Era Surveillance System Selected for New Berlin Airport

FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Era a.s., a subsidiary of SRA International, Inc. (NYSE: SRX), today announced it has been selected by Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS) to deploy a multilateration and ADS-B surveillance solution at the Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport. The award announcement follows Era’s recent successful installations for DFS at Munich and Hamburg.

The Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, scheduled to open in 2012, will become the German capital’s primary commercial airport and will serve its roughly 3.4 million residents. Era’s next-generation surveillance solution will be integrated into the airport’s advanced-surface movement guidance and control system and was chosen to ensure that the surface operations run as safely and efficiently as possible.

“DFS’s selection of Era, after Era’s successful deliveries in Munich and Hamburg, reinforces its position as a leader in next generation surveillance solutions,” said Era Systems Corporation Senior Vice President Kevin Layton. “MSS by Era provides high accuracy, coverage and reliability – and does so with extremely low acquisition and maintenance costs. This makes it the ideal surveillance solution for both new and existing airports.”


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Aviosys unveils two new IP cameras

The IP Kamera 9070-CSO & 9070-CSWO (wireless 802.11N) is a HD quality outdoor IP camera that has an embedded electronic switching Infrared sensor and changeable standard CS lens.

Innovative IP technology with a built in web server, the IP Kamera 9070-CSWO and 9070-CSWO will allow you to view your IP Kamera from any remote location around the world, bringing you world class surveillance and peace of mind at the same time.

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Milwaukee Police Use New Vehicle for Surveillance

MILWAUKEE - The police department is now using a “Rhino.” The armored vehicle uses surveillance cameras to spot crime in problem areas.

It was parked last Friday in the 800 block of S. 31st Street. Colonel Ollis has lived on that block for 38 years.

“Ever since we lived here this has been a problem street,” Colonel Ollis said.

Ollis and his neighbors say the last couple of years have been especially challenging.

“We've been for a year getting broken into, they've stolen stuff out of our car, gang activity, selling drugs,” Angie Dejesus, resident, said.

That’s why MPD chose this location to park its new crime fighting tool. The truck is outfitted with 24-hour surveillance cameras and will travel to different problem spots.

”The whole purpose is to let people know they're being watched and behave themselves,” Alderman Bob Donovan, Milwaukee’s South Side, explained.

Alderman Donovan says it’s capable of being monitored at the district station also in nearby squad car in fact.

“To be honest with you, I thought it was gonna be a big joke, just another trick, but it does work and it's well worth it!” Ollis said gladly.

Ollis says this is the quietest his neighborhood has been in two years.

“It's only been here four days. You've actually seen a difference in four days?” TODAY’S TMJ4 reporter Melissa McCrady asked.

“Oh yeah, it’s a difference of night and day,” Ollis replied.

Angie Dejesus complains though, that the Rhino hasn’t stopped drivers from speeding up and down her street and that it’s too late.

“Now it's getting cold. Of course it's going to be quiet. Nobody’s gonna be outside in the cold,” Dejesus explained.

The Rhino is parked on a temporary basis, but Ollis is hoping it’ll stay for good.

“I know it can't stay here forever but I wish it could stay here forever,” Ollis admitted.

A private company donated the Rhino. It does not cost taxpayers any money.

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Rimage Wins $2.8M in Orders from U.S. Federal Agencies for Video Surveillance Solution

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug 31, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Rimage Corporation /quotes/comstock/15*!rimg/quotes/nls/rimg (RIMG 15.60, +0.30, +1.96%) today announced that two federal law enforcement agencies have placed orders worth $2.8 million for Rimage's new video surveillance solutions and associated services. The equipment will be shipped in the third quarter and installed in various field locations soon after that.

The solutions will be used by these agencies to export, distribute and archive video surveillance content and other forms of digital evidence.

