Surveillance
MicroPower Technologies Welcomes Dave Tynan As VP Of Global Marketing And Business Development
SAN DIEGO, Oct 16, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) — MicroPower Technologies, Inc., an award-winning provider of surveillance solutions optimized for rapid, cost-effective deployment, announces the appointment of Dave Tynan as Vice President of Global Marketing and Business Development. Tynan is an experienced leader who has held multiple domestic and international leadership roles in sales, marketing, business development and product management. He will oversee and manage the company’s worldwide marketing and business development strategies. “Dave is a seasoned security industry veteran with impressive leadership experience in driving companies into the next stages of growth,” said Aaron Tankersley, CEO, MicroPower Technologies. “His proven track record developing rapid growth at the early stages of a new company will enable MicroPower to expand our business strategies while extending relationships with existing customers.” Tynan contributes more than 10 years of surveillance industry experience and his executive career has involved working for both private and public entities including Avigilon, GE Security and Verint Video Solutions. As Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing at Avigilon, Tynan led growth of a product line from negligible revenue to a $40-million global business in two years. In this role, he was also charged with creating customer facing marketing initiatives and comprehensive sales strategies, including the company’s commercial introduction and global expansion. Tynan has also worked as a business leader for Fortune 50 companies, including 3M where he led an Asia-Pacific initiative that grew revenue 25 percent year-on-year. For this significant achievement, he was recognized with 3M’s Sales and Marketing […]
Source www.marketwatch.com
Cambridge MA Blocks Surveillance Cameras
How one Mass city watches the watchers, and how others should follow suit On February 2, 2009, the Cambridge City Council voted in unanimous opposition to the installation of eight Department of Homeland Security cameras at major intersections on the basis that “the potential threats to invasion of privacy and individual civil liberties outweigh the current benefits” of accepting the DHS funds. While six such cameras were installed all the same, the council and a vocal citizenry has since successfully opposed their activation. At a follow-up meeting earlier this month, all nine Cambridge councilors reaffirmed their position: the cameras must remain off until police prove beyond doubt that their department has the capacity to balance investigative methods with civil liberties. Such aggressive civilian oversight of law enforcement should serve as a model not only for the Boston region, but for the whole country. Since 9-11, police chiefs, sheriffs, and commissioners have had an open invitation to request any range of surveillance and tactical gear from federal coffers, often without accountability checks to ensure that deployment squares with the Bill of Rights. Between DHS, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Defense, local overseers can secure every conceivable toy that they could ever covet without spending a dime of their own. From drones, to armored vehicles, to Long Range Acoustic Devices, which are essentially giant human dog whistles, it’s a veritable buffet via federal grants. Since these checks are written by the feds, such arrangements are often executed without […]
Source digboston.com
On Proliferating State And Local Surveillance Technologies
Over at Security States, I have this piece up , about the proliferation of city- and state-operated surveillance technologies—and the need to pair collection rules for these technologies with effective use and access rules. The piece begins: The New York Times reports today that “ Privacy Fears Grow as Cities Increase Surveillance .” The main theme is that municipal police and law enforcement agencies around the country are deploying new and more sophisticated data gathering and analysis technology, some of it bought with counter-terrorism funds, stoking privacy concerns among residents and watchdog groups. As with much of the early reporting of National Security Agency surveillance programs disclosed by Edward Snowden, the Times piece is heavy on what the systems collect and how they store and combine information. Only near the end of the piece, however, does it address accompanying rules and guidelines being developed to regulate such issues as who can access this information, for what purposes, under what supervision, and with what checks. Rapid technological development and lower price-tags for it are inevitable, and the most important question is whether regulation for how surveillance technology and data may be used can keep up. It is no surprise that local governments are deploying technologies like video surveillance systems, license plate readers, drones, networks of sensors, and systems for aggregating and analyzing the information streams they produce. The New York Police Department has been out in front of other cities in this regard, on account of its size, resources, threats, […]
