Valley Transportation Authority Adds Video Surveillance to Light Rail Vehicles

Diversified Security Solutions Wins $1.5 Million Contract with March Networks Mobile Solution

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) recently selected a March Networks mobile digital video solution for deployment on 80 of its light rail vehicles. The decision followed a bid process that included seven respondents and a three-month equipment demonstration involving three vendors.

Viscom Products, a division of Diversified Security Solutions, Inc. and a March Networks™ Certified Solution Provider, was awarded the $1.5 million contract to provide and install the March Networks Mobile DVRs (MDVRs) and Enterprise Management Suite software and provide maintenance for three years. Santa Clara VTA will use an 802.11g network for communications from the onboard MDVRs to its central monitoring station.

“Our decision to equip our light rail vehicles with video surveillance systems stemmed from the large success of the onboard surveillance program on the VTA buses since 2001,” stated Robert Gave, project manager for Santa Clara VTA.“To bring this successful program to our new, low-floor Kinkisharyo light rail vehicles we required an integrated security vendor that could provide us with the highest levels of technology and technical experience, along with superior customer service.

“After an extensive review, we determined that Viscom Products provided the best value to VTA with respect to qualifications of the firm, project organization, product stability of the digital video recorder and cost.

The [March Networks] system completed the final demonstration without failure, had excellent image quality, and demonstrated better wireless diagnostic and video download capabilities than the other two systems demonstrated.”

Together, Viscom Products and March Networks will provide the transportation authority with high quality and reliable video download capabilities as well as a proactive fleet management system.

James Henry, Diversified Security Solutions CEO, stated,“We are extremely pleased to have been selected by VTA to provide a new level of protection for VTA light rail vehicles. We pride ourselves on our technological leadership and longstanding customer base and believe these qualities were recognized by VTA during its selection.”

Peter Strom, March Networks president and CEO stated,“March Networks has invested extensive resources to ensure that our onboard surveillance systems and software meet the demands of our customers in the transportation market. We believe that this new contract for Viscom installation and support paired with March Networks mobile DVRs is an indication of the tremendous opportunities ahead of us in the transportation space.”