Sherman L. Black, president and chief executive officer, commented: "We previously reported that our pipeline of potential video surveillance business was robust, and this order confirms the outlook for our solutions based-revenues. This win is further proof that our shift from hardware to solutions is gaining traction and that our customers value a more complete response to their challenges in storing and distributing critical data."

"Managing surveillance video content is an ongoing challenge for many of our customers," said Christopher Wells, Rimage vice president of marketing and strategy. "The Rimage Surveillance Solution simplifies the day-to-day maintenance of surveillance video, while at the same time enabling a sustainable long-term archive strategy."

The federal agencies are purchasing these systems to streamline workflows for exporting and distributing specific surveillance data, and to create a stable, flexible and sustainable archiving plan. The Rimage Surveillance Solution is being used with Blu-ray Discs(TM) for long-term archiving and portability needs. This is the only media capable of supporting these agencies' advanced retention needs.

The Rimage Surveillance Solution solves critical content distribution and archiving issues in the surveillance industry. Rimage Surveillance Publisher completely automates the process of exporting and publishing surveillance content while preserving evidence chain of custody; Rimage Surveillance Archiver automates and manages long-term archiving to DVD and/or Blu-ray Disc media.


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China Bolstering Worldwide Growth in Video Surveillance

The People's Republic of China, home to one-sixth of the planet's humans, is going gangbusters on video surveillance technology--so much so that it's expected to be "the solid core of the recovering global video surveillance market" in 2010, according to a new report from England-based IMS Research,

According to its newly published report “The China market for CCTV and Video Surveillance Equipment – 2010 edition,” video surveillance revenue in 2010 is expected to top "disappointing" 2009 revenue by more than 20 percent.

The China CCTV and video surveillance market was estimated to be worth just over $1.4 billion in 2009, IMS said. The market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20.2 percent between 2010 and 2014 and be worth an estimated $3.5 billion in 2014--a substantial portion of the global market.

IMS says the major drivers for market growth are increasing investment from the government in infrastructure and public security projects, as well as construction of "Safe City" projects. Airport, port and railway and education sectors are forecast to be the fastest growing sectors over the next five years.

One example: A massive deployment of video surveillance gear in the Muslim-majority Uighur region in the western reaches of the nation, ahead of the first anniversary of an uprising that result in hundreds of deaths.

“Network video surveillance products are growing more quickly than analog video surveillance products, but confronting more barriers to adoption in China than in overseas markets,” said IMS market analyst Bo Zhang. “One of the major reasons is that there is not an official ‘Test and Approval’ scheme for network video surveillance systems. This makes decision makers cautious when choosing this type of security system for important applications. That said, there is a clear demand for network video surveillance equipment in China and adoption of it as a solution will increase.”


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Bags over Birmingham surveillance cameras 'farcical'

Putting bags over cameras linked to counter terrorism in parts of Birmingham has been described as "farcical" by a privacy campaign group.

Big Brother Watch described the 218 cameras, put up in predominantly Muslim areas, as "excessive surveillance".

The Safer Birmingham Partnership (SBP) said it would not switch the cameras on until after a public consultation.

Plastic bags are being put over some of the overt cameras to reassure the public.

A number of the cameras installed are hidden.

The SBP said bags would not be placed over these because it did not want their locations revealed.

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, a group set up by the founders of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Without a doubt I think some of these (cameras) should be removed.

"It is a farcical situation sticking plastic bags over them."

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NYC’s Terror-Spotting Spycams Stuck in Traffic

The New York Police Department thinks it may have caught the wannabe Times Square car bomber on tape — and is hoping to use a $24 million phalanx of surveillance cameras to stop future attacks in midtown Manhattan. It’s a goal that’s unlikely to be reached anytime soon. New York’s original spycam array is running behind schedule. And the track record of large, metropolitan surveillance networks pre-empting terrorists is weak, at best.

“NYC is a high risk area,” New York officials note in a homeland security grant request, obtained by City Limits magazine. “One threat in particular involves a vehicle-borne improvised explosive” — a car bomb.

