Flexible Software, Open Interfaces, and Scalable Systems
We favor open interfaces and scalability in all of our products, systems and software. We use standard communication and control protocols. We make it easy for system integrators and end-users to incorporate our products in larger systems and easy for us to link other vendors’ products with our own. We view this as essential due to the various new security products being added to legacy systems.
Our security operating systems and video network software, which
collect data from large, distributed arrays of sensors and imagers, are
extremely robust and stable – a core requirement of all
security-related software. At the same time, these are scalable,
open-architecture systems that can control and communicate with a very
broad range of security hardware, wired and wireless communications
networks and support hardware (such as slew-to-cue camera platforms,
floodlights, generators, batteries, solar panels and fuel tanks). Our
objective is to make our software the industry-standard security
operating system.
The software in our surveillance towers, for example, can monitor, control and integrate distributed arrays of cameras, sensors, high-intensity spotlights, fuel levels in power generators, battery levels, backup solar panels and communication systems. We integrate our infrared cameras with radar as well as acoustic and other sensors provided by other manufacturers. These cameras can easily link to large, integrated security systems through our Internet Protocol control and video interface. In addition, our AirSentinel product is easily connected to existing control and alarm networks in buildings. The modular architecture in AirSentinel makes it easy to network with chemical, radiological and explosives detectors supplied by ICx or other vendors.
We also embed a great deal of software directly in our products. Highly sensitive sensors and imagers require advanced algorithms and high-speed processors to separate signal from noise and to transform large streams of raw data into readily accessible information. Our infrared cameras, for example, produce a high-resolution picture from the signal generated by a focal plane array. The software that does this incorporates a deep understanding of how focal plane arrays actually operate in thermally noisy environments. Our software skills are tied to our understanding of high-tech sensing and imaging products, on the one hand, and the practical imperatives of supervision and control on the other.