Skip to main content

SESA connects dynamic messaging signs to the cloud

SES America is showing off two of its latest lines of dynamic messaging signs at ITS America Pittsburgh, highlighting the growing diversity of its product line for customers who are finding more applications for displaying multiple messages on demand.
June 1, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Philippe Perut of SESA with the dynamic signs

7846 SES America is showing off two of its latest lines of dynamic messaging signs at ITS America Pittsburgh, highlighting the growing diversity of its product line for customers who are finding more applications for displaying multiple messages on demand.

The company’s Mobility line are custom-built dual message signs created with strings of LED lights. The signs can be designed for any size and color and can be tied to road sensors to determine the appropriate message to display. Phil Perut, president of SES America, said the signs are cost-efficient option for applications that require two messages rather than an expensive full-color LED display board. Perut cited an example of a weigh-in-motion application planned in Georgia. As trucks trigger a sensor in the road, a sign indicates a right or left turn depending on the weight of the vehicle.

The company’s DMS Connect signs are connected to the cloud to display travel times in real time. Traditionally, traffic information is captured by road-side sensors and sent to a central traffic control center where travel times are calculated. The information then has to be transmitted back to the signs. Connecting signs directly to the cloud allows travel times to be captured from travel time providers such as Google and TomTom, eliminating the need for dedicated road sensors and networking equipment. Flexibility is also achieved by allowing engineers to change routes remotely—as long as the travel time provider has that capability—while traditional systems are limited to routes where sensors are deployed.

“Virtually the entire world is covered,” said Perut. “You can convey travel time to drivers on arterial roads or in small towns. It’s like having an app deployed directly on the signs.”

Existing SES America signs can be upgraded to include the new cloud connectivity.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Wireless bridges widen options for ITS upgrades
    December 9, 2014
    Antaira Technologies’ marketing engineer Brian Roth explains why the increasing capacity of wireless bridges is reducing the cost of expanding and upgrading ITS networks. With more than half of the world’s population now living in cities, the need for efficient transportation of both people and goods has never been greater and that pressure is unlikely to ease any time soon. Indeed in many regions of the world the rate of urbanisation is still increasing as the demand for rural workers continues to decline.
  • Missouri’s smart solution for rural road monitoring
    July 7, 2017
    David Crawford sees how Missouri is using commercially available information to rapidly improve monitoring and driver information on rural highways. Missouri is a predominantly rural state with the second largest number of farms in the country and agriculture the main occupation in 97 of its 114 counties. US statistics starkly reveal how road accidents in rural areas tend to be more serious than in urban regions and of the 32,000 US motorists killed each year, 54% die on roads in rural areas even though onl
  • Measuring the effectiveness of winter VMS
    August 5, 2013
    A survey into the effectiveness of weather-related variable message signs on a trans-mountain highway has some interesting results, as Alexis Bacelar told ITS Europe. A study in the Massif Central region of France evaluating the usefulness of winter weather warning signs has highlighted the effect of variable message signs on driver behaviour. During the winter of 2009-2010, road operator Massif Central Direction Interdépartementale des Routes (MC DIR) started installing bad weather-specific variable messag
  • Machine vision offers new solutions to old problems
    October 28, 2014
    The transportation sector is set to benefit from a far wider range of machine vision technology. While machine vision techniques have been applied to traffic management applications for some years, in some areas there can still be a shortage of knowledge about what the technology can offer transportation professionals. The image processing and interpretation functions of machine vision enables control room staff to be immediately alerted to occurrences requiring attention which, in turn, enables each person