TESSCO Installs Chesapeake Bay Police Boat Video System

Leading networking company, TESSCO Technologies Incorporated, informs it has worked closely with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to successfully implement, for the first time, real-time video streaming from police boats monitoring Chesapeake Bay. This technology effort supports Governor O’Malley’s extensive programs to protect the Chesapeake.

TESSCO explain that after four years of planning and product testing, TESSCO, partnering with the IT staff of the DNR’s Natural Resource Police and RAD Data Communications, based in Mahwah, N.J., delivered a solution using RAD’s Airmux Mobility system to achieve over 4 Mbps throughput per boat while traveling at up to 20 knots over distances of up to seven miles.

The need for live video streaming from the police boats is crucial -- 140 vessels cover the Chesapeake Bay’s 64,000 square miles, and their responsibilities include, among others, homeland security operations, search and rescue teams, emergency medical services, education, information and communications services on a 24/7 basis. Prior to the new application, the video feed from craft-mounted cameras could only be stored locally and downloaded once the boat was docked.

To date, eight towers have been outfitted with the new system. The live video streaming application is fully integrated into the DNR’s leading-edge Maritime Law Enforcement Information Network, or MLEIN.

“TESSCO’s product managers have been working with the DNR for four years to find a complete mobility solution that would result in real time, uninterrupted streaming video from police boats,” said William Moten, Vice President, Solutions Development and Product Management, at TESSCO. “We are very proud to work with the Maryland Natural Resource Police and MLEIN to implement an application that will do so much to improve the safety and security of the Chesapeake.”

www.tessco.com