San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) was in need of a solution to maximize the use of their CCTV cameras deployed in the transit system; including the buses, trains and subways. They needed a platform that could connect to these various video systems for security and was also flexible enough to be directly integrated into their custom train monitoring application IHMI (Integrated Human Machine Interface), developed by their technology partner B&C Transit.
The Challenge
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) was in need of a solution to maximize the use of their CCTV cameras deployed in the transit system; including the buses, trains and subways. They needed a platform that could connect to these various video systems for security and was also flexible enough to be directly integrated into their custom train monitoring application IHMI (Integrated Human Machine Interface), developed by their technology partner B&C Transit.
There are over 1,000 cameras deployed throughout the SFMTA network from a range of manufacturers including Dedicated Micros, Axis, Exacq and BRS labs.
Background
SFMTA serves the buses, subways and trains system across the City of San Francisco as well as the Caltrain system. They ensure the safety and operations of the transit system in the city of San Francisco as well as oversee Muni, bike and pedestrian programs, taxis, parking and traffic control operations in the city. There are over 1,050 buses, cablecars, streetcars and trains under the control of the SFMTA. They are also responsible for the municipal railway which averages over 75,000 riders a day.
The Solution
As part of a new initiative, Traffic and Transit Security were brought together for the first time under one Transportation Security organization. A new command center called the Transportation Management Center (TMC) was built in the heart of San Francisco to centralize the response of this team. In this new collaborative command center, SFMTA selected Immix CC as the software platform to deliver the flexibility required to service the various needs of these teams.
Immix provided a single interface for the different security teams in traffic and transit to access the six different cameras and video systems. As Immix is 100% web based, this allowed multiple different security monitoring whether they were in the new TMC or located elsewhere in the city's network.
An additional challenge SFMTA faced is that they have team members solely responsible for monitoring and managing the security of the trains and subways. This required them to have access to key information about the status of trains and platforms across the network in addition to accessing the security systems. This challenge was solved when B&C Transit developed the IHMI application to monitor these vehicles by embedding the Immix application into this interface so that cameras and security systems would become a seamless part of monitoring the activity on the train and subway network. To accomplish this B&C Transit leveraged Immix's open webservices API to embed Immix functionality right into the IHMI train control application.
Results
SFMTA now has a single platform for monitoring that is flexible enough to serve the needs of the different groups and users within the organization.
* They are able to monitor cameras from the city's 6 different CCTV systems in one interface. They are able to enforce system wide security protocols to provide different monitoring interfaces tailored to the needs of different groups within in the organization.
* Immix has improved operator awareness and transit safety around the city.
* They are able to upgrade and deploy new equipment without the concern of compatibility or the need to re‐train staff.
* It greatly reduced the amount of support required to provide access to video for city users.
* Automated device health monitoring notifies the SFMTA video team of any faulty devices ensuring immediate action can be taken to resolve issues in the field.
* Every action taken by an operator is tracked in a time/date stamped multimedia audit trail, providing a critical tool for post event analysis and investigations
“SureView has the best video management products and services to merge multi‐vendor, multi‐generation products into one easy to use platform. They offer the best solution for Public Transit agencies. Their staff is very responsive and knowledge and provide outstanding customer service. I highly recommend SureView to any organization running a Security Command Center.” said Frank Lau, Central Control and Communications Program Manager for San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.