Advancing Transit Safety with TSI Video’s Harry White

Stop Requested. Welcome to Stop Requested, the podcast where we discuss everything transit. I’m your co-host, Levi McCullum, Director of Operations at ETA Transit. And I’m your co-host, Christian Londono,

Senior Customer Success Manager at ETA Transit. Welcome back to another episode of Stop Requested. Good afternoon, Levi. How you doing? Christian, I’m doing very well. How about yourself? I’m doing excellent, and I’m, I’m just really excited. Uh, today’s episode, uh, we have Mr. Harry White.

Uh, he’s the senior strategic sales executive for the Southeast Region, uh, for TSI Video, which is Transit Solutions Incorporated. Uh, currently he also sits at the FPTA for our Public Transit Association Board of Directors, and also the Georgia Transit Association Board as well.

Um, so Harry, thank you for joining us today. Absolutely. I’m, uh, honored to be here. And so during this episode, uh, we’re gonna, uh, we’re going to discuss, uh, Harry’s journey in the transit industry, um, learn a little bit more, uh, about Harry, uh, but also TSI Video’s role in transit projects, and insights in… on onboard video surveillance.

So Harry, can you tell us how you got started in the public transit industry? Everyone has a unique story about how they got here. Just curious to hear what yours is. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I actually came from the law enforcement equipment, uh, market. So I used to work for a company called Law

Enforcement Supply, um, and we sold law enforcement equipment. And, uh, one of the things that we sold was, uh, in-car video, uh, for, for police cars. And, uh, there was a company that was just starting out, this is back in 2005, uh, that, uh, I was reselling. It was, uh, Apollo Video. Some of your listeners might know of Apollo Video. Um,

I then was hired by Apollo in 2008, and spent 14 years with them. Uh, with… I was with them through their purchase by Luminator Technologies, and, uh, I stayed with them, uh, until 2022 when I came over to TSI Video.

I see. So yeah, it’s, it’s not necessarily a direct path into the public transit industry. What, what sticks out to you about this industry? W- what is, what is different maybe in this way versus what you’ve experienced in some prior roles?

Sure. Sure. So, um, you know, we joke in transit that once you get into transit, you, you never get out. Um, but I, I can tell you that both with the, the law enforcement equipment and also, uh, working in transit, besides the fact that

I, I genuinely love my job, um, the fact is we know that we’re doing something that’s helping, helping people. We’re, uh, we’re helping to keep an industry that is essential, uh, rolling. And, um, I can tell you that, uh, uh, there’s not a lot of industries where you, you know that you’re… At the end of the day, what you do is making a difference for somebody. So that’s one of the things I really truly love about transit. Excuse me. Plus the people. Um, some of the best people I’ve ever met work for transit agencies, and, uh,

I, I would… I just am very, very, uh, pleased that I was able to make the jump over to, uh, transit, and I plan to stay in it for the rest of my career.

Excellent. Yeah, I, I completely agree. There is a sort of camaraderie, uh, a nice rapport that transit colleagues have with one another. Whether you’re on the public or private side, it seems to be very collegial and friendly. And I think, uh, a lot of us e- appreciate that, and probably it’s why we stick around.

Yeah, absolutely. Is, is there, is there a key lesson that you’ve taken away from your, your time now working in, in the transit space? Something that y- you know, maybe still inspires you or sticks with you today? Well, yeah, as a matter of fact. Um, I knew very little about transit, like many people, uh, if you’re not, uh, involved with it. Um, but… And this might sound, uh, sound a little, uh, simple, but, you know, transit matters.

Tha- that’s, that’s my big takeaway away. Um, I, I saw a stat the other day that something like 60 to 70% of household expenses are sent o- spent on housing and transportation. And with public transit, we’re able to maybe alleviate some of that. Maybe, maybe make it so that a, a, a, a family that’s struggling doesn’t have to have a second car, or if somebody’s, uh, challenged and not able to even have their… have one vehicle, they still have a way to get around, get to work, get to doctor’s appointments.

And, uh, that is, um, that is something that I never really understood before, but now I’m very proud of. Yeah, 100%. I completely agree. It, it’s so great to be in an industry that is contributing, uh, just a significant part to society, uh, at large, uh, that we’re able to get, you know, people to those essential places that they, they need, whether… Yeah, like you said, it’s, uh, you know, groceries, medical, what have you. Uh, people are able to make ends meet. So Harry, for listeners who aren’t familiar, can you tell us what TSI Video does? Yeah. We do mobile video surveillance for public transit. We, uh, we only do the public transit market. We don’t do school buses or law enforcement or anything else. Um, and that allows us to be very targeted. Um, we… Our product is built for public transit. The software is built to work with the product for public transit, and we have a lot of experience with the needs and, uh, challenges with public transit. So, uh, having a very focused, um, outlook is, has been a, a real benefit for us and our customers.

