A contract under Homeland Security to provide and install an advanced video surveillance system at the Garden State Plaza mall, Paramus, N.J., has been awarded to The Protection Bureau, Exton, Pa., which is 47th on SDM's 2004 Top Systems Integrators report. The mall will have more than 50 surveillance cameras installed and has been designated the model mall project by New Jersey.

"The security cameras will do more than passively record - they will be programmed to recognize various suspicious behaviors and activities," pointed out Donald Sebastian, senior vice president for research and development at the New Jersey Institute of Technology which evaluated the technology for the project.

Project developers plan to share video from the site directly with local police so first responders can know what is happening inside the mall even before they arrive. It is expected that testing of the final product will be completed within the year.