Source www.lawfareblog.com
New Leader Takes The Helm At Firetide
As end user demand for immediate, on-demand access to video surveillance feeds has grown in recent years, so too has the need for reliable video transmission solutions. Firetide, a Silicon Valley-based provider of wireless mesh networks, is one of the companies looking to meet that demand and has more than 10,000 customers in 40 countries around the world. Earlier this year, Firetide announced a change in its senior leadership naming John McCool as the company’s new president and CEO. Prior to joining Firetide, McCool, who has a background in electrical engineering, spent the past 17 years at Cisco. At one point, McCool was in charge of the company’s switching and data center products before moving into a global sales role responsible for wireless switching, routing and security products. “At that point, I saw a lot of things in the market that were extremely exciting around networking,” explained McCool. “This entire trend – the change of networking from kind of an indoor, IT-oriented technology to moving to be embedded in devices and the need for those devices to be outdoors – and I got very intrigued with what Firetide was doing in that space and thought it was an excellent place to drive innovation.” Just last week, the company launched its new HotPort 5020 wireless infrastructure node , which is designed to allow users to place more devices at a lower cost over a mesh network. “What we noticed for large, city-wide, neighborhood-wide deployments is that people love (the Firetide […]
Source www.securityinfowatch.com
IBM’s Smart Cities Program Learns As It Goes
In Miami-Dade County, a network of sensors and scanners are quietly collecting data about the area
Oncam Grandeye 360-Degree Technology Chosen To Protect Ireland’s Shannon Airport
Oncam Grandeye, the global innovator in technology, security solutions and 360-degree surveillance cameras, has been awarded a contract for the Shannon Airport Authority. Glasgow-based Video Management Systems (VMS), which selected Oncam Grandeye’s technology, will be the local integrator on the project, and the cameras will be controlled and managed through Titan Vision, VMS’ IP CCTV video management and PSIM solution. Shannon Airport is located on the western-most part of Ireland and is considered to be the gateway between Europe and the Americas. It handles approximately 3 million people a year, and nearly 50,000 metric tons of freight gets transported through its cargo area. The facility is enormous, with 40 check-in desks, 5 baggage carousels and 14 boarding gates (including 6 air bridges). There are nearly 40 aircraft parking stands. The car-parks can hold more than 5,000 cars. John Francis, the security manager at Shannon Airport, faces myriad challenges, and he tackled the terminal first. 360-degree cameras have been placed at the boarding gates in the large, congested area used by low-cost airlines. The main reason for surveillance here is health and safety. “We’re looking for slips and trips,” says Francis. Other cameras are positioned in the arrivals area, which houses vending machines, ATM’s, car-hire desks and pay stations for the car park. “The PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom camera) was always looking the wrong way when something happened, and was sometimes left zoomed in by an operator,” he said. “This is never the case with the 360; we see everything.” Shannon needed […]
Source www.finanznachrichten.de
DIY Security Cameras – A Quick Overview
Like everything else in life you get many different brands, quality differences and specs on these things. The most expensive is not always the best, but don’t buy the cheapest either. Compare apples with apples. Start by determining what you require. Do you only want to see movement or do you actually want to see that it is a person wearing a blue cap with a moustache and a mole on his chin at 15 metres from the camera? You have to at least check what the resolution (TV lines) of the cameras are and if you are going to record the cameras, at what resolution the DVR records. In the past the cheaper DVRs recorded @ CIF which is an effective resolution of 352 x 288 pixels per camera while the preview on the screen was usually much higher (e.g. 2CIF or 4CIF). A lot of people made the mistake by not noticing that the recorded resolution was much lower than the previewed resolution, when they looked at the advertised specs. In layman’s term that means that when you saw the guy walking past the camera everything looked fine on the monitor, but when you played back the recording you could not determine if it was a dog or a human in the picture. Usually you would want a recording resolution of at least 4CIF or D1 which is an effective resolution of 704 × 576 pixels. Lately some of the recorders records at HD (1280 x 720) […]
Source mybroadband.co.za
Frost & Sullican: Mass Transport Operators Reinforce Security As Threats and Insuracne Claims Grow
