Drawing from its experience, Dahua Technology was able to identify early on a need for comprehensive security application in the public transportation sector, particularly for city bus operations.
Over the past few years,
Dahua Technology has established a strong reputation for itself as a video surveillance solutions provider. Through its many channel partners in Asia and abroad, it is involved in a wide variety of projects ranging from the financial sector to safe cities. Drawing from its experience, Dahua was able to identify early on a need for comprehensive security application in the public transportation sector, particularly for city bus operations.
“The need for better security, management and the need to increase revenue are behind the rise in demand in this sector,” said LiQuan Fu, President of Dahua Technology. “Customers are facing challenges from multiple fronts: from the increasing number of terrorist attacks specifically targeted at public transportation systems to bus traffic accidents that arise from driver fatigue, mobile phone use while driving, speeding and other dangerous driving behavior.”
Rapid population growth and urbanization have hit public transport systems around the world hard, making it increasingly hard for operators to keep up with demands while still ensuring the safety of the commuters that use their services daily. Although subways are an integral part of mitigating this issue, construction takes a long time, maybe even five to six years, and the costs are higher. On the other hand, by focusing on public buses and creating solutions that fit their specific requirements, Dahua believes it can open up more opportunities and projects for systems integrators and clients in both the short and the long term.
Dahua’s mobile bus solutions are already been widely deployed in several big cities in China such as Beijing and Shanghai as well as overseas in both government and private projects for bus companies in places like Mexico, Russia and Turkey. Now, the company intends to build on this strength and promote this further in Asia.
Dahua sees a lot of opportunities for this application in the region, especially in Southeast Asia, where governments are starting to invest heavily in public transportation, especially buses, as a means to link cities, ease traffic congestion and reduce pollution. According to Fu, the economic value of implementing this type of intelligent mobile solution is highly evident for both drivers and bus companies alike. Likewise, as technology continues to advance, equipment costs go down and ease-of-use increases, which will make the application of these technologies even more feasible and commonplace in the transport industry.
With a number of successful cases in Thailand, where they completed an project that deployed more than 2000 Dahua mobile DVRs for a Bangkok tourist bus company, and Indonesia thus far under its belt, the company is positive that the result can be replicated in other countries and related fields as well, creating more profit and added value for its customers.
The public bus mobile solution is positioned to offer public transport operators an effective system that can not only enhance passenger safety, but also improve fleet management and overall operational efficiency.
Built-in features to enhance passenger safety
As bus ridership is reaching an all-time high, the number of crimes occurring on buses has concurrently increased. Passengers (and drivers themselves) are increasingly exposed to crimes such as vandalism, theft and pickpocketing, and driving accidents, driving the need for a proactive security system onboard the vehicle.
Dahua addresses these important issues by creating a mobile solution that will provide operators with stable, high-definition video coverage that can enable management of ongoing events while collecting evidence for future investigations.
Real-time transmission of videos, alerts and notifications is made possible through a local mobile video recorder (DVR) that is linked to the video management system (VMS) at the headquarters via Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G wireless connection. The anti-shake video recorder is further equipped with a G-sensor that can detect vehicle collisions or crash accidents and notify the control center immediately.
The solution – analog, HDCVI or IP, depending on customer requirements – entails network cameras being strategically installed in both the front and the back of the vehicle, enabling drivers to view events unfolding in real time or playback on the screen mounted on the driver console. Zero-channel encoding decreases bandwidth requirements and enables viewing of all the channels with just one screen.
Driver behavior can also be regularly monitored by the bus operations center with the same camera system. Since conventional solutions only record what it is being seen, Dahua took bus security a step further by leveraging intelligent analytic software to study incoming footage and identify driver behavior red flags like over speeding, harsh accelerations and braking.
“In order to better prevent the occurrence of road accidents, intelligent technology and products that incorporate algorithms that can analyze and interpret potentially dangerous conditions such as driver fatigue will have increasing applications in bus monitoring projects,” commented Fu.
To manage peak-hour bus crowding scenarios, the system is designed to automatically switch from one camera video stream to another to maintain clear views of the doors and other areas of interest on the vehicle. This heightens the bus drivers’ situational awareness to react quickly to perilous situations like passengers being trapped by the doors and prevents this from occurring.
In situations deemed serious emergencies, such as robberies or brawls in progress, assistance can be requested by triggering an alarm via a panic button. Additionally, a microphone facilitates direct communication with control room personnel who are monitoring the situation to determine the best course of action to take to ensure the safety of the other passengers onboard the vehicle.
Enhanced fleet management and operational efficiency
At the heart of any public bus transport system lies the need for real-time tracking of the bus fleet to improve operational efficiency and provide passenger information in a bid to boost confidence in the system.
Leveraging the advanced functionalities offered by technologies such as the Internet of Things and big data, Dahua’s mobile solution offers bus operators GPS location tracking as well as monitoring of buses. Automatic scheduling of bus routes and reminders can be set up, freeing the staff up to focus on other duties.
The solutions feature Geo-fencing, a software that enables operators to set up geographical boundaries with some restrictions such as on driving speeds. Driver management and performance can be improved as it can also detect if and when a bus breaks away from its assigned route or enters a forbidden zone. Additional important information about fuel consumption, bus route and alarm report histories, and device status are collected by sensors in the system – data that can empower bus companies to run their operations more efficiently, safely and profitably.
A major pain point for public transport systems is the emphasis on manpower and time, especially when it comes to manual retrieval and back up of video footage. To address this, Dahua introduced an automatic Wi-Fi backup feature into its solution: the mobile DVRs on returning buses instantly switch to Wi-Fi connection and upload videos to the station’s main VMS server. “According to our testing, the Wi-Fi upload speed of our device can reach up to 20 MB per second. That means backing up the video footage for a bus with four HD cameras recording for eight hours would take less than 15 minutes,” said Fu.
Fu added that if clients can overcome technical thresholds associated with implementing these more advanced features, the benefits these can bring are promising as it can significantly enhance business operations and help bus companies achieve rapid rates of return on investment.
Case study in Thailand
Dahua’s mobile bus solution is deployed by the Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA). During the first phase, the solution is deployed on 2,600 of the 7,000 buses operated by BMTA.
Dahua provides a one-stop solution, consisting of onboard CCTV, display, and command center systems that satisfy the needs of all stakeholders in the project. Of note, among the bidding companies, Dahua was the only solutions provider with self-developed people-counting technology to count the number of passengers in a vehicle.
During the proof-of-concept process, the end user provided four buses, two with air conditioning and two without, where onboard CCTV, 3G, signage and management platform were installed.
During the delivery process, Dahua was told that, as high-pressure water jet is being used to wash the buses, equipment with an IP66 rating is not strong enough to withstand the impact. As such, Dahua upgraded the rating of the hardware to IP69K, meeting the user’s special need.