Summary of Specifications:
I. Quotes Due All quotes are due on October 1, 2014, by 4:00 PM. Interested bidders must sign this Request for Proposal and either fax it to (910) 938-5031 or deliver to Roy Bredahl at Jacksonville Transit at Jacksonville City Hall located at 815 New Bridge Street, Jacksonville, NC 28541.
II. Qualifications The City is exempt from Federal Excise Tax. Our Federal Tax Identification Number is 56-6000232. The City is not exempt from NC State & County Sales Tax. Such taxes shall be shown as a separate item on all invoices.
III. Rights The City reserves the right to waive any informality, to reject any or all quotes, and to accept that Quote or Quotes which appear to be in the Owner's best interest.
IV. Specifications Jacksonville Transit currently does not have an Automated Voice Annunciation System (AVAS). Jacksonville Transit is soliciting proposals from vendors to deliver a turn-key project to Jacksonville Transit for the design, manufacture, installation, testing and implementation of an Automated Voice Annunciation System for thirteen (13) transit vehicles and five (5) fixed routes.
Specific features include but are not limited to:
1. Operation:
Vendor must provide, install, test, provide support and warranties for Automatic Voice Annunciation System that: a. Are fully automated to every bus stop
b. Comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act Requirements
c. Announcements onboard the vehicle shall be triggered at pre-defined locations, based on the current location of the vehicle
d. Information to be announced shall include major advertised stops, key transfer points and public service announcements
e. The Annunciation system shall be capable of making announcements external to the vehicle
f. External announcements shall be triggered by opening the door
g. The Annunciation system shall have the ability to enable and disable external announcements independently of the internal announcements
h. The Annunciation system shall operate automatically once the operator initializes the system by selecting the desired route/destination
i. No operator interaction shall be required to operate the annunciation system and operator use of the on-board PA system shall override any automated announcements
j. Announcements shall be created utilizing test-to-speech
k. Programming a new announcement should be as simple as typing it in a text file
l. A desktop preview program must be provided that permits testing of the announcements prior to use onboard a bus and permits tricky
pronunciations to be spelled phonetically
m. It must be easy to quickly and easily create custom dictionaries
n. English and Spanish must be supported
2. Hardware/Software:
a. Annunciation system shall provide a means for wirelessly updating the announcement database on board the vehicle
b. Minimum and maximum volume settings shall be configurable by
Jacksonville Transit
c. Independent volume settings must be permitted for the interior and external announcements
d. System controller shall use the vehicle location information from the AVL System to trigger the appropriate internal announcements onboard the vehicle whenever the vehicle enters a “trigger zone”
e. Trigger zones are user-defined areas located upstream from each stop location.
QUESTIONS OR REQUEST FOR COMPLETE RFQ DOCUMENT: Communication in connection with this quote shall be in writing only and shall be limited during the period of advertisement to the formal submission of questions. All such written questions shall be delivered by email to rbredahl@jacksonvillenc.gov on or before September 22, 2014. Telephone calls and other informal communication will not be permitted during the advertisement period in order to ensure fair competition among prospective vendors. Prospective vendors are encouraged to submit substantive questions, comments and concerns. Questions will be answered in writing sent via email to all known vendors proposing with final answers being sent out no later than September 26, 2014.
