event that was hosted in Barcelona at the end of November, JCDecaux unveiled two permanent connected bus shelters in strategic locations around the Spanish city (a single bus shelter in Barcelona and a double bus shelter close to Plaça de Catalunya). After the Intelligent Street Furniture project in Paris, these two bus shelters are the first definitive implementations of LiveTouch, a solution developed by JCDecaux that offers a platform of interactive services that run on Android. JCDecaux continues to break new ground with this product, which aims to provide for the advertising needs of the city and offer services to the public (eg. highlighting places of interest in the city, providing public transport, tourist and cultural information etc.). The two new bus shelters in Barcelona were designed by Sir Norman Foster. These shelters were modified to accommodate a 72” digital LCD screen to display ads on the inside of the bus shelter and a back-lit display on the outside. The touchscreen gives access to apps that have been developed by the city as well as by local businesses. A separate box, which is managed by the city with its network partner Cisco, offers free Wi-Fi, as well as three USB power outlets, allowing passengers and tourists to charge their smartphones.

Barcelona LiveTouch, JCDecaux

The LiveTouch screen offer 7 Android applications: A prop d'aqui: Points of interest around the bus stop and in the city (pharmacies, banks, theatres, gardens, taxi stops, police stations, parking and more) TMB virtual: Information on public transport in Barcelona (lines maps, schedules, bus stops and more) Bicing: Self-service bike rental service (Maps of the stations, number of bikes available by station, closest stations and more) BCN cultural: Cultural events in Barcelona (events dates, venues, nearest transport and more) BCN Al mobil: Offers 3 different itineraries for tourists: half a day, one day or two days by foot or using public transport BCN Paisatge: Landmarks and typical local shops from Barcelona. BCN Nadal: Main events for the holiday season (fairs, parades, Christmas trees exhibitions, ice rinks and more). This application will be available until 8th January 2014. The feedback from Barcelona city was very positive; the Director of IT Strategies & Smartcity of Barcelona said “A new way of interaction and communication between the citizen and the city has just been born”