Tunnel vision

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: months, C2E is running it as a pilot. “After that it would be a revenue sharing (not leasing) model with DMRC,” says Vohra

Given DMRC’s average, daily ridership of four lakhs, the utilisation of the tunnel space at strategic points can virtually generate crores in revenue for DMRC. “It is definitely clutter breaking, giving a very good ad recall. The metro riders’ profile (SECA1 and A2 category of self-employed salaried commuters) also matches our target,” says Shubhada Basuray, associate vice-president, marketing, Kotak Life.

“Our objective is to relieve confined environmental psychology in a non-intrusive manner,” says A Rabindranath, CEO, C2E. “With DMRC opening up other routes and traffic snarls on roads getting longer and more frustrating, the potential application for this media could be mind boggling,” he adds.

Bang on target

A DMRC study done in July 2007 reveals that on any given day, some 3.96 lakh riders board Line 2 of Delhi Metro from Central Secretariat to Vishwa Vidyalaya.Of these, 21% are female and the rest male.

The age break-up is: 18-24 (40%); 25-34 (39%); 35-44 (14%) and 45 and above (7%). Occupation wise, 48% are salaried, 19% students; 29% businessmen and self-employed. Their educational profile is 60% graduates; 4% professionals and 17% undergraduates; while the socio-economic classification is SEC A1 (15%); SEC A2 (33%) and SEC B1 (35%).

How it works

For long, there was no technology available that could withstand the tough tunnel conditions in terms of fire and safety norms.

That’s when someone thought of a 19th century toy, called zoetrope, designed by an astrophysicist, Joshua Spodek, and it led to the discovery of a “reverse film” application—based on the thought that unlike in a movie theatre, where the audience is seated and the film rolls, in a tube tunnel, it’s the audience that rolls, while the “film” or the installation is fixed to the tunnel wall. That gave rise to a logical algorithm that incorporates two processes: The first is a set of display boxes made of steel that are installed on the tunnel walls. The boxes house the images that are placed frame by frame and can be lit from inside by fluorescent tubes.

The boxes are laser cut in the front and calibrated specifically for each transit system taking into account the distance between the audience and the image boxes, as well as the speed at which the train runs in front of the installation.