DIGIOP Deploys Its ObjectVideo-enabled Counting Solution for Leading Fashion Retailer, The Limited

Indianapolis, Indiana and Reston, Virginia, USA (September 17, 2009) - DIGIOP Technologies, with technology provider ObjectVideo, has successfully completed a nationwide deployment of its video management systems for Limited Stores, LLC, (dba The Limited) an affiliate of Sun Capital and a retailer of upscale women’s apparel with 220 stores.

The project consisted of the installation of DIGIOP’s digital video recorders with intelligent analytics capabilities from ObjectVideo® and cameras in stores across the United States.

Although primarily known as a leading manufacturer of video management systems for physical security and surveillance applications, DIGIOP was approached by The Limited with a need for a more accurate customer counting option than what was then being used in stores.

DIGIOP’s digital video recorders, which include industry-leading video analytics capabilities from ObjectVideo®, enable store managers and executives of The Limited to more accurately track the number of customers who visit their stores. ObjectVideo technology delivers full functionality for the detection, classification and tracking of objects, and the outputting of relevant events for a growing number of security, safety and business intelligence applications.

Roger Coville, Chief Information Officer for The Limited said, “DIGIOP’s retail solution has provided us a reliable way to measure and monitor the traffic in our stores. We are now able to use this tool to improve our service levels to our customers, reward our associates for their store’s success, and appropriately staff to accommodate our peak shopping times. These enhancements enable The Limited to be more effective, more competitive and ultimately, more profitable.”

In the initial pilot test prior to deployment, The Limited compared the performance of thermal imaging customer counting capability with DIGIOP’s ObjectVideo-based video analytics option. DIGIOP’s solution provided substantially more accurate counts when compared to the thermal imaging counts.

This more accurate customer counting method enables decision makers at The Limited to:

• Track individual store occupancy data remotely
• Measure conversions rates to determine if store associates are effectively assisting customers
• Improve customer service by tailoring staffing levels for hours when customer traffic is greatest
• Evaluate effectiveness of advertising and marketing programs that are intended to drive traffics to stores

Because the DIGIOP digital video management systems provide both traditional surveillance features of loss prevention and physical security as well as powerful video analytics capabilities from ObjectVideo, The Limited benefits from a more cost-effective solution and a quicker return on their investment.

“With the DIGIOP solution, The Limited now has a powerful set of visual tools to enhance their ability to serve customers, refine merchandising effectiveness, and improve the security and safety of their stores,” said Rich Mellott, President of DIGIOP Technologies.

DIGIOP Retail Solutions are also able to integrate with a wide array of point of sale systems to provide video enhanced business intelligence and can generate queue management data that can alert managers when customer service parameters are exceeded.

About The Limited

The Limited is a retailer of upscale women’s apparel with 220 stores in 40 states. Its stores are located in regional shopping centers or malls in the United States. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The Limited is a former subsidiary of Limited Brands, Inc. For more details, please visit the company website at: www.thelimited.com.

About Sun Capital Partners, Inc.

Sun Capital Partners, Inc. is a leading private investment firm focused on leveraged buyouts, equity, debt, and other investments in market-leading companies that can benefit from its in-house operating professionals and experience. Sun Capital affiliates have invested in and managed 205 companies worldwide with combined sales in excess of $40.0 billion since Sun Capital's inception in 1995. Sun Capital has offices in Boca Raton, Los Angeles, and New York, as well as affiliates with offices in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Shanghai and Shenzhen. For more information, please visit: www.SunCapPart.com.

About DIGIOP Technologies

DIGIOP Technologies is an agile software company that provides intelligent visual integration to your business systems by focusing on new ways to utilize video as data. A Microsoft Certified Partner, DIGIOP is a privately held company headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.

By combining the power of video with information from back-office systems, DIGIOP extends the value of video beyond traditional surveillance benefits of loss prevention, risk management, and security. DIGIOP solutions provide real-time and recorded, video-enhanced business intelligence for operations, marketing, merchandising, and information technology groups.

With successes in the retail and financial industries, DIGIOP continues to expand its portfolio of solutions that can provide greater operational efficiencies, improved customer service, increased profitability, and quicker return on investment in other industries including healthcare, education, government, transportation, ports, commercial real estate, and gaming.

