AD Group – the parent company of manufacturer Dedicated Micros – has been presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, in the innovation category.
The Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, William Bromley Davenport, carried out the formal ceremony at the CCTV company’s Warrington offices. The award marked TransVu the company’s mobile digital recorder.
In an opening address, Nigel Petrie, Chairman of AD Group highlighted why TransVu has proved so successful and underlined the growing need for this type of solution: "The requirement for such systems – to not only tackle traditional crime on the move but to ensure passenger safety, against the backdrop of the ongoing terrorist threat – was brought into sharp relief with the Madrid train bombings and, more recently, the tragic events of 7-7. In the latter case TransVu systems demonstrated their potential by providing the police with valuable digital CCTV evidence to assist them with their investigation.
"From initial research at AD Group we identified a need to bring a new level of sophistication to mobile video operation for ground transportation. This included applying some of the knowledge we had developed through our work on CCTV in aircraft. Previous generation systems were limited in scope – only being capable of recording images from cameras. TransVu represents a generational shift with its ability to handle system information from the vehicle, simultaneously recording engine speed, operation of brakes/accelerator and indicators. GPS data can also be utilised, pin pointing the position of the vehicle at all times. Nigel Petrie added: "Crucially, like all of our NetVu Connected products, TransVu has extensive networking capabilities. This means that large bus operators can utilise wireless networks at their depots to automatically download images and data from their vehicles. The result is huge savings in man-hours compared to non-networked systems.
"Bus operators have also been able to apply TransVu to identify fraudulent compensation claims. An internal inertia circuit constantly logs acceleration; braking and turning of the vehicle providing a vital audit trail should the vehicle be involved in an accident."
