Archive for May, 2009
On Wednesday, May 27, 2009, Axis Communications Japan held their Axis Technology Showcase, Tokyo 2009, at Sumitomo Hall in Tokyo. The day consisted of presentations by Axis, IMS Research, and others; case studies; and product exhibits.
Our distributor for Japan, Sun Systems, was there exhibiting the Japanese version of exacqVision Video Management Software. Mr. Naohiro Kishi, Managing Director of Sun Systems, also gave one of the main presentations, entitled Acceleration from Analog to IP.
The conference was filled to capacity, reflecting the rapidly-growing interest in IP video surveillance in Japan. The Sun System booth was packed with people interested in the exacqVision/Axis solution.
Our thanks to Axis Communications Japan and to Sun Systems for a successful event. Below are some pictures from the event. More pictures are here.
May 29th, 2009
Last Friday was the 7th Annual Cleve Buchanan Golf Tournament, hosted by the Central Engineering division of the North Carolina Dept of Correction, in memory of their colleague and former co-worker. The proceeds of this special event, held at the Pine Hollow Golf Club in Garner, NC, go to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, an organization started by former basketball coach and ESPN commentator Jim Valvano.
Exacq Technologies was a sponsor this year, and our own Dave Underwood was part of a foursome that consisted of Dick Green of rep firm Murphy & Cota, Kurt Kottkamp of Charlotte-based systems integrator Enterprise Security Systems, and Kevin McQuade of Raleigh-based security consulting firm Risk Management Associates.
ESS, a major security systems integration firm in the Southeast and a member of the PSA Security Network, has installed a number of exacqVision systems throughout the Southeast, including several NC Dept of Correction prison facilities. RMA is one of the leading security consulting firms in the country, providing security system design and implementation services for a diverse array of clients. A partial listing of some of RMA’s projects is here.
We were pleased to be a part of this worthwhile charity event, and our thanks go to Randy Willey of the North Carolina Department of Correction for inviting us to participate this year.
From left: Dick Green (Murphy & Cota), Kevin McQuade (Risk Management Assoc), Dave Underwood (Exacq), and Kurt Kottkamp (Enterprise Security Systems)
May 18th, 2009
This was a busy tradeshow week for our international sales team. We were exhibiting at both the IFSEC 2009 show in the UK, as well as at CeBIT Australia 2009 in Sydney.
At IFSEC 2009, we were showing our latest integration with the Basler IP megapixel cameras in the Basler booth. Basler, long a premium machine vision camera vendor, has a new line of IP cameras for the surveillance market. Information on their IP cameras is here, and an overview brochure in PDF format is here. Security Systems News Europe editor Steven Sachoff had this to say about Basler:
Germany’s Basler, which just entered the IP camera market last year, is another example of a company with roots outside the security industry that is doubling down on its security business during the tough economy. Basler’s Anke Wuebbelmann told me the company, which has its basis in machine vision technology, had recently made the decision to invest even more to develop its line of IP cameras for security applications at the expense of some other non-security areas the company is active in. At IFSEC this year Basler is touting a number of new partnerships, including with Lenel, Exacq, Alnet and OnSSI. The company has also just launched training programs for partners and distributors, and will be starting road shows as well. Basler is not just going after the European market—Wuebbelmann said they’re busy building up their sales channels in the U.S. and Asia, and towards that end, the company recently established a new subsidiary in Taiwan.
There was a great deal of international trade coverage about IFSEC. John Honovich of IPVideoMarket.info provided his comprehensive IFSEC roundup. We also found the real-time IFSEC Twitter posts of interest. Many pictures from the show have been posted on the web. Our friends at IP camera vendor ACTi had a booth right across the aisle from us, and posted a number of pictures on their flickr site, like this and this.
At CeBIT Australia 2009, we were exhibiting as part of the New South Wales technology booth, along with our distribution partner Zone APS. Zone APS is a technology-leading provider of IP security products, including Exacq, Arecont Vision, ACTi, ioimage, and MSCP, their own PSIM system. Zone has had great success deploying exacqVision IP surveillance systems in large retail chains, airports, casinos, mining facilities and shipping and logistics companies throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
CeBIT is primarily an IT-oriented show, but as physical security rapidly converges with IT, it had a bigger presence at this year’s show. Turnout was high and there were a number of first-time exhibitors, despite early press reports about some vendors backing out.
The trade press coverage of this show was more fragmented than with IFSEC, but once again we found the real-time CeBIT Twitter posts interesting. Also of interest, CeBIT Australia has their own flickr page with 1100+ photos of the event.