For additional information, contact: Andrew Weixler aweixler@digiop.com 317-324-8004 direct

About ObjectVideo

With more than 800,000 channels of video analytics sold worldwide, ObjectVideo® is the leading provider of intelligent video software. The company's innovative products convert video to data in real-time through the detection, classification and tracking of relevant activities. ObjectVideo intelligent analytics are available to the market through original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that embed ObjectVideo® OnBoard® processor-based technology into a wide variety of devices throughout the surveillance system. ObjectVideo's partner network includes more than 60 manufacturers and technology providers. For more information, please visit www.objectvideo.com

MATE Intelligent Video partners with Tubular Intelligent Solutions to provide video content analysis in South Africa

MATE-Intelligent Video, the technology leader in intelligent video surveillance systems and video analytics announces a new partnership with Tubular Intelligent Solutions - a major security, IT and network systems integrator in South Africa to market, sell and deploy MATE's intelligent video products for pro active video surveillance, behaviour recognition, people and vehicle counting.

"There is a real need for intelligent video technology in South Africa. We were impressed with MATE's product offerings and are confident that their solutions will help respond to the security challenges we face," says Dieter Venter, sales director at Tubular Intelligent Solutions. "Here the situation is different from the US or Israel. In South Africa, we fight crime rather than terror."

A recent study from the South African Police Service reported the country to have the sixth highest murder rate in the world. Because of increasing crimes, many middle-class South Africans have moved into gated communities abandoning the central business districts.

Security companies with armed guards are becoming very popular for businesses and many households who seek security from the private sector.

MATE's intelligent video solutions provide powerful real-time video content analysis that can detect suspicious events such as: loitering, perimeter intrusion or stolen objects. By automating video monitoring with different behavior recognition rules, MATE's solutions help prevent crime and help officials achieve faster response times in case of an incident.

"We are thrilled to partner and support a well renowned integrator and are looking into new creative ways to deploy our technology to secure cities, schools and businesses," says Aviram Segal, VP of Sales & Marketing at MATE

Video analytics technology improves efficiency and reduces response time to major events

CCTV monitoring systems are manually monitored, with typical CCTV control rooms having many screens monitored visually by a team of operators typically working around the clock.

Events can often be missed due to operator fatigue and sheer volume of visual information. BT research is studying how video analytics technology can be deployed as part of an information network to provide automated monitoring and decisions to dramatically improve the efficiency and reduce response time to major events.

A key development so far is pioneering new software that leaves the era of IP-CCTV infrastructure behind and moves towards intelligent IP-based video monitoring and surveillance. The new solution enables incident/events detection and intelligence extraction from a distributed network of cameras in real-time.

Whilst the potential applications are endless, it is particularly useful for analysing crowd movement, behaviour information and accurate counting of moving objects in mixed traffic. For example, when dealing with large crowds, the real-time analytics software can provide a continuous measurement of congestion within a defined area, such as a town centre or railway platform.

Railway platform deployment

The analytics software can be deployed on almost any camera with a view of the platform, irrespective of whether the chosen view results in occlusion between individuals. The presence of trains can be accurately detected, and the system can compensate for perspective distortions and variable lighting conditions induced by train headlights or traffic signal lights, for example. The software has been proven in a live trial in underground platforms during which it operated continuously for over 6 months.

Town centre/Open space deployment

The analytics software has an advanced counting application that can classify moving vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles and provide a real-time count of multiple flows within a pre-defined area. Several unique approaches have been perfected (such as multi-tripwire and semi-appearance modelling) to enable accurate counting from sub-optimal camera positions, as might be expected where analytics are required to use images from legacy CCTV equipment.

The particular advantages lie in the ability to deal with streams of loose pedestrian clusters and slow moving and waiting vehicle queues. The current testbed only requires a standard PC for real-time counting of three inward and three outward traffic flows with a very low error rate. It is also robust to an external environment, including changes in lighting levels, shadows, reflections and moving background objects such as trees and has been proven in a live trial at two busy industrial site entrances throughout four seasons.

ioimage Video Analytics Protects $200M South African Eco-Park Residential Estate

Herzliya, Israel December 16th, 2008 – ioimage, the pioneer of intelligent video appliances designed for simplicity, announced that its video analytics solution was successfully implemented to protect South Africa’s Xanadu Eco-Park from intruders and theft.

