And CUI BONO from the LIES of TYRANNY?
"Surveillance gets intelligent; Security firms see growth as the downturn worsens" by Scott Kirsner | February 8, 2009
Inside a boxy industrial building in Lowell, right next to the railroad tracks, Brad Gordon is spending $1 million to build a command center that Pentagon brass would be proud of. There are two giant projection screens at the front of the room; a phalanx of workstations, each with multiple monitors; emergency generators; secure doors with card-scan access; redundant network connections; and off-site data storage.
At a time when most companies are paring budgets mercilessly, Gordon is positioning his security company, Viewpoint CRM, for growth in 2009: he expects revenues to triple, from $4 million last year, and to add about 30 employees to his staff of 63. The new command center, an upgrade of an existing facility in the same building, will spool up later this month.
Viewpoint, and a handful of other local companies, are benefiting from two dynamics that most of us regard as pretty depressing.
Well, THAT'S NICE! Thanks for helping to SPREAD the LIES and PUSH the AGENDA, Globe!
First, crime tends to increase as the economy deteriorates and unemployment climbs. Second, every business is looking to cut costs - including the costs of monitoring their facilities. Companies like Viewpoint, Marlborough-based VidSys Inc., and Bedford's VideoIQ Inc. - all of which sell products and services for "intelligent surveillance" or "remote guarding" - are reporting increasing numbers of inquiries and signed contracts.
"Not to gloat," says Gordon, "but this economy has been fantastic."
I'm gonna be sick.
*****************
The basic idea behind this new wrinkle in surveillance is that cameras bolted to walls, embedded in ceilings, and posted on light poles don't really do much. When they're monitored 24-7 by a human, that's expensive - and it's very easy for the person watching to get sensory overload and miss important events. When they're not monitored, all they're doing is recording crimes for later analysis: Let's see if we can identify who that hooded guy was who stole your car last Friday night.
But take high-resolution digital cameras, slather on some software to analyze the images they're capturing, add loudspeakers (more on that in a minute), and connect them to zippy data networks, and they can be monitored by off-site personnel, only when something unusual happens.
The $1,850 cameras made by VideoIQ, for instance, have a hard drive and solid-state flash memory built in - enough to capture several months' worth of video. Intelligence in the camera can discern the difference between a person lurking around the edges of a parking lot and a stray dog, and in seconds e-mail an alert - along with a video clip - to a site manager's PC or BlackBerry. Chief executive Scott Schnell says the cameras fail to spot shady activities less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the time. But a false positive, or a situation where the camera cries wolf, happens about once a week per camera....
Not very EFFICIENT, is it? More MONEY WASTED on FAKE THREATS!!!
Both VidSys and VideoIQ are funded by venture capitalists (VidSys has raised $13 million, VideoIQ $18 million), but Gordon started Viewpoint with money from individual investors; he estimates the company raised about $6 million in total before it hit profitability last year.
Yup, YOU CAN'T GET a LOAN or BAILOUT, but VEN-CAPS are OVERFLOWING with DOUGH!!!
Gordon, formerly an executive in the plastics and real estate businesses, observed the trend toward higher levels of security after Sept. 11, 2001.
I hate that god-damn day and it's false-flagging fraud!
Looking at existing security technology and security services companies, he had the idea to develop a system of addressable loudspeakers that would work in tandem with traditional surveillance cameras. Operators at Viewpoint's command center can look at a raucous crowd forming in a parking lot, and talk directly to the ruffians: loitering here isn't allowed, so break it up or we're calling the cops.
Britain already has them!
Surprisingly, the omniscient-voice-from-above-approach seems to work. No one wants to argue or tussle with a disembodied voice, so people tend to beat it....
What SLAVES people are!!
Now, WHERE is my ROCK!!!????
Customers, like housing complexes, car dealerships, and the city of Nashua, pay anywhere from $1,500 to $32,000 a month for Viewpoint's services. At $15 an hour, a typical pay rate for on-site live guards, a month's worth of round-the-clock work would cost about $11,000.
VideoIQ and Viewpoint were part of a new trade group, formed in 2007, called the Remote Guarding Alliance. The group estimates that companies worldwide today spend $40 billion to $50 billion on guard services every year - and asserts that at least 20 percent of that spending would be more effective if it were devoted to "analytics-enabled remote guarding."
Sounds like a rising tide. But the surveillance start-ups aren't totally immune to economic doldrums. At VideoIQ, Schnell says that he has been seeing customers' "purchase process getting longer. People are just spending money more cautiously." To reach profitability, he plans to raise a third round of venture capital at some point....
Seriously, WHERE is all this MONEY COMING FROM, and why do these firms RAELY, if ever, MAKE a PROFIT?
