Intersection is a smart cities technology and

out-of-home advertising Out-of-home (OOH) advertising, also called outdoor advertising, outdoor media, and out-of-home media, is advertising experienced outside of the home. This includes billboards, wallscapes, and posters seen while "on the go". It also includes pla ...

company. It was formed as a result of a merger between

Control Group In the design of experiments, hypotheses are applied to experimental units in a treatment group. In comparative experiments, members of a control group receive a standard treatment, a placebo, or no treatment at all. There may be more than one t ...

and

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

in June 2015. Intersection is known for its product LinkNYC.

History

Founding and pre merger

In 2001, Control Group was founded as a technology and design consultancy firm by Scott Anderson, Campbell Hyers, and Colin O'Donnell. Around the same time, Titan was founded as an out of home advertising company. In March 2006, Titan acquired media company in England, Maiden Outdoor. In December 2006, Titan won a $832 million advertising contract for the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in t ...

(NY MTA). In May 2009, Titan began to fall behind on its advertising payments to the NY MTA, and in February 2010, after months of negotiation, Titan lost its advertising contract with the NY MTA. In 2010, Control Group partnered with Fashion GPS to create bar code technology for use at

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning 7–9 days when international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general publ ...

. In March 2013, Control Group began installing the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority "On the Go kiosks" The kiosks include upcoming arrival information, maps, trip planning, and service announcements.

Merger and investments

On June 23, 2015, a consortium of investors led by

Sidewalk Labs Sidewalk Labs is an urban planning and infrastructure subsidiary of Google. Its stated goal is to improve urban infrastructure through technological solutions, and tackle issues such as cost of living, efficient transportation and energy usage. ...

acquired and merged Control Group and Titan into a new company named Intersection. This merger brought together the expertise of both companies to work on projects such as the recently won contract for LinkNYC. In November 2017, Intersection raised $150 million in a funding round led by Graham Holdings Company. This funding round did not include Sidewalk Labs, the lead investor from the prior funding round. In June 2018, Intersection launched a programmatic display advertising platform called Place Exchange intended to be used for digital out of home advertising.

Smart cities products

Link kiosks

In November 2014, the Link product was announced and, in 2015, was first installed in New York City as LinkNYC. The project aims to turn 7,500 old public

pay phone A payphone (alternative spelling: pay phone) is typically a coin-operated public telephone, often located in a telephone booth or in high-traffic outdoor areas, with prepayment by inserting money (usually coins) or by billing a credit or debit ...

s into kiosks delivering a variety of features, including free

gigabit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represent ...

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

, free voice calls, USB charging, displays for advertising content, and access to city services. In October 2016, Intersection collaborated with British internet provider BT and advertising agency Primesight to install links in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In November 2017, Intersection announced plans to install Link kiosks in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

by the end of 2018. In October 2018, Intersection launched LinkNWK in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...

, its second location in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. Intersection will install forty five Link kiosks throughout Newark, funded by advertising with partners like

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

Transit

Intersection continues to operate the NY MTA "On the Go" kiosks produced by its predecessor, Control Group. The kiosks include features such as maps, directions, service advisories, and advertising. Intersection operates digital displays and kiosks for multiple

transit agencies A transit district or transit authority is a government agency or a public-benefit corporation created for the purpose of providing public transportation within a specific region. A transit district may operate bus, rail or other types of tra ...

, including: *

Chicago Transit Authority The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is the operator of mass transit in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and some of its surrounding suburbs, including the trains of the Chicago 'L' and CTA bus service. In , the system had a ridership of , ...

* New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority *

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bus, ...

SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates transit bus, bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people ...

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA), commonly branded as Metro, LA Metro, and L.A. Metro, is the state agency that plans, operates, and coordinates funding for most of the transportation system in Los Angeles ...

In May 2018, Intersection and NJ Transit launched IxNTouch interactive displays at several locations. In May 2019, Intersection and LA Metro launched new advert funded IxNTouch information screens along Blue Line stations.

Shoutable

In May 2019, Intersection published an iOS app called Shoutable that let users post sixty second messages on LinkNYC screens. These messages were similar to e-cards, and allowed users to enter approved names for the message. As of October 2019, the Shoutable app is no longer available.

Controversy

In September 2016, Intersection removed web browsing capabilities from the LinkNYC kiosks after reported instances of inappropriate content being accessed via the tablets. Since the launch of the Link product, privacy concerns have been raised over Wi-Fi tracking and camera usage. In September 2018,

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

was accidentally made available on the internet that could be used for location tracking.

References

{{Alphabet Inc. Alphabet Inc. Companies based in Manhattan