Transportation Infrastructure

Transportation critical infrastructure sectors rely on technology to manage daily incidents and keep commerce moving. Airports, Seaports and Transit agencies are complex, dynamic environments with public areas, employee-only access zones, construction sites and vast perimeters. Security is often a shared responsibility that requires coordination and collaboration among local, state and federal agencies. There are overlapping authorities that demand effective communication networks.

Vidsys helps transportation organizations:

• Control disparate security and building management systems and sensors

• Prevent access to unauthorized areas

• Achieve real-time visibility to suspicious activities or threats

• Effectively monitor large areas

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or “T” serves a population of just under 5,000,000 citizens, spread across more than 175 cities and towns in a 3,244 square mile area. The T simultaneously operates 183 bus routes, three rapid transit lines, five streetcar routes, four trackless trolley lines and 13 commuter rail routes in a 24/7 operating environment. The agency also has dozens of maintenance yards, administrative facilities and one of the nation’s most state of the art training facilities. In 2008, the T’s security operations consisted of multiple stand-alone access control systems and a single video management system, both of which were supported predominantly by one systems integrator. The video management manufacturer had limited development flexibility, which prevented MBTA from scaling the solution in a timely and cost effective manner.

Vidsys software empowered MBTA to make its vision of a centralized command center a reality. Vidsys’ web based architecture makes it possible for the MBTA to support five additional security hubs for localized monitoring of any type of safety or security incident such as objects on tracks, reported thefts, station fires or suspicious persons or packages. The software integrates, correlates and analyzes data across disparate security systems and devices, providing security personnel a simplified user interface.

The single Vidsys user interface provides a universal viewer and controller to all security and monitoring subsystems. This put the agency in a unique position to diversify technology vendor manufacturers without impacting the user experience. In addition to multiple VMS, Vidsys also integrated the emergency intercom system, tunnel intrusion lasers, fire alarms, high security gates, geospatial technology and several other alarms with video wall, CBRNE and video analytics. Because MBTA officials have elected to competitively bid security upgrade projects on a station-by-station basis vs. a massive lump sum project, multiple system integrators continuously bid on projects for the T. This model has had two very powerful results: The increased competition has driven down costs across both integrators and the vendors providing the hardware quotes.