TransitVue Takes A Dive on The Red Line

A year or so ago, Metro elected to blow $2.2 million to install 350 46" plasma screens, allegedly for the betterment of communicating to straphangers the arrival times of trains. But as with all things Metro, not only has the usual gone undone but all manner of new problems have been introduced despite the promises of the contractor, TransitVue.

The contractor that Metro quietly brought on board, TransitVue, is a difficult one to find. Not one mention of the Chino, CA-based multimedia company can be found on Metro's Web site. This is a red flag. Worse is that barely one year later, TransitVue's three-year guarantee of their monitors is already showing signs of wear and imminent death. Why? We are not sure, but news of the plasma screens' impending demise is not greatly exaggerated.

The handful of photographs and videos to follow is but a bit of the trainload of daily failures that even a relatively new straphanger on Los Angeles Metro will have already noticed: red, white and green burn-in that are indicative of hardware failure; blank boards owing to software failure; and colours gone wrong owing to a monitor on the verge of failing.

         
 

Moreover, Metro spent $2.2 million to get these screens installed. How much more will be wasted for what have could been done much better had the previously installed, truly real-time red-crawl LEDs been widely installed? (I regret that I do not have on hand any of those photos from the late 1990s; the prints remain in storage in New York City.) Such screens work very well in real cities—NYC and DC, to name two—and yet Roger Snoble & Co. elected to waste taxpayer monies on a system that is already visibly defraying.

For copies of the PDF files about TransitVue products (replete with odd typos and whatnot), click here. (If the files are no longer available, however, e-mail me and I will send them to you.) Click here for a copy of the "article" wherein Metro is mentioned far more times than TransitVue is on Metro's Web site.

-BusTard

Comments

[fiberguy]

BusTard is delusional once again. Consider these observations of his so accusations before you pass judgment on TransitVue ....

Yes, it is hard to find a multimedia based company in Chino or on Metro's web site named TransitVUE®. Why, because TransitVUE® is a licensed trademark of JM Fiber Optics, Inc, not a company (http://www.transitvue.com/about.htm). JM Fiber Optics, Inc. of Chino, CA was the company of award for the Metro TPIS contract (published on Metro's web site February 2007).

The Plasma displays (as BusTard describes them) are actually NOT Plasma displays ay all. In fact, they are LCD monitors. Had BusTard bothered to ask Metro or JM Fiber Optics, he would have know this. Also, if BusTard understood the simple differences between LCD versus Plasma technology, BusTard would have known that LCD panels are not subject to the heat, burn-in and reliability issues associated with Plasma displays nor do LCD monitors have the same high power consumption as Plasma's. Plasma's have two-and-a-half to three times the power consumption of LCD monitors (http://www.presentationmaster.com/2002/09_sep/features/plasma.htm).

And another thing, without being able to personally check a monitor's health, how can BusTard say that the monitors (he calls Plasma's) are already showing signs of wear and imminent death. He makes this assumption without even mentioning the lighting issue in the subways that can cause visual issues. Also, How does BusTard know that Metro does not check every monitor and that they are not working correctly? Where's his proof? He doesn't have any proof of any of the accusations he's making. That's the problem with someone going off on someone or something without knowing what they are talking about.

Do you really want to believe someone like BusTard who is too lazy to do some research before writing all this crap about Metro and TransitVue? It's apparent, all BusTard wants to do is rant, complain and make accusations without knowing the facts or even bothering to make an attempt at finding out the facts? Maybe BusTard should run for public office where you don't need to know the facts about something before you go off on your own personal tirade.

Late!

[BusTard]

Fiber Guy,
Those are some rather brash and incorrect observations. But you are free to make all the mistakes you wish.

First, Transit Mag calls TransitVue a business: http://directory.masstransitmag.com/buyersguide/Information_Systems/Transitvue_Communication_Systems_1211.html

Second, I am on the Red, Blue and Gold Lines ever day. I watch Metro employees as well as all manner of other Metro activities. A wee bit of it is on The Bus Bench. Take some time out from bellyaching and writing outrageously threatening letters (which will soon be posted in its entirety) and you would see that. (And take some time to re-work your Web site, which is in dire need of clarification with respect to communication, especially about branding, business units and such.)

Third, my mistake in calling the LCD screens "plasma" does not undo the recorded observations I have made, nor does your bellyaching make the monitors' hardware work any better.

Lastly, show some professionalism. You whinge in a way that could be taken as corroboration with respect to the way your "business unit" does business. Seeing as I am a private citizen and not a contractor for a public transit agency in the second-largest city in the United States; as such, I can complain all I want about the way my taxes are mismanaged, especially when it is a private contractor whose grasp of the English language is questionable.

[curiousg543]

Wow, this story sounds like a personal vendetta...

[curiousg543]

What exactly is the point of this article?

[BusTard]

A personal vendetta? Only if one does not mind being robbed via taxes taken under the auspices of public transit.
If such things do not make one personally angry, then feel free to send us your cash.
Oh, wait—you work for JM Fiber/TransitVue! (Yes, we looked up your IP.)