The Trinity Metro Mass Transit System’s bus fleet in Fort Worth, Texas, has long been plagued by downtime in its video surveillance equipment because of unreliable uninterruptible power supply (UPS) issues. Trinity Metro set out to find a unified onboard video surveillance solution with no downtime while the transit vehicles were in operation. 

Trinity Metro chose Preferred Technologies (Pref-Tech) because of its reputation in the industry, and because of its ongoing relationship with the integrator. In November 2022, Pref-Tech set out to provide a turnkey solution consisting of the Genetec Transit Plugin with Axis Cameras for 181 Trinity Metro transit vehicles, ranging from 40 ft and 60 ft buses to smaller paratransit mini-mover vehicles – a project that was a strong contender for this year’s Project of the Year.”

“Pref-Tech believes in true security system unification for our enterprise customers,” said Elliott Gabriel, sales and design professional, Pref-Tech. “Currently, the Genetec Transit Plugin is the only non-proprietary, open architecture, NDAA-compliant, and Buy America-compliant solution on the market. Genetec Security Center provides true unification for access control, video surveillance, license plate recognition, intrusion detection and on-board/transit security systems to be viewed all under one hood by the customer. Pref-Tech has long standing relationships with both Genetec and Axis — making this combo solution an easy choice for deployment with Trinity Metro for their bus fleet.”

The biggest issue facing Pref-Tech was that there is not a transit rated UPS readily available that is rated below 32 °F. Due to the pain the client was having with loss of video upon vehicle impact, a UPS was required not only for battery backup but also to scrub the power off of the vehicle prior to utilization by the StreamVault. This required Pref-Tech’s sales and design team to custom engineer a transit and military rated UPS with AJ’s Power.

“The partnership between all parties to accomplish an upgrade of this magnitude is the epitome of what we hope all of our relationships to be in the industry,” Gabriel said. “A custom transit-rated UPS was also derived out of this project, which has become our standard for the onboard transportation industry moving forward. Pref-Tech’s operations and IT teams continue to lead the way in delivering world class service to all of our customers, especially in the ever-growing market of transportation.”

Benjamin K. James, IT manager, Pref-Tech, added, “From my perspective, our biggest challenge was aligning the customer’s IT department and their resources with the goals of the project. When we talk about marrying on-premises systems with remote resources over a cellular link there are several considerations there. With cybersecurity postures getting tighter over the last few years, enterprise IT departments are usually wary when we tell them that we need to set up connections through their firewall.”

James continued, “One advantage with a system like Genetec Security Center is that the connections to the remote resources are outbound so this simplifies firewall configuration and reduces vulnerabilities. In this specific case, though, we elected to run the remote routers with a VPN tunnel back to the head-end system, which further reduces vulnerability and was something their IT department was comfortable with.”

Many onboard transit solutions are proprietary and disparate in nature. This project unified Trinity Metro’s security system and allows for video in-vehicle and building side to be viewed under one pane of glass for easy viewing and utilization by all parties. While not embedded, Pref-Tech had a dedicated team to install and program the solution for Trinity Metro. Also included in the project were spare parts, Genetec and Axis certifications, one time bus maintenance QAQC instruction, Pref-Tech direct training of the solution with Trinity Metro IT/maintenance, and one additional upgrade of the Genetec Transit Plugin solution per each vehicle after installation (around one year post install).

“We are proud of the true collaboration between Pref-Tech, Genetec, Axis and Trinity Metro,” Gabriel said. “This began as an unpaid pilot to solve an emergent and critical need for Trinity Metro and transformed into an entire fleet takeover. Each transit project — while similar — has its own nuances based on each individual customer’s technology needs. From custom UPS units, panic buttons, to system status notifications, each client has different needs based on the rules and regulations in place by their leadership. Pref-Tech’s first job is to listen to their clients’ needs and provide a solution accordingly with as few preconceived notions as possible.”

Gabriel also offered some advice to integrators approaching similar projects, “Listen. Communicate. Design. Execute. And start things early,” he said. “Define what success looks like before you put pen to paper on a design, bench test all of your equipment prior to installation/deployment, and don’t hesitate to engage your customer — they are the experts on all things transit-related as this is what they do every day.”

Gabriel continued, “What you bring to the table as an integrator they bring to the table as the end user. Utilize each other’s knowledge to provide the best solution possible. And manage expectations early with regards to equipment lead times, staffing availability, etc. And issues/errors/mistakes will occur — communicate them as soon as they are known. Dedicate the time to fix them immediately. Continually taking vehicles out of revenue service can be harmful and costly to transit entities as well as the security integrator for re-work.”

Pref-Tech will also provide a technology refresh every four-six years as needed by Trinity Metro. This includes Genetec StreamVault, Axis Cameras, the UPS and mor