Traffic and Travel

I have been dealing with Traffic and Travel Information for more than 10 years and I am always surprised by the methods other players in the field use to try to hoodwink Public Service Broadcasters. Just recently when we made a suggestion regarding how encrypted and free for all services should be separated we got a response claiming our suggestion was "nonsense".

As we stated our point, which is basically for free availability of Traffic Travel Information, or in other words not having to pay again for information which has been paid for by the taxpayer already, our friends started to react. The "nonsense" was suddenly transcribed into a different meaning, that for some players this made "no sense".

I am asking myself sometimes when stumbling across such "manoeuvres" what this is all about.

Are the Public Service Broadcasters perceived to be stupid or is it simply that we don’t need enemies if we have such "good friends"?

Georg Auf der Maur
Chairman EBUI-TTI-Group

The Traffic and Travel Information (TTI) Group provides strategic advice to EBU Members on a number of key areas. These include the provision of TTI services via all available delivery methods; advice on optimising high quality public TTI services by developing the leading editorial position and providing international information which is available uniquely to public service broadcasters; national and international TTI business opportunities; and information about the regulatory environment for TTI editorial matters, audio, video and data broadcasting.

The Group is responsible for a Message Exchange Server (TTI MES) project. This language-independent platform collects international road traffic information from EBU members in TPEG format.

Members can access the messages on the Internet via a multi-lingual interface. Currently, road traffic information for Germany, France and Switzerland is available and the TTI Group is working to promote the service and expand the number of participants.

A server with database, located at the EBU, accepts incoming TTI tpegML based messages from registered EBU members. The TTI MES then allows messages to be rendered in any form that recipient EBU Members wish.

Those EBU Members with larger TTI Generation systems may accept the MES database content directly into their systems and filter them using the extensive possibilities that the TPEG “Toolkit” allows.

Every two years, the TTI Group organizes a Eurotravel Conference, which brings together all the major players from the TTI marketplace. Speakers and delegates represent broadcasters, regulatory authorities, public transport organizations, car manufacturers and electronics companies, amongst others.

Eurotravel conferences were traditionally organised every four years by the EBU, but recently they have been held every two years. The frequency of Eurotravel conferences recognises the increased importance of Traffic and Travel Information broadcasting.

TTI now has so many emerging editorial and technical possibilities and has a significantly wider range of applications - it is important to keep up-to-date. The main theme of Eurotravel 2006 was to investigate how different organisations can work together to provide TTI services for the multimodal traveller.