Thursday, September 17, 2009

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

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

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

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

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.