CIO interview: John Sullivan, CIO, Virgin Trains

Another beginning introduced given Sullivan assimilated a association is a Beam app, that streams films, TV, games and magazines to users’ devices.

“I consider we have superseded a airline party centre since we’ve focused on a ‘bring your possess device’ model. Passengers don’t buy magazines since they are all giveaway of assign on a party centre, as good as a whole garland of films, catch-up TV and about 12 games to play while you’re on a trains,” he says.

“This is a many overwhelming square of pack you’ll have, and a fortitude on [smartphones] is most improved than what a airline uses in terms of a shade on a behind of a person’s seat. We’re gay to launch something like this in an attention that hasn’t got a good repute in terms of innovation.”

Beam was launched in May 2016, and designed by a IT group during Virgin Trains. Partner GoMedia did a program development, and dual calm servers were rolled out on a trains. The use is not Wi-Fi based, so passengers are connected to these servers.

“If a sight is in a tunnel, or if or we haven’t got any Wi-Fi, it doesn’t matter. It still works since a use uses a internal area network,” Sullivan explains.

Now Beam has been introduced, Virgin wants to rise a use by improving IT infrastructure on trains. Use of a stream infrastructure has already been maximised, though to offer a use to 700 customers, a limit series of passengers on a train, a set-up needs to be bolstered.

“We’re holding out a wire switches, entrance points and gateway, and putting in a latest technology. That will concede us to do a series of good things. For example, a sight could grasp what we call ‘self-healing’, so it understands if there’s a problem such as a server wanting to be rebooted. It could learn what movement it would need to take,” says Sullivan.

“[With a improvements] we could offer a Beam concentration to everybody, since we now have a limitation of 200 people. We wish to make a large impact on a attention with a concentration on patron entertainment,” he says.

“If you’re on a two-hour tour from London to Manchester, it’s going to feel distant shorter if you’re examination one of a latest films,” adds Sullivan. 

The plans for how Beam is going to rise has been defined, and Sullivan’s group is in talks with a series of record companies to rise a infrastructure, that also partly relates to a grounds compulsory for a Wi-Fi project.

“But that’s some-more of a simple infrastructure plan in terms of replacing a cable. While we need record companies to assistance us, we also need a companies that say a trains to assistance us, and they are being really helpful,” he says, referring to manufacturers such as Bombardier and Alstom.