Master the Situation

May 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Tony Lapolito

Rapid adoption of technology results in unique — and often disparate - security systems. As a result, users are challenged with integrating all of their new and existing security and surveillance solutions in order to efficiently monitor all of the applications. Ultimately, organizations need to be able to leverage their technology investments in real-time in order to address events as they occur. This can be accomplished with the help of collaborative situational awareness.

Collaborative, real-time situational awareness across an organization is a technology that integrates various security and surveillance applications to allow for seamless migration among systems. It allows users to manage their entire security and surveillance network from a single management console.

When considering the various platform solutions available in the marketplace today, users should look for one with the following qualities:

• A hybrid analog and digital solution to protect previous technology investments and benefit from seamless operation and migration.

• Integration with legacy infrastructure including VCRs, joysticks and surveillance keyboards, thus reducing the need to re-train personnel.

• Integration with other security products to offer real-time situational awareness and allow personnel to more easily and rapidly detect abnormal behavior.

• Provide an intuitive visualization layer to graphically represent data from various data feeds on a large video wall to give security personnel a global view of assets, personnel and information. This two-dimensional view of all of the data simultaneously enables personnel to see events and react to them in real-time.

In order to successfully implement a hybrid management platform with those characteristics, organizations should look for a systems integrator that is flexible and innovative and can adapt to each unique security system. Be sure to identify a systems integrator that has a shared vision and can accommodate long-term goals. They should also be able to provide a seamless migration moving forward.

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Tony Lapolito is vice president of marketing at VidSys, Marlborough, Mass., and Vienna, Va., which develops operations center software for security, safety, military and transportation organizations. He can be reached at lapolitot@vidsys.com.

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