Mass Transit
Owners of newly-built Lackawanna Transit Center implement the Omnicast IP Video Surveillance System to enhance remote monitoring and tenant operations
- By Andrew Elvish
- Mar 01, 2017
The County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS) is
the municipal authority for public transport in the city
of Scranton, PA, and its surrounding areas. COLTS
operates 29 public bus routes through Lackawanna
County and parts of Luzerne County, and provides
specialty transportation for disabled and senior passengers.
COLTS recently completed construction on the Lackawanna
Transit Center, a $12.5 million intermodal facility in downtown
Scranton. The new facility is now the central transport hub, where
passengers are provided shelter and seating while they wait for
COLTS buses as well as Martz Trailways buses, which provide longerdistance
transport to destinations outside the county.
COLTS decision-makers knew that having a state-of-the-art security
system in the new intermodal facility would help protect the influx
of passengers who visit the center from various locations in the United
States, and ensure passenger safety in and around the terminal.
Relying on the advice of architects and engineers, COLTS chose
to work with Communication Systems Inc. (CSi), a local and highlyknowledgeable
security integrator, who installed Security Center, the
unified security platform from Genetec.
Sharing the Benefits
The Omnicast IP video surveillance system of Security Center currently
manages more than 30 Bosch IP cameras in and around the
property. The operational staff at COLTS actively monitors the cameras
from a primary corporate site and bus terminal which is located
outside of downtown Scranton.
According to Robert Fiume, executive director at COLTS, “We
have a remote connection to the system which we can access from our
desks to spot check and see what’s going on at the facility. The system
has been very easy to use, and the video quality within Security
Center is excellent.”
On site at the Lackawanna Transit Center, COLTS’ tenant, Martz
Trailways has been provided access to the video surveillance system.
With the help of CSi, they were able to partition the system and create
specific access rights and privileges for Martz users. Customer
service agents at Martz Trailways watch the video to make sure buses
arrive on schedule, and then announce when and where buses are
loading to passengers.
Federating Systems for
Greater Collaboration
When monitoring the video surveillance system, COLTS is always
looking out for suspect bags lying around, or any other safety concerns
such as the speed at which buses come into the facility or areas
that would require improvements for passenger safety.
In the event that Fiume or other COLTS managerial staff are
away from the office when an incident is reported, they can quickly
pull up real-time streamed video on their smart phones using the Security
Center Mobile feature. “In case of an emergency or when operational issues are called
in, having access to the video from our phones is very convenient. We
can quickly see what’s happening and dispatch law enforcement or
customer service agents to handle the situation,” said Fiume.
COLTS works closely with the Scranton Police Department, who
also use Genetec solutions. According to Sam DeLeo, safety and
security officer at COLTS, “When a teenager was reported missing,
Scranton PD came to us looking for video. We were able to provide
them with evidence that led to the runaway’s safe return.”
To enhance the collaboration with local police, COLTS is currently
in the process of giving Scranton PD the ability to view video
from their Omnicast system using the Federation feature of Security
Center. With a federated system, police officers will be able to access
video from certain cameras during emergencies or investigations.
“The ability to see what is happening at this major transportation
hub in our city enables our officers and detectives the opportunity to
be proactive in our community policing,” said Carl Graziano, chief
of police at the Scranton Police Department. “We are able to save the
taxpayers time and money, while providing a higher level of service.”
Expanding Security in Next Phase
The addition of the Omnicast video surveillance system to the new
transit center is the first step for COLTS. With plans to expand the
corporate site and main bus terminal, COLTS is exploring how the
flexible and highly-scalable platform can affordably take over existing
video surveillance and access control systems. The main objective is
to assure that all sites and systems can be accessible from a single
intuitive platform.
“Having the ability to see what’s going at the new Lackawanna
Transit Center has been a huge benefit to our team, and we’re even
more excited at the possibility of growing the system to our corporate
office and main terminal,” Fiume said.
Infrastructure at a Glance
The security platform manages approximately 30
Bosch IP cameras. All video is stored locally on
BCDVideo servers which are optimized for Security
Center, offering an affordable and scalable
archiving solution for COLTS.
This article originally appeared in the March 2017 issue of Security Today.