Laboratory Partners

The “Center and Laboratory for Integrated Systems Excellence” has many partners who contribute expertise and technology to the formation of this unique facility.   This page provides links to Partner pages and their WEB sites.  Below we identify their roles in the “Center and Laboratory for Integrated Systems Excellence”and the roles their products play in the Laboratory.  

Salient Systems, a core partner, provides digital video servers for the laboratory.  The digital video server plays two different roles in the laboratory depending on how the associated cameras interact with the server. 

• Video Server as an Edge Component – In this role the Salient Video Server provides an interface to analog field cameras.  These may be fixed or PTZ cameras and there are just over thirty such cameras in the lab.  Several versions of Salient Video Servers are presently installed.  Salient Video Servers support both analog cameras when equipped with interface cards and IP cameras.  In this role IP cameras may be connected to isolated subnets to protect the general network from the high volume of video data generated by cameras. 
• Video Server as Middleware – In this role the Salient Video Server acts as middleware providing storage, configuration management, and view distribution services as well as a platform for other advanced services such as video content analysis etc.  In this configuration direct access to the cameras is supported depending on the capabilities of the camera. 

Salient’s servers let us examine how to apply different kinds of video resources to the implementation of a command center from forensics to surveillance and assessment applications.  We learn how to implement the best types of user interfaces and how to extend these capabilities into other system applications. 

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Panasonic, a core partner, presently provides the laboratory several high quality cameras and other equipment in the video surveillance role.  A planned future expansion will incorporate other Panasonic product capabilities.  Two very fine cameras are the WV-NW964, anexterior PTZ camera, and the WV-NS202A, an interior POE PTZ camera. Both cameras utilize IPconnections for video and control.  Both bring advanced user control capabilities to the laboratory’s camera system allowing the study of how these expanded capabilities can extend the potential of the Laboratory’s command and control applications.  One of the included images shows the command center and another provides a view from the Laboratory’s rooftop of a distant building’s parking area.  The view below is a scene about 700 meters from the camera. 

Panasonic is a core partner because of its innovative developments both with cameras and with video switching and audio visual technologies, which are essential in development effective solutions for emergency operations centers.   ICS and Panasonic are studying different advance applications of video technology to meet special requirements for special situations.  More on this later!

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HID Global is a core partner because of its superbly positioned edge component family of products.  These are the VertX V1000 controller, the V100 reader interface, the V200 input monitor interface, and the V300 output control interface.  Additionally, The Edge, Edge Plus, and Edge 2 single reader interfaces will be a part of the access solution provided by EnterpriseSMS.  HID’s commitment to open, public interfaces and it s support for standards based solutions makes them the most correct choice for partners in the emerging market for security and access control solutions. 

ICS depends on HID’s products for its integrated access control applications.  As discussed elsewhere in this website, HID’s product is the foundation of the OSC-II (Open System Controller II) where ICS has taken direct advantage of HID’s open platform to deliver the advanced capabilities of the OSC Application Software for access control and intrusion detection solutions.  In this way the Laboratory can effectively test cases involving access control applications and intrusion detection applications along with many other enterprise system requirements.

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Vumii, a core partner, and the Vumii family of Discoverii  platforms offer the maximum in assessment capabilities, especially at night.  Large, enterprise class systems generally cover some real estate and assessment in day and night conditions is essential.  The southeast corner of the laboratory roof is the home of Johnny 5.  This Discoverii platform keeps watch over the building's surrounds, providing images from a mile or more away. 

Discoverii represents Vumii's day/night vision technology platform based on an innovative, near infra-red, continuous-wave laser illumination beam that is automatically synchronized to an integrated CCD imager and associated optics.  Discoverii produces near-optical contrast imagery, in which markings can be read and people recognized from zero light to full daylight.  Each model (1000, 2000, 3000) provides increased magnification options via continuous zoom; up to 60x optical zoom + an inline doubler.  Discoverii users have the ability to see through windows or windshields at night, to produce high quality court admissible video.   The system requires minimal training, and low maintenance/high MTBF.  For security operational uses requiring ranges from 100 meters to 3000 meters in zero light, Discoverii is the ultimate assessment and identification tool, uniquely providing far superior performance than thermal technologies at considerably less cost.. Vumii has released three Discoverii models – with performance at 1000 meter, 2000 meter, and 3000 meter nighttime human recognition. A shorter range, lower priced 700 meter and 400 meter models are under development to serve the assessment needs of commercial facility perimeters, law enforcement, and mobile vehicle/vessel assets.

When coupled with the geospatially enabled Enterprise Command Station, any system event may be assessed and managed using this powerful tool, day or night.  This capability is an important part of meeting the requirements of the use cases that define the system objectives of the Center and Laboratory for Integrated System Excellence. 

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AgentVI is a core partner that brings a much recognized capability to understand the content of video images to the Center and Laboratory for Integrated Systems Excellence.  Hundreds of cameras creating hundreds of images being analyzed by powerful rules operating on networked computers is the process of video content analysis.  What is essential is the innovation and creativity of the developers of the algorithms that are used to detect conditions and to report those conditions to the command and control function of the system so that the situation may be assessed and controlled.  AgentVI brings the very best developers and algorithms to bear on this critical problem.

The use cases studied at the Laboratory represent practical applications of video content analysis and allow the proof of concept in the integration of this important emerging technology into the Enterprise Command Station, the Command Center, and the design and development of large scale systems. 

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Technology is fine but making it all work together reliably  means making the system constructible.  Walker Engineering is a core partner that brings the practical, real world expertise of the largest specialty electrical contractor in Texas to the benefit of the Center and Laboratory for Integrated Systems Excellence.  Engineering and construction perspectives must be represented as system solutions are devised and practiced.  This is the role of Walker Engineering. 

Deploying a large system requires that the solution developers respond to the power, communications, and environmental requirements demanded by the system components.  Further, these infrastructure elements must be shared as the future has evolved far beyond the outmoded concepts of special purpose cabling, power, etc. for each system.  Just like sharing a computer among multiple applications, sharing infrastructure has huge pay-offs for system owners. 

Walker Engineering brings the specific experience, engineering expertise, and constructor practical knowledge about how to build systems to the technologists in the Laboratory, keeping them on track with their solutions designs. 

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Axis communications is a core partner that brings hugely capable cameras and encoders to the infrastructure of the Laboratory.  The Laboratory features a number of Axis POE IP cameras that are integrated with Salient’s servers and directly with ESMS.   Additionally, an Axis 233D in an external housing is also roof mounted providing a super-magnified view on the environs of the Laboratory. 

Again, the role played by these cameras is one of enabling the development of advanced user interfaces employing both camera direct and camera via video server communications. 

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