Exacq in the Basler booth at IFSEC 2009:
Exacq in the Zone APS booth at CeBIT Australia 2009:
May 15th, 2009
PSA-TEC 2009 in Chicago just ended on Friday. The conference becomes more compelling every year, a week packed with educational sessions, product training sessions, networking events, hospitality events, and the large vendor exhibition.
The turnout for Tuesday evening’s opening mixer with keynote speaker Frank Abagnale was high, and we were able to meet up with many PSA resellers. Wednesday was the vendor expo where we showed the exacqVision VMS software and servers, including the new exacqVision EL embedded Linux hybrid appliance. We also showed exacqVision on the Mac, and multiple live cameras streaming on the iPhone.
Exacq was given the Rising Star award at the Vendor Appreciation Awards Banquet, which may be the only awards ceremony in this industry where the integrators recognize the vendors. We are most appreciative of the PSA membership for that recognition.
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PSA President Bill Bozeman presenting Exacq with the Rising Star award at the Vendor Appreciation Banquet |
On Thursday, Dan Rittman, Exacq’s Director of Engineering, conducted one of the educational seminars entitled “Migrating Your Customers to IP Video“, a review of the technology trends and advances, the benefits of IP video, and how to specify IP video installations of any size. The PowerPoint of that presentation is available to all PSA resellers.
The trade press was out in force at this event. Security Systems News editor Sam Pfeifle was live-blogging the entire time, and his posts are here, here, here and here. It was certainly gratifying to see this comment in Sam’s Day 2 blog post, regarding the awards banquet:
I don’t know how important the awards are, but I guess the ones that stood out for me were Samsung Techwin and Exacq winning the awards for new and rising vendors. That seems to jibe with my impression that the former is making a huge marketing push this year and the latter almost doesn’t have to because people really like their video management software and how open it is.
Our thanks to Bill Bozeman and the entire PSA staff and membership for having us as part of this event again this year.
May 11th, 2009
Twitter, a micro-blogging service, has risen dramatically in popularity of late. It is a unique service that allows for real-time personalized updates and conversations with friends and people of like interests, and is notable for its ease-of-use by mobile devices.
We’ve been watching the use of Twitter in the physical security market for some time, and the last few months has seen a great surge of activity from vendors, resellers, the trade press, pundits and individuals in this market. We saw a large Twitter participation around the recent ISC West conference, with hundreds of tweets tagged to that show.
Some of the many Twitter accounts we follow include IPVideoMarket.info’s John Honovich, Security Systems News’ editor Sam Pfeifle, Security Director News’ editor Rhianna Daniels, and SecurityDreamer blog proprietor Steve Hunt. Most of the security trade press worldwide is now active on Twitter, as well as many of the vendors in the IP video space.
If you’re on Twitter, follow us at http://twitter.com/exacq and we’ll follow you too!
May 5th, 2009
An updated version of the exacqVision product line brochure has been published and is available for download on our website.
This latest version, dated April, 2009, covers the entire product line and includes the latest features of the exacqVision VMS software, as well as the latest models of exacqVision Hybrid and IP NVR servers, including the newly-announced exacqVision EL Embedded Linux Hybrid NVR Appliance unit.
exacqVision Brochure 4-09 (PDF 1.5MB)
May 4th, 2009
PSA Security Network is holding their annual PSA-TEC conference next week in Chicago, May 4-8, 2009. This event has evolved into one of the major security conferences in North America. Five days of educational sessions and technical training, a full day of exhibits on Wednesday, May 6, with over 100 exhibitors, plenty of networking events, and a keynote presentation by Frank Abagnale, author of Catch Me If You Can.
Exacq will be at PSA-TEC again this year, booth #500. We’ll show our full line of exacqVision VMS software and servers, including our new exacqVision EL embedded Linux hybrid NVR appliance.
On Thursday, May 7, from 1:00 – 3:00, Dan Rittman, Director of Engineering for Exacq, will conduct an educational seminar (#2025-R2h) entitled Transitioning Your Customers to IP Video Surveillance. Course description:
Transitioning a client from their existing analog camera investment to IP cameras requires solid sales and technical knowledge. Learn the basics of implementing hybrid and IP video surveillance systems. Topics covered include:
– Defining the network requirements
– Determining file sizes and storage space needed
– Setting up IP cameras and associated motion detection
– Triggers
– Compression formats
– Quality settings
No longer just a member conference, the educational sessions and exhibits at this year’s PSA-TEC are now open to all resellers and customers. Registration information is here. We’ll see you there.
May 1st, 2009