Frost & Sullivan: Mass Transport Operators Reinforce Security as Threats and Insurance Claims Grow: — Ideal security solutions will have open architectures to offer convenience and value-added services LONDON, Oct. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — After airports, it is the turn of the global mass transport market to beef up security, as governments begin to address the security risks posed by large-scale unprotected infrastructure. In addition to terrorism threats, rising instances of crime, antisocial behaviour, and insurance claims have turned operators’ attention to new technologies in video surveillance, perimeter security, and sensors. The need for stronger security is undisputed, but mass transit operators are often constrained by lean budgets, especially since it is difficult to demonstrate return on investment (ROI) from these installations. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan ( http://www.defense.frost.com ), Global Mass Transport Security Market Overview, finds that the market earned revenues of $1.76 billion in 2012 and estimates this to reach $3.16 billion in 2021, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.7 per cent (2012 to 2021). The market will continue to expand due to large investments in metro projects in China and the proposed expansion of current metro projects in India, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. “Most of the security spending in mass transportation is expected to be directed at securing the stations where travellers gather, buses and rolling stock in which travellers are transported, and the areas adjacent to places where transportation is stationed,” said Frost & Sullivan Aerospace, Defence and Security Research Analyst Krzysztof […]
Source www.ad-hoc-news.de
Hollywood Comes To Video Surveillance
Dailies. B-Rolls. Circle-Takes. These digital video oriented processes of the ?Hollywood? production marketplace have ?for nearly a decade now? seen an explosion in the volume of recorded video that must be stored and managed. Entirely new workflows have been created to handle the deluge of video that digital movie-set cameras have unleashed. In the old days parts of movies, TV shows, and commercials would end up on the ?cutting room floor? as sections of film were edited out of the production. Nowadays, every ?take? is kept and possibly re-used in the bloopers edition or the director?s cut release.
Texas Passes Tough Laws Regulating UAV Use
The state of Texas has made it a crime to take photographs of someone’s property without their consent using a UAV. That new law went into effect September 1, 2013. The law stemmed from an incident in which someone flying an RC airplane captured images of a creek apparently filled with pig’s blood. The photos, […]
State Denies Public Access To Another Iowa Juvenile Home Security Video
The Iowa Department of Human Services is refusing to release another security camera video that allegedly shows a youth being mistreated at the state-run Iowa Juvenile Home. During the past year, The Des Moines Register has requested three separate videos that allegedly show state workers at the Toledo home physically abusing or improperly restraining youths. […]
Man Videotaped PIN Input By Customers At St. Charles Bank’s ATM
Svetoslave T. Tanev was charged with forgery in St. Charles County and trafficking in stolen identities in St. Louis County. A man was charged with setting up a video camera at an ATM to record people as they punched in their PINs outside a St. Charles bank. The video camera was found Sept. 19 on an ATM at Enterprise Bank and Trust, 1001 First Capitol Avenue in St. Charles. One man, Svetoslav T. Tanev, 27, of Arlington Heights, IL, was charged Sept. 19 with forgery in St. Charles County Circuit Court. Officer Erik Lawrenz said St. Charles police saw video surveillance footage of the car used by the men who set up the camera. Officers soon located the car in the 1300 block of Bass Pro Drive near Bank of America. Lawrenz said officers do not know if they planned an operation at First Bank of America. The men were staying at a hotel in the same area, Lawrenz said. Police found more than 100 credit cards, an encoding machine and $12,000 in cash in a St. Charles hotel room occupied by Tanev and a second man. Tanev also was charged with trafficking in stolen identities in St. Louis County. Creve Coeur Police said an armored truck driver was refilling an ATM at the US Bank branch at 126880 Olive Blvd. in Creve Coeur when he saw a device attached to the top of the machine. Police found a small video camera trained on the ATM’s keypad to allow […]
Source stcharles.patch.com
Skyhawk Security Acquires Big Networks
Skyhawk Security Acquires Big Networks Copyright 2013 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved 2013-09-24 BATON ROUGE, La. , Sept. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — Skyhawk Security, LLC announced today it has acquired the assets and intellectual property of Big Networks LLC, a Baton Rouge, LA based Technology Company. The combined company will be known as Skyhawk Group (“Skyhawk”) with a team of 20 employees and over 100 years of combined security, technical and networking experience. Skyhawk’s current client base ranges from local startups to Fortune 150 companies with multiple offices being serviced across the country. The company’s full suite of managed offerings include Internet Service, IP Phone Service, IT Services, IT Service Agreements, Hosted Exchange Email, Offsite Backup, IP Camera Systems, Access Control Systems, and Remote Video Monitoring & Surveillance Services. