The Exacq headquarters is located in Indianapolis. This morning, at 5:37 am EDT, we were awoken by an earthquake whose epicenter was southwest of us, near the town of West Salem, IL. The US Geological Survey reports it as having been a magnitude 5.2 quake. Local news coverage of the earthquake is here and here and here.
We reviewed the surveillance footage from our exacqVision surveillance systems at our office for the time of the quake, and saw quite a bit of shaking. Below are two brief video clips taken from the systems.
The top clip, from one of our lobbies, is from an Axis 233D network dome IP camera that is mounted on its side. The bottom clip, from a back storage room, is from a JVC analog camera connected to the exacqVision Hybrid unit.
And as we were writing this post, an aftershock hit, at 11:15 am EDT.
Today’s Indianapolis Star newspaper has a feature story on Exacq Technologies in the business section. The reporter, James Harper, did a good job in tying together the growth of the video surveillance industry with the shift to IP cameras. A special thanks to Skip Sampson of Koorsen and Rich Best of Vigilcorp for their nice comments about us.
Not much escapes its digital eye Exacq Technologies’ adaptable software advances surveillance By James Harper, Star correspondent
Video surveillance is adapting to the needs and demands of an increasingly sophisticated clientele.
A company on Indianapolis’ Northeastside, led by a handful of forward-thinking colleagues, is at the forefront of the industry’s transition into the digital age.
Exacq Technologies, founded in 2002 by co-workers from another local surveillance company, offers cutting-edge software to run Internet Protocol, also called network cameras, in demand for their sharper images, broader range of capabilities and cost-effectiveness.
"Exacq is a real gem among industry software developers," said Skip Sampson, vice president and head of the security division at Indianapolis-based Koorsen Industries. "Their (exacqVision) technology is first-class, making it easier to collect, store and review video content or track it live."-
The exacqVision software, created in 2006, has spurred soaring sales for Exacq Technologies, which have risen 262 percent over the past two years. It’s also a key reason Exacq plans to increase staffing from 16 full-time workers to at least 26 by the end of this year, said Roger Shuman, the company’s marketing manager.
Exacq’s products are in demand at vulnerable high-traffic locations. Clients range from Plainfield’s aquatics center to customers such as the State Bank of Texas, Diamond Pet Centers of Missouri and Canberra International Airport in Australia.
As the security industry changes over from older analog cameras to newer digitally based network cameras, Exacq is poised to profit, since its software can work with multiple hardware platforms, said Dave Underwood, company president.
"There are probably millions of analog security cameras currently installed, but the industry is now moving toward IP systems," Underwood said. "We offer software that allows users to upgrade systematically, transitioning toward the newer technologies at their own pace, thus enabling them to better control cost."
A recent analysis by San Antonio, Texas-based Frost & Sullivan of the video surveillance software market found that higher demand for security spurred $139.8 million in sales in 2006. Frost & Sullivan estimated those revenues will increase nearly sixfold to $826 million by 2013.
IP cameras basically are miniature computers with lenses. They provide incredible detail along with pan, tilt and zoom capability. Their small size also enables easy installation even when space is limited.
Executives from locally based Koorsen and VigilCorp can attest to the remarkable growth from the move to IP networks. As two of Exacq’s largest customers, they are among its stronger supporters.
Koorsen is a family-owned business established here in 1946. According to Sampson, fire protection and security services are the fastest-growing segments of a company that employs more than 600 people in Indiana and parts of the Southeast.
Richard Best, owner of VigilCorp, which installs access-control and video-surveillance systems statewide, is optimistic about the future growth of his company, too.
"We are positioning ourselves to go national as the demand for security services expands," said Best, grandson of the founder of Best Lock Co. "Exacq offers a great product, and we use it for customers who require a cutting-edge installation."
As to Exacq’s future, Underwood is optimistic the company will double its sales over each of the next five years. He projects an annual revenue base "somewhere north of $30 million annually" by 2013.
Exacq Techologies’ genesis dates to AT&T’s Bell Labs in the mid-1980s. A few co-workers, led by Jeff Walters, formed a division within the company called the EPICenter, to focus on video-graphics hardware. In 1988 it became a separate company called Truevision, where Walters was joined by Underwood, Tom Buckley, Jim McMillion and others.
In 1994, Walters, Underwood and Buckley formed Integral Technologies, based in Indianapolis, which created the Xpress image capture boards that helped launch the digital video surveillance industry. Integral since has been sold several times.
And in 2002, Dan Rittman joined Walters, Underwood, McMillion and Buckley to form Exacq Technologies.
One reason for Exacq’s success, said Rittman, now the company’s director of engineering and chief designer of the exacqVision software, "is that we had the opportunity to make all our first-time mistakes with predecessor companies."
Underwood echoes Rittman’s comments, adding that "most of us here have gone through the exercise of founding and nurturing an entrepreneurial startup, so there are few challenges that we can’t anticipate."
