On-vehicle devices talking to each other, as well as the driver, and then communicating live data back to the depot – giving you the information when you need it
Synergy 3; an integrated end-to-end management platform for transport: That’s Synectics’ vision that Sales & Marketing Director Iain Stringer says the UK-based company can bring to your business.
Listed on the UK Stock Market, Synectics has over 500 professionals across three continents, but hasn’t forgotten its roots.
This means that it continues to supply independents – such as Anthony’s Travel, Bakers Dolphin, Redfern Travel, Whitelaws Coaches, Llew Jones Coaches and Cardiff Bus as well as larger players, including Go-Ahead, RATP Dev, National Express, Stagecoach and Metroline.
“We’re big enough to cope with what we’re doing, but we’re small enough to be flexible, so that we can work with customers on individual requirements. We haven’t lost that personal touch that characterised the business’ early years,” says Iain.
“Our smaller client base is equally important to us, as it’s made us what we are today.” Thus the company, best known for its CCTV and telematics solutions, is now much more than this, thanks to its deep technical capability that’s adapted to complex requirements.
“Technology moves on at a rapid pace, where the majority of operators would review incident video by removing the hard drive, now it can be uploaded remotely over wi-fi or 4G.”
Other strings
But before you think that Synectics is a one-service supplier, think again. “We bring together disparate parts to solve complex problems. The combination is greater than the sum of its parts.”
For operators this means being able to deliver everything from fleet management, the use of CANBus data and telematics, to daily system health checks, passenger counting, low bridge warnings, real time passenger information and more.
What Synectics is building is an entire bus technology network that serves operators, drivers and passengers.
“We genuinely see our relationship with operators as a partnership: That’s the cornerstone of our strategy. We’ve dealt with Stagecoach for over 15 years now, and in an environment where technology changes so quickly, there’s more to it than just the technology on its own.”
Design and build
“A lot of what we do, in terms of development, is driven by our customer relationships. They are enhancements to functionality, based on customer feedback.
“Understanding our customers’ needs intimately leads us to develop a solution that’s tailored to their requirements, and is scalable so they can roll it out at their own pace,” says Iain.
That means an eight-pronged approach of consultation, commissioning, creating, designing, installing, integrating, and monitoring. This is a two-way process, explains Iain. For example Synectics runs customer forums. This brings together London Bus Engineering Directors – both customers and non-customers – to ask them ‘what do you want to see: What are your biggest challenges, where can we help?’
“We’ve found these types of discussions incredibly useful.”
Synectics invests heavily into R&D. Its customers are demanding greater levels of integration and inter-operability, an area where it has deep technical knowledge.
Benefits for operators are twofold: Reduce operational costs and improve efficiency.
“We believe passionately in the end-to-end approach to what we’re doing. Our customers appreciate that we’re with them ‘every step of the way’.
“I don’t want to be corny about it, but from the earliest days of specifying the equipment, to installing it – to ensure it’s done properly – to maintaining it, we are there – helping and advising.
“And now there’s another dimension, which is remote monitoring it, as the software capacity has developed, to get a daily ‘ping’ to know what’s not working so it can be fixed.
“This is going to be more important in the future as a managed service.”
Platforms such as Timespace’s LANLink and Synectics’ Synergy 3 bring this together.
Current service
Safeguarding over 3 billion passenger journeys every year, there are over 27,000 vehicles worldwide with a Synectics surveillance system; this includes 80% of Transport for London (TfL) contracted buses. Over the last year, customers such as Tower Transit and London United, have seen huge benefits from IP cameras integrated with the latest DVRs, adds Iain.
An IP camera captures HD quality footage, covering large areas in a higher resolution than its predecessor, the analogue camera. This improved clarity of image has enabled operators to extract a larger amount of crucial information from the footage.
The flexibility of hybrid DVRs also enables the operator to futureproof and choose when they move over to full IP systems.
In addition to the adoption of IP cameras offering better image quality, emphasises Iain, there is also sophisticated back-office equipment.
“You’ve got the ability to health check it, and do that on an automated basis, so you can target your preventative maintenance and become more efficient. These are all practical considerations.”
Challenging itself
Since 2014, around 1,250 buses in Hong Kong have carried Synectics equipment. Explains Iain: “We were really pushing the boundaries of our capability at the time, and what people aspire to do more readily today. It was bringing it all together: How could we get the passenger information system working with CCTV, use GPS to drive media and advertising?
“That was the aspiration from Hong Kong Citybus, and that’s a good way of demonstrating our capacity for those more challenging type applications that others might shy away from.
“This was the yardstick for continuing to push to developing our business, and has proved a really good reference point, as well as leading the way at the time.”
That development continues and now Synectics’ Synergy3 integration uses an intelligently integrated management platform to bring together legacy equipment, such as older DVRs, together with the latest cloud-based systems.
“We are the UK’s leading supplier that can bring it all together, and do a little bit more.”
Looking ahead, Synectics has a strategic plan of being the added-value integrators, to bring pioneering technology – such as a fully IP DVR – to market and leveraging the Synergy3 capability.
“We developed our own proprietary telematics product, and likewise this was based on customer demand and our ability to use our local R&D.”
That’s where Synectics sees itself as being different: Not being tied to one group of vendors. “We can look at ‘best of breed’, but also do our own stuff, so it gives us more flexibility.”
Where next
“We’re having lots more discussions with operators about on-board integration and back-office integration now, than was the case three years ago,” says Iain.
“It comes from practical things – such as if my vehicle’s involved in an incident, I don’t just want the video, but I also want to understand what g-forces were present. I want to know what route it was on, what other events were there? What was the driver doing before and during the event?
“How do we bring that all together in an easy to use way that doesn’t use lots of different back office software?
“For us that’s exciting, based on our broader integration capability.”
Operators are seeing the benefits of live view footage over 4G cellular connections – not for routine downloads, but where access to footage is urgently needed during or immediately after an incident.
This is already possible, and the market is moving towards demanding this.
The growth of IP means that proprietary standards are being created to integrate key parts of functionality, between key devices, says Iain. IP integration, and wider adoption of open architecture protocols, coupled with closer collaboration between partners and local authorities are crucial steps to creating smart transport networks.
“For customers it’s an exciting time, because that’s going to open up a greater amount of choice and competition for hardware. It’s the integration and sophistication of the software that controls it. The ‘smart’ approach for connecting technologies and vehicles offers significant benefits to passengers, operators and local authorities alike.”
And that’s where Synectics aims to continue to make its mark.
Find out more: www.synecticsmobile.com