Located outside Pretoria at the foot of the Magaliesberg Mountains, Xanadu is a $200M Eco-Park with a perimeter of eight kilometers. Its previous security system, which included electric fencing and CCD speed dome cameras, had proven inadequate, failing to detect perimeter breaches. The estate was looking for an impenetrable and robust perimeter security system that would function equally well day and night without disturbing the estate’s ecological balance.

The security solution adopted by Xanadu was a combination of thermal imaging cameras and ioimage intelligent video devices. The system enables instant visual verification of every alarm, even in pitch darkness, and requires no floodlights, thus maintaining the estate’s eco-friendly nature.

“The ioimage solution has proven itself time and again and we’ve already seen a significant return on investment,” said Nick Grange of C3 Shared Services, who installed the system. “Now when an alarm sounds, control room operators can quickly dispatch a response team to the area where the intrusion was detected. False alarms have been drastically reduced since ioimage intelligent video filters out extraneous activity caused by small animals, swaying branches and flying debris.”

“The estate’s security has been vastly improved and we are now confident regarding the safety of our residents and their belongings,” said Thys de Wet of Clarence De Wet Incorporated, Project Manager for Xanadu. “With numerous thefts already prevented, the ioimage system has more than paid for itself. We are currently extending the solution to a second phase of perimeter protection.”

“This is a great example of how residential properties can be seamlessly retrofitted with ioimage video analytics to increase security and safety, as well as prevent theft,” said Dvir Doron, Vice President of Marketing for ioimage. “Its extreme reliability and rapid return on investment make it the solution of choice to protect estates of all sizes.”

About ioimage

ioimage, the pioneer of intelligent video appliances, provides high-performance video encoders and cameras with built-in self-sustained video analytics, designed and packaged for simplicity. ioimage offers a new approach to video security by transforming surveillance into a proactive, event-driven process. Founded in 2000, ioimage uses edge and centralized DSP-based devices for real-time detection, alert and tracking of intruders, vehicles and other threats, leading to enhanced safety and security for government, public and commercial organizations. Recognized as the world’s market leader for intelligent cameras and encoders since 2005 with over 37 percent of the market, ioimage operates in 35 countries through a network of more than 100 partners.

For further information, visit www.ioimage.com.

About C3 Shared Services (Pty) Ltd

C3 Shared Services (Pty) Ltd is the only applied business partner for ioimage in Sub Saharan Africa and specializes in the design and implementation of high-end perimeter security solutions and military grade intrusion detection systems. C3 Shared Services' directors have been involved in providing integrated electronic solutions for more than a decade; and as a result bring both a comprehensive and extensive wealth of knowledge in providing effective and working perimeter security solutions for high risk and high value areas. To date, C3 Shared Services (Pty) Ltd has had enormous success with numerous installations of ioimage’s intelligent video analytics on various sites in South Africa such as residential estates, refineries, correctional facilities and car showrooms.

For further information visit http://www.c3ss.com

City gets 'crime-detecting' CCTV

By Dan Whitworth Newsbeat technology reporter

Anti-social behaviour has become a familiar site in some towns and cities across the country.
Now there's a new weapon in the fight against it called Smart CCTV.

Portsmouth City Council is the first, and so far only, local authority in the UK to try out the new system.

It's a computer programme that has been integrated into the city's existing network of 152 cameras and has been programmed to spot unusual behaviour in places and at times when it's not expected.

For example, a speeding car being driven around an empty car park could be a joy rider or someone running through a deserted shopping precinct late at night might be a vandal.
When those and similar scenarios are 'spotted' by the software, using special parameters from programmers, an alarm is sounded which alerts CCTV operators to that particular camera.

Ray says Smart CCTV takes some of the strain off human operatorsThey then make a decision about whether or not to call the police.

Ray Stead runs the CCTV operation for Portsmouth City Council.

He said: "With the total number of CCTV cameras that we have, 152, the operators cannot see all of those cameras or monitor them live.

So this software programme will actually help the operators become more effective."

It's already been used in parts of seven cities across America, in places like New York and Washington DC, where the feedback has been positive.