Mm, I bet. You know, it, it … the way that it’s designed, the way that that is mounted in vehicles when it’s particularly for transit, uh, you can be more tailor-made. So that, that, that’s part of that u- uniqueness, right? For TSI video. But is there anything else that you can mention as it relates to how TSI is unique, uh- Yeah. … in the transit industry?

Yeah, absolutely, uh, Christian. Um, TSI is the only company that I know of that actually builds their own DVR. Um, my other, uh, my other competitors, many of them buy a box from overseas and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s, uh, this is, this is good technology, but it’s just not the way that we chose to go.

So in 2014, we developed our Nexus line of products. So we build our own DVRs. Uh, we, we have … Th- they’re built about 20 minutes from our office in Zelienople, Pennsylvania, which is just north of Pittsburgh. So

I like to say, you can’t get much more buy America than being built in Pittsburgh. I mean, it’s like, you know, steel country. So, uh, it, it’s, um, it’s definitely a, um, a, a homegrown product and, uh, and we also control

… I- it’s our intellectual property, so we control not only the hardware and the software, um, but, uh, anything that goes along with that.

And one of the things that that lets us do is w- we can be very nimble when it comes to making changes or customer requests. We get requests from customers all the time that say, “Hey, we, we love the product, but w- we have this problem and we would, we’d love to know if you can figure out a way to help us solve it.” And because we don’t have to go to a, a third-party supplier for the DVR and ask them to make changes, um, we’re able to do those really quickly for customers.

And, uh, it, it … And, and we find it is a benefit because now we can take that and use it as a selling point to the next customer ’cause they probably have the same challenge. Right. Uh, wow. That, that’s … A- and so that’s just speaking directly to those that are currently having some challenges, uh, related to their video surveillance. Uh, but I, I wanna ask you this third question, uh, which is related to what you just started talking about and is, is, uh, how d- does TSI supports transit agencies with technology and innovation, right? Like, h- if we have that challenge that we always had and we wanna overcome those type of challenges, like, could you tell me a little bit how you guys help, uh, transit agencies with technology and innovation?

Yeah, sure. So the first thing is, kn- know your customer and, and, and really try to understand the pain points that they’re having. Um, the best way to fix a problem is to identify it first and really, uh, understand the challenges. Um, because of the fact that, like I mentioned, that we’re able to, uh, quickly make, uh, upgrades and changes and feature sets, um, I- I’ll give you a good example. Uh, St. Pete, uh, which is, uh,

PSTA. Right. They request hour-long video downloads and they request them wirelessly. So they had a issue where multiple, uh, different segments of their agency would request the same video clip over and over again. And since we’re talking about a one-hour video, it, uh

… that was s- very challenging when you have these large files and you have, uh, the same f- uh, video recorded over and over again. So they asked us what we could do to help them. Well, it took us about a month to develop a, uh, a checkbox. When you’re r- work … requesting a video clip to be downloaded, you click the checkbox and it will let you know if that video, uh, already exists on your system and it will ask you,

“Do you really want that video? Because it’s already there.” So that’s just one example of a customer coming to us with a problem, us being able to not only find a solution, but get it implemented within, uh, a very, uh, I would say, very responsible, uh, amount of time. Harry, so that, that, uh, example is almost leading us to our next question, uh, which is, could you highlight a few projects, uh, TSI has completed that you’re especially proud of? And, of course, I can tell that the PSTA is one of those, but i- is there a- any other projects that come to your mind? Yeah, absolutely. Um, we’ve had a longtime partnership, uh, with Charlotte

Area Transit, Charlotte, North Carolina. They’ve been with us literally since the very beginning. Um, and, uh, along with that relationship, we’ve been able to innovate new products for them and services, but we’re also able to, uh, give them a reliable and very clear video, which has become, uh, a little bit in the news these days because, uh, the unfortunate incident of the stabbing of the young lady on a Charlotte train was actually our video.

Uh, this isn’t the first time that we’ve, uh, we’ve caught something that, you know, w- made national news. Yeah. Um, a few years back, there was a shootout between a bus driver and a passenger. They were both armed and, uh, luckily, n- nobody got killed, um, but that was another example of our video being there. And for an agency to continually buy from, or continue to use us as a vendor because they feel confident that when these things happen, God forbid they happen, but when they do, they know they’re gonna get the video. They know they’re gonna have it, that it’s gonna be there, and it’s gonna be really clear video.

Yeah, I would not imagine being a transit executive and, uh, you know, trying to ask for this video or trying to get, you know, all the details of a given incident and hearing from my staff that the video’s not available. I think that that would be a really bad scenario. And having reliable video, it- it’s critical to be able to deal with this type of incidents, to be able to answer the questions, right?