In 2006, the New York Police Department announced a three-year, $106 million plan that promised to prevent attacks on New York’s financial district with a web of license-plate readers, chemical sniffers, radiation detectors and 3,000 publicly and corporately owned cameras. All the information would then be channeled into a single coordination center. Specialized video intelligence algorithms would be used to spot would-be attackers as they case their targets. “This is aboutidentifying and eliminating a threat, rather than dealing with the consequences,” NYPD assistant chief John Colgan told me as planning for this Lower Manhattan Security Initiative got underway. “I’m not in the consequence-management business.”

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Senate Subcommittee Considers Update to Wiretap Laws

A Senate subcommittee is looking at whether wiretap laws need to be updated to include secret video surveillance.

The field hearing in Philadelphia, which is being led by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., comes amid a lawsuit accusing a Pennsylvania school district of spying on students through webcams installed on school-issued laptops.

An electronic privacy expert scheduled to testify, Kevin Bankston, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, is urging Congress to include videotaped surveillance under federal wiretap laws, giving the same protections that are given to secret audio recording.

The Pennsylvania lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in February, involves the Lower Merion school district, which is accused to activating built-in webcams to spy on students. The district claims that the feature in question can snap a picture of the operator and the screen if the computer is reported lost or stolen.

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‘Covert’ Surveillance Cameras Coming To Chicago

Blue-light surveillance cameras in Chicago's high-crime neighborhoods will someday be augmented by "covert" cameras that "fit inside of a match box" and keep the bad guys guessing, Police Supt. Jody Weis said.

Now that crime-ravaged communities have been saturated with hundreds of blue-light cameras, Weis says it's time to take Big Brother technology to "the next level."

That means surveillance cameras similar to the hidden cameras used to snare corrupt politicians.

"They are incredibly small. I've seen some that would fit inside of a match box. . . . These can be secreted in locations that nobody would ever detect. It's amazing where we're going with technology," Weis said during a taping of the WLS-AM Radio Program, "Connected to Chicago."

Blue-light cameras virtually announce their presence, giving drug dealers and gang-bangers a heads-up to move out of range. Covert cameras keep them guessing, the superintendent said.

"You use the covert [cameras] to perhaps push them into an area where you have coverage. If we can interrupt their intelligence cycle, we will have the upper hand," he said.

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Police, Hopkins to Share Surveillance Video

Baltimore police are teaming up with the Johns Hopkins Hospital to share data from security cameras, marking the first time the city has partnered with a private agency to share surveillance footage.

Video from 136 cameras around the perimeter of the hospital's East Baltimore campus will stream into the city's surveillance office under a deal approved by the city's spending board last week. In exchange, Hopkins security staff will be able to access video from six city-operated cameras in the area.

"If an incident happens, the police will be able to pull it up in real time and view it," said Sheryl Goldstein, director of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice. The office seeks creative ways to work with public and private organizations to enhance safety, she said.

Although the hospital campus is patrolled by more than 100 security officers, violent crime from surrounding neighborhoods occasionally spills onto the campus. In September, two employees leaving the Kennedy Krieger Institute narrowly missed being struck by a stray bullet that lodged in the purse of one of the women.

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Surveillance Catches Woman and Two Children Stealing From Store on Christmas Day

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Clark has spent years reviewing videos of store crimes. But nothing prepared him for the video shot on Christmas Day at a Paramount clothing shop.

The surveillance tape shows a woman and two small boys walking into the store. As the woman distracts the clerk, the children grab money out of an unlocked cashier's drawer. The boys are also seen testing the store's antitheft alarm.

"This is the first for me," Clark said. "I've heard of it, but I've never seen it captured on video and with the children this young.

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71-year old women caught on camera stealing out of Church Collection Plate

A 71-year-old church volunteer was caught on surveillance camera stealing thousands of dollars from St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Pontiac Michigan was charged Monday in the crime.