Nick Hewitson helped design the version Portsmouth City Council is using.

He said: "It filters out all the rubbish video that you don't want and lets you see the stuff that you do want.

"So you're using human beings for doing what they do well, making subjective decisions on incomplete data.

"And using computers to do what they do well, process tonnes and tonnes of boring data."
But not everyone in Portsmouth is as convinced by the new system as Ray Stead and Nick Hewitson.

Similia thinks the system is too much of an invasion of privacySamilia Narcho, 19, told Newsbeat: "They are lurking a bit too much into people's business. It's a bit unfair on people who aren't doing anything wrong.

"It's a bit too much invasion of privacy. Big Brother going a bit too far."

But 18-year-old Chris isn't worried about being watched. He said: "It doesn't really bother me because I'm not doing anything wrong, so I've got nothing to worry about."

Berry, who's 24, and 21-year-old Becky Pearson have different opinions on the new CCTV system.

Berry said: "I think it's pretty good because there are a lot of idiots in Portsmouth and they need to be kept under wraps."

Becky added: "I can see why people think it's a bit too much, with people being too watched."
The Smart CCTV technology is on trial in Portsmouth but if it proves successful, other UK cities could set up similar systems.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7775000/7775188.stm

Portsmouth leads UK by installing video analytics for city centre security

A market-leading CCTV system, based on behaviour-recognition software and state-of-the-art intelligent cameras, has been installed by Portsmouth City Council, to increase the effectiveness of the camera monitoring.

Perceptrak™, supplied by Smart CCTV Ltd of Havant, has been set up to watch quiet areas such as car parks, stairwells or corridors in buildings and streets at nighttime. Perceptrak™ uses the latest software to analyse images using up to 18 pre-defined criteria such as ‘converging people’, ‘fast car’ and so on. When it sees something untoward happening, the system sends an alert to the control room. This allows the security officer to make a human decision on whether to monitor the scene and make an appropriate response. It also ensures that many more scenes are being watched than is normally possible, hence helping to make Portsmouth city a safer and more trouble-free zone.

Ray Stead, CCTV manager at Portsmouth City Council, who decided to install Perceptrak™ for the City, said: “Following a successful trial period in 2006, we decided to install the system on a more permanent basis to prove proof of concept after improvements had been made to the software and because of the quantifiable benefits to the control room outcomes.”

Nick Hewitson, managing director of Smart CCTV, added: "We believe that this is the first fully installed example of video analytics being used in a city centre control room in the UK. As a local company we are very pleased to be working with Portsmouth City by providing leading edge technology to make their CCTV control room one of the most effective in the UK."

In the area covered by the Portsmouth City Council control rooms, there are 142 cameras with live monitoring, and the CCTV operators watch over 24 monitors simultaneously. Perceptrak™ is run in the background looking at some of those cameras that are not displayed to the operators until an alarm sounds.

ioimage Video Analytics Installed to Protect the Vatican

HERZLIYA, Israel November 18th, 2008 – ioimage, the pioneer of intelligent video appliances designed for simplicity, announced today that it has been selected to protect sensitive areas of the Vatican.

ioimage intelligent video appliances, monitored by an ioiware Command Center, are being used to detect intruders along a 60-kilometer perimeter of sensitive areas, entry and exit gates and the wall surrounding the Vatican.

ioimage was selected from several other video analytics suppliers for this major contract. The first unit was installed in 2005 following a year of intensive testing which demonstrated the system’s superior ease of installation, stability and reliability. Since then, it has proven itself as an effective deterrent against intruders and has optimized the daily tasks of those responsible for surveillance.

Additional ioimage units are currently being installed. These units ─ composed of ioimage’s IP camera with built-in self-sustained video analytics, the ioicam wdc100dn and ioibox video encoders using autonomous PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) tracking ─ will be centrally monitored and managed by the “Corpo della Gendarmeria”, the Vatican’s security force from their control room.

Millions of people visit the Vatican’s public areas every year. Its library and museum collections, which belong to the extra territorial part of the Vatican state, are of the highest cultural significance, while buildings such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel house some of the world’s most famous art, including works by Bernini, Botticelli, Michelangelo and Raphael.