Like, what happens, uh, what happened and, and what are the details? And even- Mm-hmm. … in some cases, like, find the, the perpetrators. Like, find the people that, n- you know, law enforcement needs to find, right? And make accountable for, you know, some things that- Sure. … sometimes happen, uh, onboard of the vehicle. So, you know, definitely critical, uh, piece of equipment. Uh, but looking to the future, are there any exciting new projects or initiatives, uh, TSI Video is starting soon?

Um, yeah, yeah. We, uh, are develop… Or we have been develop, developing for the last year and a half, a updated software or an update to our software, I should say. It has a whole new user interface, so it, uh, it looks different. It’s very sleek and modern, um, but it’s, it’s built on the same framework of our ex- existing software, so you, we, you still get the very fast video downloads, reliable video downloads, but now it’s gonna look, uh, much more sleek. And also, we have changed from client-based to browser-based. So, uh, instead of opening a what’s called a thick client or a, a, a client on each machine, um, and, uh, somebody in an up agency simply has to go to their browser and they’re a- and they’re able to a- access our software. Oh, wow. So then it’s gonna be 100% cloud-based and, uh, you know, that- that’s gonna be a new interface for those current users, and some of the folks that, uh, will start using TSI, they’ll benefit of that new interface- Yeah. … that’s coming, right? But it doesn’t have to be cl- uh, uh, hosted in the cloud though. We can… You can have an on-prem server and still use a browser to get to it. However, if you choose to ha- host it in the cloud, we can do that for you also. Oh, okay, so you, you offer both, uh, setups. So pretty much a- agencies that have either/or or that would prefer either/ or they can still get the same benefits of using, uh, TSI Video? Yeah, absolutely, because w- we have some agencies that are really trying to get away from housing their own servers and managing their own servers, so we use the Azure Cloud to run our, uh, our hosted, uh, program. But, um, there’s still plenty of customers that like to have, uh, either a hard server or a virtual machine and have it right there at their office. Got you. And so many agencies are thinking about enhancing onboard, um, video surveillance. What best practices would you recommend? So, in my opinion, the, the mobile market kind of follows the fixed route, uh, excuse me, the fixed market, the fixed video market. Um, so I would say look at what they’re doing in the fixed video market. Um, all IP cameras, nothing analog, nothing over coax. Uh, 1080p is the minimum quality you should be expecting, 4K in most cases. And also with cellular data throughputs getting so much faster and

Wi-Fi getting faster, your system really needs to be able to download video wirelessly, quickly, and reliably. If a, if a system doesn’t do that, then if you’re still relying on pulling hard drives, uh, that’s a tracking nightmare. It’s too easy to get hard drives mixed up. You, you put a spare into the bus continuing to work, and then you don’t know if the video you’re looking for is on the spare drive. Um, so really downloading video wirelessly, I would say, would be the primary thing that, uh, that I would be looking for in a new system.

So you’re starting to answer my, my next question, um, and looking at it from that perspective of an agency that is, is, is currently looking for a new system or, you know, might be getting ready to deploy a new system, uh, what should they consider, you know, when upgrading or, or deploying a new system? What are those things to, to keep an eye on? I, I think you already went s- over some of those, but, you know, more about the implementation, uh, part of it. Uh, what are some recommendations there? So it, it kind of goes back to what we were talking about before when you know you need to have video when you need it. So I would honestly… My answer to that question wouldn’t be on the technical side. My answer to that question would be decide who you’re gonna partner with, because that is one of the key, uh, things, uh, that’s gonna either make your, uh, video project reliable or not reliable. Um, and the best way to find out if the company that you’re thinking about going with is gonna partner with you for the future, talk to their… Uh, talk to people that have been with them.

Talk to, uh, agencies that they’ve been with them for three years, five years, or 10 years. If they don’t have a good track record with existing customers, then you’re probably just gonna be told what you wanna hear until it’s too late, and then you’re gonna find that you don’t have a system that’s downloading video wirelessly, that’s… that does all the things it’s… it says it’s gonna do. So I would say the, the biggest resource for s- for an agency that’s looking to change video providers is other agencies. Find out what they’ve done, and, uh, and see if they’re still happy with their provider. Also, I would be careful of companies that change their product offering so that whenever, uh, they make a change, you’re told that you have to buy new hardware in order for your system to function. That is a, that is a huge red flag. And with TSI, we believe in backwards compatibility. When we make upgrades, we make sure they work with the system before, uh, you know, anything that, that came before. Makes a lot of sense. And, and, and, and- That’s quite an investment.

