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Four new digital ad screens could be installed in city centre
Four new digital advertising screens could soon be installed on busy pavements in the city centre of Bristol. JCDecaux is applying to Bristol City Council for planning permission for four “multifunctional communication hubs” featuring advertising and defibrillators.
They are planned for St Augustines Parade near the Hippodrome, on Victoria Street near the Tesco, on Lewins Mead near the Premier Inn, and on Broadmead near Costa. Each would have 86-inch LCD screens showing adverts. The hubs are 1.3 metres wide and 2.6 metres tall.
The French company is a giant in the world of advertising, owning many of the billboards across Bristol and the wider country. The hubs would provide free wifi, free phone calls to landlines and charities, and USB ports to charge a phone or tablet.
In March, Network Rail withdrew proposed plans for more digital advertising screens at Bristol Temple Meads after objections – photo: Martin Booth
In planning documents, architects said: “The rise in mobile phone ownership has corresponded with a decline in the use of the traditional public callbox. The callboxes that remain following the nationwide rationalisation have had to adapt to modern life and the needs of the public to stay connected when out of home.
“The Hub unit redefines the role and function of the traditional callbox to a multipurpose communication Hub that provides the means for people to engage with each other and public bodies.”
All four locations are busy thoroughfares with many pedestrians walking along the pavement every day. These footpaths tend to already be cluttered, with pedestrians having to navigate past bins, A-boards outside takeaways, and cars parked on the pavement.
New models of the hubs have technology for monitoring things like weather, air quality and the number of pedestrians walking past. And the revenue from the adverts pays for the free public services, like being able to connect to the internet or use a defibrillator.
According to planning documents, the hubs are “easily acknowledged by blind and partially sighted pedestrians”. The height of the phone equipment from ground level also enables access by people in wheelchairs.
Main photo: JCDecaux
Read next:
- Network Rail withdraws plans for more digital ad screens at Temple Meads
- Vandalised digital ad screen turned on for first time
- Digital ad screen refused amid planning controversy
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