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“ The feedback we’ve received is the — Mike Shepherd, At Sumter County (Fla.) District Schools


administrators love it because they actually see what is happening. They don’t have to take our word for it.





“It wasn’t cheap, but it was well worth it


because, in this day and age, you need it,” Shepherd says. “It takes the question out of who is right and who is wrong. Tis is the second year we’ve had it, and it has reduced our down time when we literally had to go out and pull the tape out of the VCR and scroll through it. Now it’s minimal work on our part. Te feedback we’ve received is the administrators love it because they actually see what is happening. Tey don’t have to take our word for it.” Shepherd says before the district had


wireless download capability, it was a lot of trouble getting the video to different schools throughout the county. “We needed to do something to bring


this county up to what it [should] be. We needed something more reliable. We’ve used it several times in the past six months to settle issues.” Robert Scott, vice


president for


247Security Inc., says wireless is the future and is available now. “It is the natural evolution,” he says.


“Building a process to wirelessly manage video in a fleet application like a school bus


is not an easy equation to solve.


Te demand for video is growing, and the reasons for its deployment have expanded. Originally used to modify student behavior, video is now used to provide evidence when needed to settle


disputes, reconstruct events and assist with training.” Advocates say wireless downloads


eliminate the hours previously required to manually remove hard drives and transport them to secure locations where they were viewed. Bus drivers simply press a “panic” button to mark an event on the video. Te event and GPS information are automatically downloaded to a server when the bus returns to the yard. Specific


video sophistication information have reached from


each bus may also be accessed from the server using a computer. Te levels of


the


point where wireless systems also run diagnostics at the end of the day to make sure all equipment is operating properly. REI Sales Manager Chris Shigley says


the decision whether or not to go wireless boils down to fleet size and geography. “If you’ve got 25 to 50 buses, using a hard


drive should be sufficient. Ten you cross a threshold where wireless is the best thing for you. You’ve got 600 buses in four or five bus yards and an administrative location,” he says. “I’m at the administrative location and a bus has an incident. I can go into the system and request a video download from that bus, and I can open a file and watch it. I did not have to call anyone else. Tat is the perfect scenario where wireless becomes a powerful tool.”


Shigley adds that


the diagnostic


capability is also perfect for large fleets. He offers the following scenario to illustrate his point: “I’ve got 500 buses and I want to make sure my surveillance system is working each morning. Instead of having an employee physically check each bus, I have a software system that proactively monitors the operations of every single surveillance system. And the engines do not have to be on.” Todd Duncan, assistant transportation


director for Washoe County Schools in Reno, Nev., has what he terms a “mixed bag” of video surveillance technology in his fleet, including wireless. “As the technology evolves, so will our


language,” he says prophetically. Duncan and his counterparts must


learn new terms such as “point-and-click, drag-and-drop software.” “Historical” already means recorded earlier today, and “real time” actually means 10 or 12 seconds ago. Te industry may soon choose to abandon efforts to increase bandwidth to send data and instead reach into a “cloud” where greater amounts of decentralized information can be accessed more quickly by using more pieces of equipment. For now at least, the “cloud” really is a “pie in the sky” for school districts. Tom Giglio, director of operations for Famtec Surveillance, a company that


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