Video cameras installed on this robot provide views to first responders wirelessly in a SWAT team application of the system from PacketHop Inc., Redwood City, Calif.

Flexibility of wireless communication is one of the features of a system that can be deployed in mobile applications.

With the system from PacketHop Inc., Redwood City, Calif., a series of laptops of first responders gathering at a site within approximately 3,000 feet of each other can create a mobile network of wireless nodes by their presence.

“With our system, we create our own network, an ad hoc, portable, deployable mobile network,” explains Kevin Payne, PacketHop’s director of corporate marketing.

“These are all serverless applications, all peer-to-peer — they require no connection to an external network or any kind of infrastructure,” adds John Leddy, PacketHop’s vice president of marketing. This can be helpful in emergencies when network infrastructure is down.

Additionally, the system will seek out whatever wireless system is available, whether an unlicensed or licensed 802.11 frequency (also called Wi-Fi), a cellular telephone network or the Internet, to communicate. The licensed 4.9 GHz frequency, one of the frequencies on which the system can communicate, is reserved for government use.

“Right now, there are 1,000 licensees across the U.S.,” explains Payne about 4.9 GHz use. “It’s doubled since last year. The number of public safety agencies that have 4.9 is growing at a good clip. 4.9 is not public, and so is not part of Wi-Fi, but it functions the same way.”

Leddy expects to be able to transmit a video resolution of 352 pixels by 288 pixels at 30 frames per second on the 4.9 GHz frequency.

Initially a provider of software, the company will offer its first hardware product, a mobile router, in the third quarter of this year. It will enable the system to work without laptop computers.

That capability would be helpful in school and municipal buses and other mobile applications, Payne notes. Another product set for release transmits video to vehicles from a fixed location.

“The mesh exchange is a node you can fix to the side of a building or on a pole and connect a camera to,” Payne says.

It can be used when police need to check from their squad cars a school or bank where an alarm has gone off without entering it, or for surveillance of areas where illegal activities, such as drug sales or manufacture, is suspected.

The system has been used in a demonstration with a SWAT team at the Long Beach, Calif., airport, and has been purchased by the Lakewood, N.J., police department. The department used the system to set up a mobile-mesh network during a music festival.

Software Lays out Control Room

An easy way of designing consoles and racks accurately is offered by Winsted Corp., Minneapolis. Its equipment layout software enables design of an entire room in which representative equipment can be placed in and on the consoles.

The stand-alone software is AutoCAD- and Autodesk-compatible. For a free copy of the software, visit www.winsted.com/wels or call (800) 447-2257.

What Are Surveillance-purposed Hard Drives?

The use of hard disc drive (HDD) storage in video surveillance systems is expanding rapidly, in large part because HDDs are more robust and deliver better performance than legacy tape-based systems. Dealers and integrators can choose NVRs and DVRs that use general desktop, consumer hard drives or surveillance-purposed hard drives for use in their digital systems. Although each has its place, dealers looking for optimal power and reliability may find that video recorders powered by surveillance-purposed drives are the best choice. Here are a few reasons why:

Most surveillance digital video recorders (SDVRS) do not just actively record video, often 24/7 -— they also retain anywhere from a few days to several months of archival video.

To address requirements for both active and archived video, systems must be built with adequate storage for archival needs while being able to continuously record on disc drives, one after another, overwriting old data once the archival period has elapsed.

At any given time, one or more disc drives in the system are spinning and running at full performance levels, whether or not they are actively recording video. The end result is an increase in power consumption and heat, common culprits in causing drive failure.

Dealers can avoid this scenario by employing NVRs and SDVRs with surveillance-purposed disc drives that put the drive into standby mode when it is not in active use. This greatly reduces the drive’s power consumption and heat generation, as well as extending its useful service life.

Proper enclosure or chassis design also is a key consideration in SDVR reliability. Electronic systems must be housed in well-designed enclosures, which have been specifically engineered for proper temperature management and vibration control or compensation.

