Exacq Technologies, Firetide, IQinVision and Pivot3, all open-system vendors, participated in a joint live demonstration of IP technology interoperability at ASIS 2009. Wireless connectivity, megapixel cameras, Smartphone viewing, and smart storage were all on display in an interoperability demo that had one message: It’s easy.
“As open systems vendors, we had several goals for the demonstration. In addition to promoting how open the industry has become and the benefits of being open, another important goal we all had was to demonstrate that this is not intimidating,” explained Roger Shuman, marketing manager for Exacq, Indianapolis. “We didn’t cross-train our technicians or prep them months in advance to set up this system here at ASIS. We did this in addition to setting up all our booths at the same time, and it was fine. We just all showed up at the show floor and set it up, and it was easy – even with the limitations that a show floor can bring.”
What did the companies set up? The live demonstration featured wireless distribution, storage and playback of HD/megapixel video over wireless networks across separate booths on the ASIS show floor. High-resolution video from IQeye megapixel cameras was streamed from vendor booths over Firetide wireless network links. The video was subsequently captured and displayed remotely using the exacqVision video management system running on Pivot3 iSCSI SAN storage with embedded virtual servers. Centrally captured video was then viewable and searchable from remote computers in each of the partner booths and on smart phones.
The open architecture demonstrated by the companies allows customers the ability to select the highest quality components from a wide variety of manufacturers instead of being limited to offerings from one vendor. How is the interoperability between these four specific companies possible? “We are all non-proprietary companies and we are all IP-based, which means the products are essentially plug-and-play,” Bodell explained.
By demonstrating the ease of set-up on the ASIS show floor, the companies hoped to reduce the “perceived risk” or difficulty in setting up systems like this.
“Traditionally, I think integrators tended to be wary of IP things because it looked like it would be complicated,” said Lee Caswell, chief marketing officer, Pivot 3, Palo Alto, Calif. “We are finding by reducing the perceived risk of making this work in the field, people have more of a chance to get excited about it and embrace what it could mean for their company.”
Catch the November issue of SDM for expanded coverage of this and other sights seen at ASIS.
