Case Study: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority achieves faster incident response and enhanced passenger safety with Genetec Omnicast

MBTA deploys Genetec Omnicast onboard bus fleet to keep community safer

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which serves over 1.3 million weekday passengers across buses, subways and commuter rails, needed to upgrade aging onboard video systems after securing a Department of Homeland Security grant for fleet security. MBTA issued a tender for a proof of concept and selected Genetec’s Omnicast solution (proposed by integrator Minuteman Security Technologies) to replace outdated recorders and eliminate the time-consuming process of physically retrieving and downloading bus hard drives.

Genetec’s Omnicast was deployed on 220 buses, integrating onboard NVRs, multi-angle cameras, GPS-based connectivity switching, automatic offloading (Video Trickling) to central archives and custom SDK applications for cruiser access and panic-button alerts. The Genetec system gives OCC staff, MBTA police and other stakeholders live and archived video via cellular and terminal wireless links, enabling rapid incident response—for example, officers identified and apprehended an assault suspect within minutes—and has improved forensic support, operational uptime and passenger/driver perceptions of safety.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Adam Peters

Transit Security Projects Administrator