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130924/MN85039 ) The acquisition further enables Skyhawk to focus on supporting its growing customer base in Louisiana while expanding its footprint across the country. Skyhawk recognizes the ever-changing landscape of the IT industry and believes the combination of the two companies address the marketplace’s need for innovation and forward thinking technology. Skyhawk’s near term growth strategy focuses on evaluating the existing customer base to identify opportunities for organic growth through cross-selling its newly added products and services. For information on Skyhawk Group’s acquisition or its product and service offerings, please contact us below. Paul Ellis – Managing Member ( [email protected] ) Stuart Gilly – Managing Member ( [email protected] ) Brett Lofton – Managing Member ( [email protected] ) Company Website […]
Source www.itnewsonline.com
New York City Security Company Installs 19-Camera System In 7-Eleven Store Within Heavily-Populated Location
Total Security, a New York security camera installations company has installed 19 security cameras in an effort to improve the security and safety in the Greenwich Village 7-Eleven location. Over the past 10 years, Total Security has been chosen on numerous occasions to install security camera systems at the popular convenience store franchise including Madison […]
Whittier College: New Surveillance Cameras Come To Residence Halls
Manuel Escalante STAFF WRITER Dana Christenson/Quaker Campus New cameras installed outside of Harris and Ball dorms by Campus Safety. In an effort to expand the surveillance system, Campus Safety began adding new cameras to the existing surveillance system around the campus. Newer security cameras have recently been installed to increase coverage around Ball and Johnson Hall. “The cameras have been around campus for a while,” Assistant Director Jose Padilla said, “We are looking to expand over the next five years.” Most of the cameras covering the halls are placed outside. They are aimed at the entrances to monitor who is going in and out of the halls. Of the new cameras in Ball, one is placed inside the lounge area facing the main entrance. The second camera is causing a bit of controversy because it is placed inside the hallway, nearby female dorm rooms. The camera is small and covered, thus it prevents anyone from seeing where the camera is pointing. This caused many students to react in suspicion. “I feel like any cameras in the hallways are an invasion of privacy,” first-year Zahra Jabalameli said, “Girls walk around in towels and sports bras and don’t want to be on camera.” This is the main concern many students express about any cameras inside the hallways. The area between the rooms and the bathrooms feels like a part of their home, and some students will act or dress in ways they probably would not if there was a camera watching […]
Source thequakercampus.com
Hikvision Leads Indian Video Surveillance Analog Camera Market
Indian video surveillance camera market posted shipment of 514,405 units in the first quarter of 2013. Hikvision is leading the Indian video surveillance camera market with 25 percent share. CP Plus and Maximus CCTV are the other two leading vendors in the Indian video surveillance camera market, Research and Markets said. Hikvision, CP Plus and Maximus CCTV — top 3 players together constitute 48 percent of the market share in Q1 2013. Video surveillance camera market trends Analog surveillance systems account for 90 percent of the market share, whereas 10 percent of market share has been captured by IP systems. Around 69 percent of total units shipped are dome shaped. The PTZ feature can only be found in around 13 percent of the total units shipped. The Indian video surveillance camera market is ruled by analog based surveillance systems. However, video surveillance technology has shown an impressive evolution from the analog to digital. The need for smart and intelligent security systems due to increased criminal activities has also triggered the demand for video surveillance camera systems in India. Further, the image quality is of paramount importance in carrying out judicial procedures and law enforcement. The key opportunities for Indian video surveillance camera market in 2013 would be the demand for enhanced image quality; IP camera systems, emergence of mobile and cloud based video surveillance services. Demand for high-resolution cameras would increase by creating customer awareness regarding better resolution pictures for various applications. [email protected] Article Tags Related Posts
Source infotechlead.com
Police State USA