We are pleased to announce that Stephen Self has joined Exacq Technologies in the role of Technical Support Specialist.
Stephen is no stranger to us. We had the privilege of working with him back when we owned Integral Technologies, where he played vital roles as a Senior Support Engineer and a Software QA Engineer. About three years ago he left Integral to take a position with Dell, where he was, among other things, the support manager in charge of a 3000-seat Dell installation within Citibank in Florida.
Stephen’s experience in managing support services at companies both big and small will certainly be welcome here at Exacq. We’re experiencing rapid growth, and Stephen will be instrumental in ensuring that we maintain support practices and procedures sufficient to support our channel.
Stephen can be reached at sself@exacq.com or by phone at +1-317-845-5710.
We were once again at the big ISC West tradeshow last week. Our booth was absolutely packed with people all three days. We were showing the new features of the upcoming Version 3.0 of exacqVision software, which include:
Mac Client - Continuing our open platform, open operating system quest, we introduced our exacqVision Mac client, a native application to the Apple Macintosh which looks and functions exactly like the Windows and Linux counterparts. All exacqVision platforms are completely interoperable with one another: you can have Windows and Linux servers, and connect to them all via Windows, Linux or Mac clients. Mix and match.
The education market has been the primary push behind us developing the Mac client. The school IT departments may be running the exacqVision servers under Windows or Linux or in virtual environments, but the school resource officers, security directors, principals, and others who need to view the video all have Macs on their desks. Now they can fully use the surveillance system without the need for special computers.
Browser and Mobile Viewers - We also introduced our new exacqVision browser capability, which allows for viewing the surveillance video within any browser, whether it be IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, or any mobile browser. Now video can be viewed anywhere. The iPhone capability attracted the most interest, showing live multi-camera views in the iPhone Safari browser. With this capability, an alarm in the system can send a text message with a link to a mobile device. The user clicks on that link and watches live video to assess the situation.
H.264 Support - We had one of the new Arecont Vision H.264 megapixel IP cameras in the booth. Other vendors showed or announced H.264 versions of their IP cameras, including Axis, ACTi, Sony, and others. exacqVision is compression-independent, and supports any standards-based compression, and when these new cameras start shipping, we will have support for them.
exacqVision API - The Version 3.0 release will also see the release of the exacqVision API, a full interface software developer kit that allows us, or others, to fully integrate the exacqVision VMS systems into third-party access control systems, retail tracking systems, or other products. We were showing the interface we wrote for the Lenel access control system.
Version 3.0 will be released by the end of April.
In addition to all of the new announcements, we once again hosted our Manufacturer Reps and International Distributors at the Gordon Biersch Brewery in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, where we discussed our sales and product plans for the next few months. Good meeting, good food, good beer, good turnout. A special thanks to all of you who attended.
We also had a great deal of press interest at this show. SecurityDreamer blog highlighted us in their best-of-show seminar, Security Systems News did a blog post about us, and we met with almost every publication at the show.
Below are some pictures from the show. Click on any picture for a larger view, or click here for more pictures.
Sam Pfeifle, editor of Security Systems News, has been blogging the ISC West show. He visited our booth yesterday, and we noticed that he was getting quite excited over our new exacqVision Mac client, which we were showing for the first time. In his blog post today entitled Security on a Mac!, Sam talks about our new Mac support:
Well, per usual, I don’t have much time to post, as ISC is kind of kicking me in the head (I suppose it wasn’t totally necessary that I be out till 2 a.m. gambling last night…), but there is at least one bit of exciting news:
You can finally get a video management system that works on a Mac!
This has been a complaint of mine ever since I’ve entered the industry - nothing works on a Mac. Considering that significant portions of certain industries - graphic design, education - use Macs almost exclusively, this seemed to me like a bit of an oversight. Well, Exacq has finally done it. They’ve got a great interface and a really powerful video management engine, and here at the show they’re actually showing it running on a Mac. I’ve never seen it before.
I talked to Roger Shuman at their booth and he says it was a response to integrators saying they wanted the capability for the educational vertical. Imagine that.
Thank you, Sam! We’re very pleased that you liked it.
While we’ve been busy in Las Vegas at ISC, our Swedish partner, Gate Security, has been hard at work showing the exacqVision video surveillance solution to the retail loss prevention market at the Butiksleverantör 2008 show, held this week at the Sollentuna Expo Center in Stockholm.
Butiksleverantör is the major trade fair in Sweden targeting buyers and specifiers from both national and independent retailers throughout Sweden, including security directors and loss prevention managers. The show focuses on the latest technologies for retail operations.
Gate Security was showing their new NEXUS line of loss prevention security gates, as well as the exacqVision IP video surveillance systems. Their demo setup included an exacqVision server connected to multiple cameras, two client stations with a number of monitors connected, and a large spot monitor. Thomas Rasi, Marketing Manager for Gate, was very pleased at the level of interest in exacqVision from loss prevention and security managers at the show.
