TRWD is one of the largest raw water suppliers in the state of Texas, providing water to more than 1.6 million people in the North Central Texas area. Operations span a 10-county area and include maintaining dams at the Water District's four reservoirs and more than 150 miles of pipeline used for water transport. Another primary TRWD function is to manage an extensive flood control system, featuring more than 27 miles of floodway levees. TRWD is deploying the unified DVTel solution at upwards to 30 different facilities with video surveillance from approximately 150 cameras and management of more than 200 access control points.

The district has installed a 6-gigahertz wireless backbone with dedicated T-1 lines to ensure efficient, effective transmission of all data from the many different locations back to a central command. "Our goal was to improve upon our previous system with a fully integrated solution and a single point of control," said Norman Ashton, TRWD risk manager. "Previously, we had four different software packages running in isolation of each other, not even popping video on alarm. We needed a much smarter system."

With DVTel's flexible, scalable open architecture, TRWD plans to continue to expand their security system to keep pace with the District's new construction and to add facilities as they move down their priority list of critical assets. While the District's function may seem fairly straightforward, Ashton's job is no less critical, "Our goal is to protect our water sources, plain and simple, and make certain we can provide water to all of our customers." Video surveillance provides excellent views of key facilities and the access control system restricts access to each facility to only those who have permission and only for certain periods. In addition, the DVTel system enables TRWD to quickly lock down a single facility or the entire operation as needed.

DVTel president and CEO, Eli Gorovici commented, "Video and access control are quickly becoming standard commodities. But when we combine the two functions and extend system capabilities to improve operations and control, all on the network with a robust interface, we now have a unified, highly intelligent IP-based security solution."