technician can perform the necessary pre- ventive maintenance work and the district can avoid missing critical events that may occur on or around a bus. Curtiss Routh, vice president of sales for REI, said his company has been installing the system for about five years, and the technology is gaining in popularity. “Te health check system significantly decreases the chance of missing an important event on the bus,” Routh said. “Before this technology became available, a bus could be out on the road for a week or two before anyone noticed a camera wasn’t working. We were asked by our customers if there was a way they could know if the cameras are functioning, so we built a video health check system.” Andres Montes, a shop manager for the tech-savvy Houston Independent School District, said the health check system not only makes his buses safer for students, but it also saves money by lessening the dis- trict’s liability. “If the bus has an accident or if there is an incident and the camera did not record the event, we’re not going to know for sure what happened,” Montes said. “Drivers feel safe because we know what happens. If something happens to a child the camera will catch it. If there is an accident with a car we can capture the accident. So it does save us money because we can prove that it was not the bus driver’s fault. So money is saved and there is a cushion of safety.” Montes added that another area of savings is bus maintenance. He said the health check system lets them know when something fails so they don’t have to guess which of the district’s 1,100 buses is having the problem. “We get a DVR failure report so our technicians can go straight to the bus,” Montes said. Lori Jetha, director of marketing for
Seon, said the British Columbia-based provider of mobile video surveillance systems has offered a solution to customers for years, adding that school districts won’t miss having one until after the fact. “Te problem with video health check systems is without them, you don’t know if your video is working or not,” she explained. “Tat is until you need it and it’s not there, then it’s too late.” She said one of the most common prob-
Humble ISD and a growing number of districts are relying on video health check notifications to stay ahead of potential maintenance issues that can render their surveillance systems useless.
lems is with the media storage device. “If it is not locked in the video won’t record,” she explained. “Health check services will alert you to any problems.” Ariel Rodriguez, fleet manager in the
Humble Independent School District near Houston, said his video health check system is “huge” when it comes to efficient use of personnel. “You don’t need to have someone going to each bus to see if you have an issue,” he said. “We can check every DVR while the bus is on its daily route. Above all I feel very strongly about the integrity of our camera systems. Tat translates to student safety which is our number one goal all the way around. We want to capture every event. You don’t want a blip, miss an episode and have your history interrupted.” Rodriguez said his video health system enables him to receive emails while the bus is on its route to a computer or a Smartphone. Angeltrax President and CEO Richie
Howard said monitoring the health of a video surveillance system is critical because of the pounding a DVR takes during bus routes and the competition it is in for as a mobile power source. “Tere’s a big difference between having a stationary power source in a building because it’s going to be constant, but the power from a moving vehicle is going to fluctuate,” Howard pointed out. “Tings happen on a moving vehicle. Other accessory devices
58 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2016
such as radios, air conditioning and other equipment can interfere with the operation of the DVR.” Howard said inadvertent errors commit- ted during maintenance such as discon- nected batteries, blown fuses or a loose wire can take the DVR out of service, and no one may be the wiser. “Te health check system will let the transportation director know the recording device is not operation- al and the reason why.” Howard said a video health check systems also saves money. “If the health check systems is working properly and the DVR fails on Tuesday, you’re notified on Tuesday and repairs can be made,” he explained. “So if on Tursday you have an accident you can prove it’s not your fault because the problem was addressed on Tuesday. So the health of the system becomes very important from a liability standpoint. Te bottom line is you buy a video system to get video.” Robert Scott, vice president of sales and
marketing for 24/7 Security Inc., said if districts invest in a piece of equipment, “you want to make sure everything is working properly.” Scott added that if the brakes go out or the battery is dead, you’ll know immediately before you leave the bus yard. He said the video system powers up when the ignition is turned on transfers all video and powers down when the ignition is turned off. Te new technologies take humans out of the equation.
CELEBRATING25YEARS
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