Congratulations to the whole crew at Gate Security for another successful trade show. Gate Security can be reached as follows:
The SecurityDreamer blog hosted a by-invitation-only seminar yesterday at ISC West entitled The Future of Video Surveillance. Steve Hunt, of Hunt Business Intelligence, and proprietor of the SecurityDreamer blog, chose 32 vendors exhibiting at ISC to highlight as having unique technology, products and market approach. Steve talks about the seminar here and here.
Exacq Technologies was one of the 32 companies highlighted yesterday. An annotated walking tour show floor map was given to the 60 attendees with questions to ask or products to view at each of the featured companies. From the intro on the handout:
SecurityDreamer appreciates those who make waves in the industry. We recognize companies that are constantly challenging themselves and creating a competitive landscape. This year we thought we’d put our opinions to good use. Among the vendors in the video surveillance arena, we’ve chosen some that deserve extra attention.
What were our criteria? First of all, no money changed hands. We selected companies we’ve heard of and in most cases have first-hand experience with. In some cases we know the customers. In others we’ve spent time with the executive team. The products we chose all use computers, software and networking in creative and forward-thinking ways. Every company has a product or customer success story that stands out. Above all every company has a product or a service that the Hunt BI team feels creates a better future for the surveillance industry.
We are flattered and certainly appreciative that Exacq was chosen as one of the highlighted companies in this seminar. We were in great company; other vendors chosen included IQinVision, ioimage, Axis, Cisco, Intransa, among others. We enjoyed meeting many of the seminar attendees who made their way to our booth yesterday, and we look forward to meeting even more today.
Our sincere thanks to Steve Hunt and the SecurityDreamer blog team for this recognition.
We are pleased to announce that Jeff Meeks has joined Exacq Technologies in the role of Production Manager.
Jeff is no stranger to us. We began working with him back when we were all with Truevision,where he was working in operations. When we sold Truevision and started Integral Technologies, Jeff soon came over and joined us. At Integral he held a variety of positions in the operations department, and most recently was the Operations Manager for the entire company.
The timing of Jeff joining us now at Exacq couldn’t be better. We’re experiencing rapid growth, and the demand for production has increased dramatically in the last few months. Jeff will be managing the production of our line of exacqVision Hybrid and IP video surveillance servers, as well as planning the production for some new products coming down the road.
Jeff can be reached at jmeeks@exacq.com or by phone at +1-317-845-5710.
Our friends at Earth Security Electronics, an exacqVision integrator in Glen Burnie, MD, sent along some impressive images of license plate captures from an exacqVision video surveillance system they recently installed. Among other things, the customer wanted clear shots of the license plates of all cars leaving his business, which was open 24 hours. The challenge was getting a clear shot of the plates under both day and night conditions. Compounding that, the cars are moving as the images are taken.
For each of the entrances, Earth Security used two IQeye 755 5-Megapixel IP cameras from IQinvision, each pointing at the same location. They attached high-quality Fujinon lenses to the cameras, and tuned one camera for optimized daytime capture, and tuned the other camera for optimized nighttime capture. The results are spectacular. These cameras were part of a larger network of surveillance cameras connected to exacqVision VMS Hybrid servers. The images below were exported from the exacqVision system.
Earth Security can be reached via the web here, or by phone at 1-410-766-1993. IQinvision can be reached via the web here.
Click on each of the images below for the full 2560×1920 resolution image.
At ISC West next week we will see some new IP camera models that will use the H.264 compression standard. Arecont Vision announced their new H.264 megapixel camera lineup earlier this year at the Intersec show in Dubai, and will be showing them at ISC. ACTi will again be showing pre-release versions of their H.264 megapixel cameras. We may see some other new H.264 IP camera announcements as well.
H.264, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, offers advantages for digital video surveillance applications. It generally produces smaller file sizes with video quality that is as good or better than video compressed using other methods.
The exacqVision VMS software was built to be compression-independent, supporting standards-based video compression formats. exacqVision makes extensive use of the Intel Integrated Performace Primitives for optimized video decompression on the latest processors. As such, exacqVision is fully H.264 capable and it is ready for the upcoming H.264 IP cameras. And all supported IP cameras can coexist together in an exacqVision system, even if they are different in compression formats and resolution.
When these new H.264-based IP cameras start shipping from the various vendors, we will have support for them. We’ll see you at ISC West.
The Exacq headquarters is located in Indianapolis. This morning, at 5:37 am EDT, we were awoken by an earthquake whose epicenter was southwest of us, near the town of West Salem, IL. The US Geological Survey reports it as having been a magnitude 5.2 quake. Local news coverage of the earthquake is here and here and here.
Today’s 
We are pleased to announce that Stephen Self has joined Exacq Technologies in the role of Technical Support Specialist.
Sam Pfeifle, editor of 
While we’ve been busy in Las Vegas at ISC, our Swedish partner, 
The 
We are pleased to announce that Jeff Meeks has joined Exacq Technologies in the role of Production Manager.
Our friends at 
At