“As one of the world’s most important sites, the Vatican presented unique challenges,” said Boaz Harpaz, CEO of Picksec International Group, the system integrator. “The security system had to be extremely reliable 24/7 in very crowded, surroundings and under varying weather conditions. It also had to be capable of automatically adjusting to frequent changes in public access schedules while ensuring a low incidence of false alarms. Last but not least, it needed to be easy to install and maintain. After extensive testing of a number of different video analytics products, we found that ioimage offered the optimal solution for this critical site.”

“This project represents a milestone for ioimage and underscores our position as the pioneer and leader in the field of intelligent video,” said Zeev Farkash, VP Sales and Customer Support. “Our solution was rigorously tested by the Corpo della Gendarmeria’s technical personnel before being selected over those of several competitors to monitor this world-famous site.”

About ioimage
ioimage, the pioneer of intelligent video appliances, provides high-performance video encoders and cameras with built-in self sustained video analytics, designed and packaged for simplicity. ioimage offers a new approach to video security by transforming surveillance into a proactive, event-driven process. Founded in 2000, ioimage uses edge and centralized DSP-based devices for real-time detection, alert and tracking of intruders, vehicles and other threats, leading to enhanced safety and security for government, public and commercial organizations. Recognized as the world’s market leader for intelligent cameras and encoders since 2005 with over 37 percent of the market, ioimage operates in 35 countries through a network of more than 100 partners. For further information, visit www.ioimage.com.

To receive regular updates on ioimage, sign up for the ioimage newsletter at http://www.ioimage.com/newsletter.html

For international media inquiries:
Fiona Ungar
Marketing Communications Manager
Tel: +972-9-954-6003
fiona@ioimage.com

For US media inquiries:
Chelsie Woodsioimage
Public Relations
Tel: +1-207-510-0029
cwoods@eclipsemediagroup.net

Next Generation CCTV: Video analytics

By Anthony Hildebrand
http://www.info4security.com/story.asp?sectioncode=9&storycode=4120956&c=1

Video analytics is the most important breakthrough in the application of CCTV. This was the message from Patrick Meaney at last week’s Next Generation CCTV conference.

Meaney, founder of website www.videoanalytics.info, gave his presentation at the event in London, and said that CCTV had been initially installed as a crime prevention measure, but hadn’t delivered the goods in this respect – which is where video analytics comes in.

He said video analytics had the potential to become “the third forensic science, in addition to fingerprinting and DNA”.

Operator assistance
He quoted figures on control room operator fatigue and concentration loss, and said the review of recorded video could be equally as impaired.

Meaney said the advantage of video analytics for monitoring live video is in being able to automatically draw the operator’s attention to relevant events, while for recorded video it can automate the analysis of the footage, extracting only events or incidents of interest.

But, he said, the analytics industry had been damaged by the performance of the earliest systems to hit the market. These were oversold, and failed to deliver on exaggerated claims, Meaney said. He said he had seen one major control room where staff routinely switched off the analytics system due to the constant alarms it triggered.

“The technology is still being oversold,” Meaney said. “The customer has got to be absolutely clear about what they want, and not take things at face value.” He said the technology is till being oversold, and that customers need to be educated about “the art of the possible”.

For instance, he said: “To make it work to its ideal level you do really need real-time video.” He said that for the first time, “scene depth” can be considered when using real-time, high definition video.

Changing conditions
Meaney went into the differences between simple motion detection – which is still sometimes described as ‘analytics’ or ‘intelligent video’ – and the more discriminatory video analytics.

To cope with changing environmental conditions, he said you need a video analytics system with adaptive algorithms specifically designed to take these factors into account.

He said there were a number of factors to be considered when implementing a system: Does it do what you need it do? Is it configured for the application and environment?

Training criticism
He also had some criticism for the levels of education and training being provided to operators, both from suppliers and the end-user management.

“It staggers me,” he said. “Usually the operator training is pretty lamentable in terms of operators understanding and knowing what they’re working with.”

Meaney also stressed the cost benefits of using video analytics systems.

“In the current economic environment, technology is perceived to be adding real value into the mix,” he said. “For the first time we can talk about security in terms of a return on investment, and not a grudge purchase.”

This was able to be demonstrated through time savings in reviewing footage and in following up incidents.