Archive for the ‘Traffic’ Category

NY1 News chooses Beat the Traffic

NY1 News, the Time Warner Cable owned New York City news station, recently debuted Beat the Traffic for its newscasts.

NY1 News’s new traffic reporting solution provides real time traffic flow, speed data, road conditions and point to point trip times in an easy to understand 3D animated presentation. The new system provides comprehensive coverage of highway and surface road traffic in the greater New York metropolitan area for NY1’s Rail and Road Report seen during the morning and evening rush hour.

“We are extremely pleased to expand our partnership with Timer Warner Cable in New York City, providing relief to the millions of commuters in the New York Metro area,” said Andre Gueziec, President & CEO of Triangle Software, the company that operates the Beat the Traffic® system. “This is the seventh city where Time Warner Cable has deployed our vehicle traffic reporting system, and we are delighted to work closely with their teams on creating an award-winning user experience.”

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Companies partner to offer traffic iPhone app add-on

News Over Wireless  and Beat The Traffic have announced a partnership to deliver premium traffic information content on the iPhone and iPod touch.

The market-specific, up-to-the-minute traffic information will be available to users through an “in app purchase” inside iPhone Apps created by NOW for local television stations across the country.

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Beat the Traffic draws on history of innovation to deliver traffic product

Started as an Internet venture in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001, Andre Gueziec combined his doctorate in computer science and a career working for IBM with his fascination with automobile traffic, traffic related data and graphic animation. His creation was the SF Bay Traffic Info Web site: www.sfbaytraffic.info.

Within three years and the help of some funding from the National Science Foundation, Gueziec created a nationwide portal he labeled BeatTheTraffic.com which displayed his proprietary software by the same name.  Recruiting fellow software engineers and graphic designers, Beat the Traffic was introduced at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas in April 2005. It was there that Beat the Traffic was recognized by Television Broadcast Magazine and honored with its NAB Top Innovation Award.

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Beat the Traffic to unveil new touch-screen traffic reporting solution

Beat The Traffic is introducing its exclusive Touch Technology to drive its award-winning on-air television traffic reporting software system.

This leading new touch screen technology is clearly the latest break through for on air traffic reporting which makes their system more uniquely intuitive and interactive with the simple touch of a finger.

The interface allows a traffic reporter to activate simple commands; start or advance their sequence; move and drag a map; zoom in and out; tilt the view; as well as “touch a hot spot” such as a traffic incident, a live traffic camera or reveal new text information, all with the simple touch of the screen.

While in front of the Beat The Traffic Touch Screen you even have the capability to interactively select any two locations on a map and instantly display point-to-point travel times and the most up-to-date highway speeds and road conditions. This brand new software interface truly takes advantage of the power of the data underlying the system.

Beat The Traffic Touch Technology and other new advances will be formally introduced by Triangle Software at NAB 2010 in Las Vegas.

Beat the Traffic joins NewscastStudio as advertiser

Beat the Traffic, provider of traffic updates to North America’s leading TV stations and cable providers, has signed on to become an advertiser for NewscastStudio’s 2010 NAB Show coverage.

The company is no stranger to our site, having being featured in our 2009 NAB show coverage for its innovative use of the Wii controller as a way for television traffic presenters to guide viewers through the company’s interactive traffic maps and the November 2009 launch of its Blackberry app. The company also has the distinction in being included in a Discovery Channel documentary.

Beat the Traffic is one of a growing number of non-set design companies that are using NewscastStudio to reach television news executives and decision-makers. If your company has a product or service for the television news industry, click here for more details about advertising with us.

For more information about Beat the Traffic’s services for television stations click here.

Detroit station streaming live video from city snow plows

WDIV-TV, the Post-Newsweek station in Detroit, reached a deal earlier this year to equip 25 city snow plows with smartphones capable of broadcasting live video via Sprint 3G service and Streambox, reports Broadcasting & Cable.

“On big weather days, the question is always, ‘How do we show people what the conditions on the road are and what’s going on?’” says WDIV News Operations Manager Jeff Liebman. “Then we had an idea: Why don’t we show people what the inside of the county snowplows are looking at? They’re traveling on the roads themselves, and you’ve got to figure they’re pretty safe.”

Unfortunately, the setup hasn’t gotten much use this winter since Detroit has managed to avoid a heavy number of major storms. However, the idea is certainly interesting and worth considering for other types of coverage.

New study shows how traffic reporting effects news

Beat the Traffic and Kovsky & Miller Research has released a new study that details how newscasts content is effected by traffic reporting:

TV stations in the study spent nearly 10% of their newscast content time making viewers aware of morning traffic conditions and hazards. Stations using Beat the Traffic technology covered 25% more topics like accidents, road conditions, and visibility despite spending nearly 17% less time on traffic reports. Thus Beat the Traffic stations were 46% more efficient in keeping a broad audience informed of impending auto transportation problems.

Greater use of maps was responsible for the breath of coverage and effective time usage advantages at Beat the Traffic stations. These stations spent nearly 23% more time than its competitors giving traffic information via various map displays.

Beat the Traffic launches BlackBerry App

Earlier this year we covered some of Beat the Traffic’s new innovations for television stations, now Beat the Traffic has introduced an App to make everyone’s commute faster than ever.

The Beat the Traffic App for BlackBerry provides live traffic maps, showing traffic speeds and incidents on major routes for more than 100 cities in the USA and Canada.

Live traffic cameras are accessible in 33 cities: New York City, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto, Phoenix, Seattle, San Bernardino, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Providence, Nashville, Memphis, Louisville, Hartford, Buffalo, Salt Lake City, Raleigh-Durham, Tucson, Fresno, New Haven, Omaha, Bakersfield, Boise, Chattanooga, Redding, Macon, Beaverton.

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Beat the Traffic featured in Discovery Channel documentary

Read more coverage of Beat the Traffic here.

NewscastStudio@NAB: Sunday Photos

Wii! NewscastStudio takes Beat the Traffic’s video game control for a spin

I’ll admit I was skeptical about how well Beat the Traffic’s Wii remote technology would work, especially considering my lack of eye-hand coordination and general video-gaming skills.

But, after a short introduction from the company’s CEO and founder Andrew Gueziec, I was zooming around a virtual map of Seattle with relative ease (and after just a few minutes of practice).

Beat the Traffic translates the user’s broad sweeping movements and hand rotations into smooth movement on the traffic system’s 3D renderings. The built-in vibration feature of the controller provides a subtle signal that you’ve hovered over a clickable data point with either a live camera flyout or detailed incident information.

The demo’s layout also mimicked a control key wall set up and I made a point to use test the Wii controller with my back to the meeting room’s large projection screen facing forward. Even without the benefit of monitors on either side or in front of me, the device was still easy to use. (more…)

Beat the Traffic takes viewers on a ride with Wii controller

Beat the Traffic has added an innovative new feature to its traffic reporting offerings — the use of the Wii video game console controller as an alternative to the typical garage door opener-style devices used by on-air talent.

Beat the Traffic combines this new offering, which is currently in initial testing at about ten stations, with its high-quality maps and 3D graphics.

Traffic information is key at this time, says Joseph J. Coscia, Beat the Traffic’s spokesperson, because the current economic climate means saving time in traffic translates to using less gas and being more productive. (more…)