Transforming the Tube

Transport advertising media specialist, CBS Outdoor, is transforming the look of the London Underground with cutting edge digital media technology.

In the build-up to the London Olympics in 2012, Transport for London is putting in place a comprehensive investment programme to modernise and upgrade London’s transport system. Over five years they will inject £10billion (€15bn) into the network, over half of that into the Underground. This will bring a combination of new trains, new track and new signalling systems, leading to increased capacity and faster and more reliable journeys. Stations are also being modernised and refurbished, and the system made more accessible. Already carrying over one billion passengers per year, the Tube will then be able to cope with the significant projected increase in journeys by residents and visitors in the years up to and beyond 2012.

At the same time, advertising signage in the London Underground is undergoing a radical overhaul. In August 2006, London Underground signed a new contract with transport advertising media specialist CBS Outdoor for the next 8.5 years. Under the terms of this contract, CBS Outdoor has committed to a £72m transformation programme in which every advertising panel on stations, corridors and platforms will be replaced – a total of 33,000 sites on 275 stations.

Improving station ambience

CBS Outdoor appointed engineers Arup to overhaul the design of the existing sites, including the framing of all panels. The brief was to create a clean, modern family of advertising formats which would merge harmoniously with each other, providing advertisers and their agencies with a better showcase for their work. As before, tight restrictions applied to fire-hazardous materials such as acrylic, which is widely used as a diffuser in advertising lightboxes above ground but not permitted below ground. The aesthetic challenge was to create a more logical zoning of different display sizes, and better sightlines in corridors and interchanges with mixed-sized signage. It was an explicit goal to contribute to improving the station ambience. The engineers were also tasked with developing quieter scrolling mechanisms, and narrower lightboxes with non-reflective and scratchproof glass. Arup’s solution was a clean and elegant product range, featuring tamperproof slimline glazed units for straight walls and silver grey frames for curved walls.

A new dry-posting system

Another key element of displaying conventional advertising signage was the elimination of wet glue. Historically, ever since the London Underground started carrying advertisements more than 100 years ago, paper ads have been applied directly to the tunnel or corridor walls using wet paste. By pioneering a new technology in tandem with adhesive specialists 3M, CBS Outdoor developed a wholly new dry-posting system. This consists of a low-tack adhesive backing layer fixed to an aluminium substrate within the ad frames, permitting easy fixing and removal of the ad in each new cycle. The dry posting system gives an improvement to fixing efficiency, there will be no more messy glue pasting marks on the posters themselves and no waste residue on the platforms.

The ‘media wall’ concept

At the same time, ten high footfall central stations, such as Oxford Circus and Bond Street, have been designated ‘Platinum’ stations. In these stations, the cross-track advertising is being converted into a high- premium ‘media wall’ concept, with a continuous modular frame running the length of the cross-track platform. Directional signage, bifurcation plates and London Underground roundels are to be integrated with the advertising signage in a harmonious way which will much improve and modernise the visual presentation of the cross-track wall.

Digital advertising screens

Most spectacular of all, the new contract will see 2,000 digital screens installed around the network, and especially in Zone 1 and 2 (central) stations. These digital screens permit movement (either animated graphics or full motion video) for the first time, allowing advertisers to bypass the conventional outdoor printing and production process, instead changing their messages quickly to suit their changing circumstances, by station, by day of week, or even by daypart. New advertising copy can be supplied and changed in near real-time, subject only to copy approval.

There are to be three digital advertising formats. The first and most numerous are digital escalator panels (DEP’s), introduced as a world first at Tottenham Court Road station in May 2005, and more recently at Charing Cross and Paddington. These sit recessed in panelling which lines both sides of the main escalator, and they display a 90 second loop of advertising material in HD format, typically in 10 second blocks, on all screens at the same time. Creative executions can be made to cascade up or down between screens, creating the illusion of flowing movement up and down the escalators. 150 of the final intended 1,700 units have already been installed.

The second format consists of high definition 57 inch LCD displays, in special housings, of which there will be 225, positioned at ticket halls, in interchanges, and on exit routes out of stations. Ads will be carried in a 20 second loop, in four five-second ad blocks, consistent with the rapid movement of people in these environments.

The largest format will be XTP, or cross-track projection, which will feature at 24 stations and involve 150 purpose-built high definition digital projectors fixed above the platform and projecting onto the cross-track tunnel wall opposite. Because of the tunnel curvature, a combination of lenses and specially developed warping software corrects the 1280×720 pixel image so that it lines up straight. Each projector, together with its heat exchanger, is a sealed unit to prevent dust and dirt ingress, but can be lowered easily to platform level to allow access for maintenance. Because of the average three minute wait time, the loop and the ads can be longer, typically 10–20 seconds, but transmission halts as the train approaches. For safety reasons there is no sound.

All three digital formats on the London Underground are linked to CBS Outdoor’s Camden, North London, headquarters by means of a secure dual and diverse Wide Area Network, using dedicated E1 cabling with ADSL as backup. Advertising creative material is sent in digital format (Mpeg 2, divX or avi) to CBS Outdoor for copy approval and scheduling. From there it is transmitted via a networking centre to hubs set up at each of the stations, which hold the copy and serve it to the individual screens as required. The system is capable of logging each successfully completed transmission, necessary for auditable accountability reporting to advertisers at campaign level. A digital audience measurement software tool also computes the audience exposed to the advertising across every combination of stations and timeslots. As a result advertisers can both know the audience profile and coverage they achieve with each campaign and also receive on request a transmission summary report itemising transmissions at each location (this can run to hundreds of thousands of individual spots).

Commenting on the advertising transformation programme, London Underground Managing Director Tim O’Toole said: “The transformation of the advertising estate sits comfortably with the ambitious refurbishment programme of the system as a whole and our vision to provide a world class Tube for a world class city. We are delighted with the new advertising designs and believe that Tube passengers will appreciate the new range of advertising furniture too. The digital media is especially exciting. London Underground and Transport for London will also be using some of the new signage for our own messages.”

Today the programme of transformation has already begun. “By 2008, that transformation will be complete,” said Andrew Oldham, CBS Outdoor COO for UK and Ireland. “33,000 conventional signs will have been replaced, and there will be 2,000 gleaming new digital units in place. Our vision to deliver the best advertising estate anywhere in the world will hopefully become a reality. And we will definitely be in need of a good long holiday.”