Yeah. Just lastly, let me say, really partner. Look for a company to partner with, because it is a partnership. You need to be like a team, uh, so that you know that when that call comes in that something horrible has happened, uh, or when a call comes in that a crime was committed, you don’t have that feeling of nervousness when you go to pull the video. You, you feel confident it’s gonna be there. And, uh, that’s something that we are very proud to say that we provide to many of our customer or to all of our customers… to all of our customers. Uh, that, that, that’s good to hear. And, and that’s expectation, right? Like, the, the transit system, you know, wanna be able to have that reliability, that peace of mind. Um, and, and on that, uh, line of, uh, thought, could you share a story where, uh, onboard video surveillance made a difference for a client? Like, do, do you have a story where, you know, they had our system, this happened, and, and this was, you know, very important for them? Sure. Many operators are not comfortable with having video in their buses, until they realize that it is really just there to help them and protect them. Uh, I worked with an agency that ha- had a driver who had been there for 30 years, was accused of doing something terrible, and the video was able to show that he was completely innocent and he was able to keep his job. Once that incident happened, I can tell you, that agency, the drivers don’t go out unless the video systems work. So,

I w-… The benefits of the video system, even to the operators is, I think, a lot of times overlooked because there’s a theory that there’s, you know, Big Brother is watching. But the fact is, we’re there to protect not only the transit agency, but the operators and, uh, and one of the things that, that I, that I really recommend agencies do is when they do have an incident happen, or a complaint on one of their operators or, or their personnel, and they watch the video and they see that the, the, uh, the operator or the, the employee did everything right, make sure you pull that, that, uh, that operator into the office and show him the video and say, “I just wanna let you know we had this complaint and we’re looking at this video and you did everything right, and we appreciate you so much.” And I think that that is one of the ways to foster a little bit better understanding of why we have video in buses. And, uh, that’s something that I recommend to all my customers.

That’s a g-… Uh, that’s a phenomenal piece of advice. Uh, I think that, you know, sometimes we would not do that because, you know, we’re always rushing through things and we feel like, “Oh, okay, there’s, there’s nothing on this one.” Right? Like, you know, “This, this, uh, complaint is invalid, so, you know, we close it, i- i-… We close this matter and it’s done.” And then we never even bring the bus operator because we feel that there’s no reason to have a conversation. But, uh, to your point, and to give ’em that assurance that the system is, is for them and not against them, uh, I think that’s a great, uh, suggestion. You know, bring the bus operators and actually tell them, “Hey, this, this video system and the footage and, you know, it’s, it’s helping us, uh-” Yeah. “… protect you and, and, and deny all these wrong accusations.” I, I- Exactly. … think they would really appreciate that as well. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Because if the, if the, uh, frontline people, the operators, the, the, the people that keep the system running, their only if exposure to the system is negative, then that’s gonna just continue. Um, but, you know, another… Just a real quick story. I saw a video of a-… Of an operator that was walking in front of a bus carrying a bunch of water for her, for her fellow operators. They all were thirsty and she was carrying bottles of water, so she didn’t see there was a crack in the road. She tripped on that crack, got injured.

Well, because of the fact that there was video, the, the agency paid the claim right away. I mean, this is, this is what happened. Uh, you, you don’t have to worry about an investigation, you don’t have to worry interviewing 20 people. Uh, about si-… We…

There’s a very clear video of, of, uh, an accident happening with this young lady and she was able to get her, her, uh, case settled quickly. So it’s good for the agency and it’s good for the employees. Wow.

That, that, that’s powerful. Uh, thank you for, uh, sharing your insights, uh, Harry. This is definitely a very important topic. We’re talking about safety, uh, i- in transit systems across America and, uh, you know, video surveillance, you know, uh, video that also has audio that can tell the entire, uh, story th-…

And, and the setup in vehicles in such a way that really captures everything that is happening inside and around our transit vehicles and is helping, um, you know, keep our passengers, but also our frontline employees safe is, is definitely critical, uh, for our industry. So thank you for sharing those insights.

Uh- Absolutely. … Harry, before we, uh, close out, I wanted to ask you, uh, some folks, uh, some of our listeners and some of the folks that will be listening to this episode, they might wanna learn more about, uh, TSI Video and get in touch with you. Uh, how can they, uh, learn more about TSI Video and also get in touch with you? Yeah. Uh, absolutely. Uh, our website is www.tsivideo.com.

Let me do that again. And if you wanna- Yeah. Absolutely. … if you wanna, uh, also provide your email- Yeah. Yeah. … they… If they wanna email or, or phone number. Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. Uh, our website is, uh, just tsivideo.com and, uh, my email is harry.white@tsivideo.com.

Very easy, very simple . Yep. So, Harry, thank you very much for joining our episode today and, uh, thank you to our listeners for joining on one more episode of Stop Requested. My pleasure. Thank you.