Titan and Control Group Win Community Impact Award in NYC's Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge

Companies Collaborate to Create "NYC I/O: The Responsive City" and Envision the Future of New York City's Payphones

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Mar 07, 2013, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, March 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Titan, the largest municipal advertising sales company in the United States, and Control Group, a leading New York City-based technology and design firm, have won the "Community Impact Award" for their submission in New York City's Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge, an open contest to build a new public tool that will make the city more accessible, safer, healthier, greener and better informed.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130307/NY72572 )

The Titan/Control Group team was one of six award winners named in last night's "Reinvent Payphones Demo Day." The City is now putting out a call for the public to select the best of the six award winners. Participants can vote via Facebook for their favorites before March 15th.

Rising to the city's Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge, Control Group and Titan partnered to create NYC I/O: The Responsive City — a pioneering concept, which reflects the transformation of the corner payphone into a digital hub that will usher in a new era of "The Responsive City."

"Our submission, 'NYC I/O: The Responsive City,' updates the payphone with a modern array of sensors and displays to create a foundational input/output system for an open, urban-scale computing platform, which would allow New York City to respond to and serve the people in a way never done before," said Colin O'Donnell, Partner and Chief Operating Officer, Control Group. "Through open access to real time data and a distribution platform for community, civic, arts and commercial apps and messaging, we can create a safer, more efficient, and more enjoyable city."

While the contest is not the formal RFP for the city's payphone contract, it was put forth to spur ideas for the eventual issuance of the RFP. Titan currently has the largest franchise secured through October 2014 and commands an inventory of phone kiosks in New York City, with 2,552 pay phones at 1,762 phone kiosk locations throughout the five boroughs. Titan will be submitting for the official RFP in 2014 with Control Group as their technology partner.

"We have been passionate about the payphone and its place in the city scape since we acquired Verizon's New York City inventory in 2009 and 2010," said Scott Goldsmith, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Titan. "We thought this competition was a great way for the city to generate excitement around what the future of this historic portal could look like. Payphones have served us well, but it's time we address the needs and changes in the way people communicate in the digital age. In working with Control Group, we believe we have the insight and imagination to bring our concept of the next generation of payphones into a reality that will transform the landscape and continue to generate advertising revenue for the City."

About Control Group
Control Group partners with organizations to help them envision their long-term future and deliver the means to generate more revenue, brand value and efficiencies through strategic planning, user-centered design, multi-discipline engineering, and support. Our clients include leaders in Retail, Architecture, Real Estate, Hospitality, Healthcare, Finance, and Media & Entertainment industries. For more information about Control Group and its services, go to www.controlgroup.com.

About Titan
Titan is a full service media company specializing in Out-of-Home advertising. With more markets, more Top Ten DMA penetration and more Transit and Municipal contracts, Titan is the leader in 'People in Transit' advertising in the United States.

Titan provides sales, marketing, creative, research and maintenance of advertising in airports, on buses, rail, bulletins, telephone kiosks, street banners and street furniture. It also leads the way in the development and successful introduction of market-leading digital Out-of-Home and Mobile platforms. Titan furnishes national and local clients with creative media solutions in the North America's top markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New Jersey, Dallas, Charlotte, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Toronto.