When something happens on a bus, people want to know about it right away. Whether you work for a public transit agency, who has law enforcement demanding footage of a reported crime, or a school bus operator that needs to give video evidence of bullying to a school principal for student discipline purposes, you need to find video quickly and easily. This is why Wi-Fi video downloading and video surveillance management software has emerged as the key way to get surveillance footage and vehicle status information.
But when it comes to setting up a Wi-Fi network capable of downloading video, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you could face the wrath of your IT department. Designing a network to work on-demand, consistently and reliably, requires a great deal of knowledge and expertise. And many surveillance vendors don’t always have the expertise on staff to do it right, or worse leave the network architecture up to you! That’s why when you explore different vendor solutions, you should always ask one critical question: How do you ensure that my Wi-Fi network is ready to download video?
Seon has taken steps to train its entire Engineering Services team that installs our industrial-grade Wi-Fi video downloading networks as Certified Wireless Network Professionals (CWNP). This is one way we make sure you end up with a network that works for downloading surveillance video.
We sat down recently with Martin Steenblok, Seon’s Engineering Services Manager, to explore this important certification and why public transit and school transportation professionals should care about it. Here is what Martin shared with us:
What is CWNP?
CWNP is the IT industry standard for vendor neutral enterprise Wi-Fi certification and training. Founded in 1999, this organization offers certification exams focused on 802.11 wireless networking technologies, with four levels of expertise across six separate career certifications.
Unlike vendor-specific programs run by companies such as Cisco Networks, CWNP is vendor neutral. Vendor neutral means they are not “tied” into one brand’s methodologies. This gives our team ability to adapt to whatever brand of IT equipment a school district may be using on their current network.
Getting your CWNP designation requires a rigorous self-study and a tough examination process. Training covers security protocols, wireless design, analysis and troubleshooting, network administration and implementation. The series of certifications range from technician up to expert level.
Why Get CWNP Certified?
Investing the time and effort in CWNP certification helps school bus and transit operators trust in the team’s ability to architect and support a wireless downloading system. It is a level of expertise that is certified by a third party and recognized by network professionals. This is particularly important with large school districts and public transit agencies who have sophisticated networks.
Martin Steenblok, Seon’s Engineering Services Manager, a Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA), relates a recent example. “When it came time to discuss interfacing to the Atlanta Public School’s network, the IT team had full confidence in our ability to deliver a quality solution.”
Seon’s entire wireless implementation team is CWNA-certified and are working towards their Certified Wireless Analysis Professional (CWAP) designation. That’s in addition to Steenblok’s own CWDP certification and an additional Certified Wireless Technical Specialist in their Service department.
What Advantage Does Certification Bring?
One of the main advantages of certification is the depth of expertise Seon is able to bring to the table to address our customer’s needs. Their staff is fully qualified to verify and validate that a wireless network is ‘ready’ to handle video. They are also equipped to analyze and troubleshoot common wireless network issues that plaque wireless video transmission such as slow downloading, interference, and inconsistent coverage. Their customers have the peace of mind that they will address network security concerns, and in many cases actually improve the network design.
Why is this Important for Video Downloading?
The wireless technology landscape is changing rapidly and designing a network to handle video is much more complex than setting up a Wi-Fi router at home. You have to worry about security, uniform coverage across the entire yard or even multiple yards, interference from other Wi-Fi networks, and network throughput. And the fact that buses are constantly moving in and out of the yard, connecting and re-connecting, makes network architecture very tricky.
“It’s very important to have a good wireless link when it comes to downloading video,“ adds Steenblok. “Otherwise you are faced with slow or incomplete downloads, and an inefficient system that doesn’t work well causing lots of headaches for the transportation operators. Having certified wireless network professionals analyze and design your system so it works without incident is essential.”
Video files are also very large and require more bandwidth than other data such as email. This is only going to get worse with the trend toward more cameras per bus at increasing resolutions.
Benefits to School Bus Operators
When a wireless network is properly designed and implemented, the time and labor savings for video retrieval alone can be significant. Staff no longer has travel to multiple locations to retrieve footage, or go outside in extremely cold (or very warm) climates. When paired with a video management system, authorized personnel can simply log in to request video to download as soon as a bus returns to the yard and then send a link to the video when available.
“The biggest benefit is peace of mind,“ says Steenblok. “Knowing you have certified professionals carefully selecting the right coverage, equipment, and security protocols to deliver your video successfully every time means our customers can focus on what’s really important – safe and reliable passenger transportation.”
Lori Jetha
Marketing Manager, Seon
Lori.Jetha@seon.com
