Technical Trial Assessment

Independent, evidence-based assessment of competing transit technology solutions during technical pilots.

Insights Analytics helps customers validate and compare solutions, and choose the right vendor with confidence.

A technical pilot is a transit operator's best chance to see how a proposed solution behaves on its own vehicles and routes before committing to a long-term contract. Operations teams need to know whether it will deliver a reliable passenger experience. IT teams need to know whether it will perform, integrate and scale as promised. Too often, the evidence from a pilot comes from the vendors themselves, each using its own tools, metrics and definitions, which makes a fair comparison hard to draw. Streamriver's Technical Trial Assessment service closes that gap. It combines our experience in rail and transit communications with Insights Analytics, our independent data analytics platform, and Sense, our autonomous passenger experience test probe.

planning a rigorous trial

We work with Operations and IT stakeholders from the outset to define the test plan, the metrics that matter, and the performance targets each solution must meet. Where a procurement is still being written, we help build open data and API requirements into the specification. This ensures every vendor's system can be measured objectively from day one. During the trial, we oversee testing on the operator's behalf, including stress testing, so results reflect real-world demand rather than ideal conditions.

measuring every solution the same way

Insights Analytics collects live and historical data from each vendor's system through open APIs, with messaging protocols such as MQTT, web hooks or file ingestion used where APIs aren't available. All of it is normalized into a single, consistent view. For cellular and Wi-Fi solutions, measurement typically covers:

• availability over the route traveled

• downlink and uplink throughput (minimum, median and peak)

• latency, packet loss and jitter

• signal type (5G/4G) and quality (RSRP, RSRQ, RSSI, SINR)

• GPS location

Results can be broken down by route segment, carrier, SIM or modem, so IT teams can pinpoint where and why performance differs. They can also be benchmarked against any legacy system in service to show the improvement each candidate delivers.

capturing the passenger experience

Vendor data shows how a network performs. It doesn't always show what riders experience. Streamriver offers Sense probes as part of the service: autonomous test devices installed on the onboard Wi-Fi network that run regular tests emulating typical passenger use. Sense measurements include:

• browsing latency

• throughput across a range of payload sizes

• packet loss

• connection reliability

• authentication performance

It reports results directly to Insights and produces a Quality of Experience score that can be compared across systems, fleets and time.

proven in revenue service

Eurostar utilized Insights Analytics to assess two competing Wi-Fi solutions installed side by side on a single train set in revenue service. Both relied on cellular backhaul across multiple countries and mobile networks. Insights combined data from both candidate systems and the existing legacy solution. Route-by-route comparisons of throughput, latency and carrier performance gave Eurostar a clear, evidence-based foundation for a procurement decision.

from pilot to production

Once a vendor is selected, the same Insights environment carries forward through factory, integration and site acceptance testing. It then continues into long-term operation as an independent monitor of Service Level Agreement compliance, so the performance proven in the pilot is maintained for the life of the contract.

Contact us today to discuss your solution needs and explore our products with a live demonstration.