For the first time ever, Congress has decided has crafted a piece of legislation that determines whether or not a person is a journalist, in a bill designed to give federal protection to journalists and bloggers from being forced to disclose the identities of their confidential sources. This would mean that before the government could ask a news organization or a journalist to identify their sources, it must first go to a federal judge, who would supervise any subpoenas or court orders for the information. But the legislation comes with a catch. In order for a person to be protected under the bill, one must first meet the criteria for being termed a “journalist” — and even then, journalists will not be protected in all situations. Though freedom of speech, which includes the printed word, is protected under the First Amendment, media shield laws are supposed to go above and beyond in terms of protecting a journalist from being forced to disclose confidential information and sources. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2013 , on Thursday in a 13-5 vote . Though most states have their own media shield laws, they vary in terms of protections for reporters. If the legislation passes, this would be the first federal media shield law. At the urging of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the committee defined what they considered “journalism” as well as who qualified to be labeled as a “journalist.” Feinstein said legal protection […]
DHS To Test Face Scanning Cameras At Tri-City Hockey Game
Source: TriCityHerald … It is planned to be used by the U.S. government to test the capabilities of facial recognition software that is available or in the prototype stage. Eventually, state-of-the-art facial recognition technologies could be used to identify terrorists and criminals in public areas, according to the national lab in Richland. The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate works to make technology available to agencies ranging from local police offices to the U.S. Border Patrol, Transportation Security Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. PNNL previously has collected video at the Toyota Center for work with the Department of Homeland Security. But past video either has not captured members of the public or has been too low resolution to identify faces. Hockey fans who don’t want to be on the video will be given options to avoid the cameras. Read More…
Source www.blacklistednews.com
Tiny Recon Robots Herald New Generation Of Drones
London: Ex-U.S. Marine Ernest Langdon pulls a pin and throws a small black object onto the ground. But it doesn’t explode. Instead, the robot rights itself and swiftly scuttles away, feeding infrared video back to a small radio control screen. Unmanned drones have become an almost ubiquitous presence on the battlefield for U.S. and other high-tech forces. But the market for remote controlled vehicles is evolving from the sometimes multi-tonne craft that patrol the skies over Afghanistan or Yemen, carrying out reconnaissance and targeted strikes, to tiny robots that police and even film companies can use. The top end of the market continues to be dominated by U.S. companies such as Lockheed Martin , Northrop Grumman and General Atomics, formerly a division of General Dynamics and creator of the Predator and Reaper drones. Other major defence firms such as BAE Systems are pushing forward with next-generation drones with stealth and other features. Smaller companies are increasingly redefining the industry, however. Drones on display at this week’s DSEI defence fair at London’s Excel exhibition centre include undersea robots that can act as mini submarines or simply drive along the surface of the seabed to clear mines or conduct reconnaissance. Remote control “quadrocopters” with four or more rotors can be launched from backpacks. Even conventional military vehicles are becoming increasingly robotised. The stand of U.S. truck manufacturer Oshkosh Corp showcases a picture of a convoy of military trucks it says are being entirely remote-controlled. Critics of the use of drones controlled […]
Source www.newsyaps.com
NEA Looking To Drones In War On Mosquitoes… And Other Nuisances
Neo Chai Chin Today Online 14 Sep 13; SINGAPORE — A monitoring system to detect noisy vehicles on the roads and unmanned aerial vehicles to inspect high spaces like roof gutters for mosquito-breeding spots. These are two of the solutions being explored by the National Environment Agency (NEA), as part of efforts to better detect and tackle a myriad of bugbears, ranging from illegal hawkers to mysterious ambient odours. A Noisy Vehicle Monitoring System, for instance, is being piloted at an undisclosed location. It aims to use directional microphones installed on road lanes and video technology to capture the licence plate numbers of vehicles that make excessive noise. The pilot will go on for at least another year, given the extensive tests needed to get a shipshape system in place, said NEA Deputy Chief Executive (Technology and Corporate Development) Joseph Hui Kim Sung. Outlining new detection capabilities being developed by the agency yesterday at the World Engineers Summit, Mr Hui said it is now operating in a more challenging environment. The Republic is getting more compact and urbanised and feeling the impact of climate change, and the NEA has to deal with extreme events and crises like mass food poisoning, oil spills, the haze and nuclear incidents happening in Singapore and other countries. At the same time, the authorities are facing the need for greater transparency, accountability and public consultation, said Mr Hui, who was giving a presentation on integrated environmental management systems. Speaking to TODAY, Mr Hui cautioned […]