Most desktop and consumer drives are not subject to the mission-critical, always-on demands of surveillance applications, so they are not designed with these factors in mind. Surveillance-purposed drives, however, specifically focus on power management and thermal control, optimized data payload reading/writing, and performance.

Another consideration in selecting NVRs and DVRs for surveillance applications pertains to the fact that many new systems are being implemented on embedded systems using optimized components.

Typically, smaller, optimized power supplies are used to save on cost and to control heat more efficiently. NVRs and DVRs using surveillance-purposed drives support this design by limiting both spin-up current and seek current. This approach does not degrade performance, and it enables the use of low-cost, cooler-running power supplies.

Overall, surveillance-purposed drives are designed with features that intelligently deal with power consumption, heat management and other issues particular to always-on surveillance systems.

For that reason, most dealers and integrators can benefit greatly from selecting NVRs and SDVRs that use surveillance-purposed hard drives. For more information on the use of HDDs in SDVRs, visit Seagate Technology at www.seagate.com. — Contributed by Mark Wojtasiak, market development, video applications, Seagate Technology, Scotts Valley, Calif.

Powerful Product Reference Web Site Built

Honeywell Power Products’ Web site www.honeywellpower.com is designed to provide an enhanced level of multi-criteria searchability.

Power supply information can be obtained quickly in multiple ways at a new Web site, www.honeywellpower.com, launched by Honeywell Power Products, Northford, Conn.

A library of data sheets, installation manuals, CAD (computer-aided design) files, and agency approvals from UL, FM, CSA, CSFM, MEA and others provides visitors with numerous ways to locate and download information.

The product finder allows users to sort and search the complete Honeywell Power Products’ portfolio via an alphanumeric list, product category, market application, voltage output or keyword.

Designed to provide an enhanced level of multi-criteria searchability, the Web site features an online request form and comprehensive contacts page for ordering reference materials. For more information about the Web site, visit www.honeywellpower.com.

Sidebar: Online IP Education Center and Workshops Offered

ScanSource Security Distribution Inc., Greenville, S.C., has created the IP Center, a comprehensive resource developed for security dealers who are interested in learning more about IP-based physical security solutions. The IP Center consists of a comprehensive Web site, www.scansourcesecurity.com/ipcenter, as well as IP Center workshops held across the country.

Through the IP Center Web site, security dealers can learn about the basics of networking, network-based video and access control technologies.

Dealers will also have the opportunity to attend a two-day IP Center workshop, which will be held in cities across the United States. The workshop will educate dealers on the basics of networking, provide an introduction to network video and deliver hands-on demonstrations of the latest network-based physical security solutions.

The IP Center Workshops will be held in the following cities:

• Aug. 7-8, Chicago;
  
  
• Oct. 9-10, Dallas; and
  
  
• Nov. 13-14, Atlanta.

The ScanSource Security IP Center is sponsored by Adtran, Axis Communications, ipConfigure, IQinVision, Panasonic and Sony. For more information on ScanSource Security’s solutions, visit www.scansourcesecurity.com.

Sidebar: Technical Training Courses to be Taught for Access Control Products

A training course is being offered to technical and sales personnel on a bimonthly basis by Secura Key, Chatsworth, Calif., at its corporate headquarters.

Included is training on stand-alone proximity access control units, access control systems and video integration. The class will cover system configuration and typical door installations.

Students also will review the SK-ACP control panel, radio key proximity readers, eTag contactless smart card readers, Entracomp 26SA and 28SA Touchcard stand-alones and the SK029W Touchcard OEM reader.

All participants will obtain hands-on training using individual access control panels and their own copy of the SK-NET software. Participants also will receive a certificate of completion with product binder, sales and marketing briefing and a product development preview from the engineering group. For more on Secura Key’s training courses, visit http://www.securakey.com and click on tech support.