71 year old Salley Crake entered not guilty pleas in a Pontiac courtroom Tuesday to felony charges of embezzlement and larceny. The 71 year old women was caught on camera stuffing money down her pants. When she was arrested Monday she had $800 on her.

Police said the women had been stealing hundreds of dollars once a week from the church .They don't know how long she has been stealing money from the church but suspects it was long before she was caught.

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Internet sales of hidden 'nanny' cameras booming

There’s nothing like a stout mix of fear and falling technology prices to whip up sales of hidden cameras.

Surveillance experts say sales of “nanny cams” are exploding, fueled by distrust and easy access to inexpensive, quality equipment from Web sites around the world.

Businesses are buying the tiny cameras to catch malfeasant employees or spy on competitors. Individuals are snapping them up to watch homes, children or suspected wayward spouses.

“People do not trust people anymore,” said Helen Bowser, who, with her husband, Chris Bowser, owns The Protection Pros, an online retailer of surveillance equipment based in Morristown, east of Indianapolis.

Tim Wilcox, who owns International Investigators Inc., a private investigation firm in Indianapolis, said easy availability is merging with fears as old as humanity itself.

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Hotel staff take action during stabbing attack

The Prince George Hotel's staff and management are being praised by the RCMP for aiding in a weekend stabbing.

The victim, a 43-year-old man, and the assailant, a 46-year-old female, happened to get into an altercation on George Street in front of the hotel. Owner Ted Coole stressed that the two were not on the hotel's premises that day, and in fact they had both been ejected and barred from their property for past behaviour.

It was the hotel staff's quick action and the use of their surveillance video that halted the nasty situation and brought the help everyone respectively needed, said Coole.

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Where will Google send its new Street View tricycles?

They might almost be men selling ice cream.

They ride around on tricycles, a big fridge-like box perched on the rear wheels, a brightly colored logo on its side.

And yet that 10-foot-tall mast between the rider and the box tells you that this isn't pistachio peddling. No, this is surveillance, Google-style.

Those nice people at Google Street View became frustrated that their cars couldn't access every single corner of the world. Indeed, earlier this year the company removed footage of one of its cars after it transgressed traffic regulations. Then there are those pesky pedestrian areas and fine places of historical interest that don't allow cars within their boundaries.

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Surveillance Cameras Simply Relocate Crime

As with so much encouraging news these days, the success of the surveillance cameras at Pioneer Park comes with a caveat of concern.

To begin with, the cameras have done exactly what they were supposed to do. They have reduced crime. Calls to police about drug-related problems have been cut almost in half. And because the cameras at the corners of the park are so visible, only two dealers have braved them. Both were arrested.

All that is a plus.

The concern comes later — when dealers begin to disperse and do their business in surrounding neighborhoods instead of congregating at the park.

In short, criminals don't go away. They just go elsewhere.

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Visual Management System Unveils Cost Effective, Portable, Wireless, Digital Surveillance System

FlexTH is the first of its kind to deliver an affordable monitoring solution that just about anyone can install and requires no wiring. FlexTH can be used to remotely monitor just about any location including, but not limited to, homes, small businesses, vehicles and mobile services such as police and emergency responders.

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CA Supreme Court Allows Employee Surveillance

The California Supreme Court has ruled in an invasion of privacy suit that a company isn’t liable for installing secret video equipment in an employee’s office for legitimate business reasons.

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Home Surveillance Cameras Catch Robbers in Act

Two men kicked in the back door of a man's house and robbed the house...and much of it was caught on the homeowner's surveillance cameras.

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Bush's Surveillance Plan Under Scrutiny

Not enough relevant officials were aware of the size and depth of an unprecedented surveillance program started under President George W. Bush, let alone signed off on it, a team of federal inspectors general found.

The Bush White House pulled in a great quantity of information far beyond the warrantless wiretapping previously acknowledged, the IGs reported. They questioned the legal basis for the effort but shielded almost all details on grounds they're still too secret to reveal.

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