On Thursday, the contract for the SBInet, the data and sensor network that's part of the Secure Borders Initiative, landed on the desk of The Boeing Corporation. The contract, which reports have put at a value of anywhere between $67 million and $2 billion, promises that Boeing and its team of contractors (companies like L-3 and Unisys) will build what may be the biggest security system yet.
The SBInet is designed to pull data from field sensors, border operations, cameras and more ... and feed it all to central command centers. Ambitious? Yes. While the project might be well over-the-heads of most security pros, the challenges that the Boeing team will be working on are ones that promise to help solve problems you face daily. Like how to enable remote sensor and surveillance monitoring. And how to manage bandwidth. And how to develop a super-sophisticated merged perimeter security, monitoring and access control system (because that's what SBInet is at its core).
Integration Firm Siemens Grabs Video Analytics
Company plans to acquire security intelligence company VistaScape
While the execs at Boeing were giving each other high-fives, executives from Siemens Building Technologies were getting down to brass tacks. Siemens Building Technologies announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire VistaScape, an Atlanta-based video analytics company. VistaScape is best known for its SiteIQ platform which integrates security management needs. George West, vice president for security at Siemens Building Technologies, said the acquisition makes sense because the VistaScape product has proven to fit Siemens' needs as a top-level integration company.
News Dealers Can Use
Call for comments on supervising stations; Dallas: A mean city with verified response; Salt Lake survey
In case you didn't have enough on your plate, the NBFAA is asking its members to submit comments on a proposed standard for remote supervising stations. Comments are due by Monday, Sept. 25, 2006, so you've got your homework for the weekend.
If you're looking for a good place to sell security, you might look toward Dallas, Texas, which was named by the FBI as the most dangerous of the U.S.'s top 10 largest cities. Well, Dallas might be a good prospect for sales except for the fact that the most dangerous city went to verified response earlier this year. Does this mean that business owners not willing to pay the costs of manned security response may be likely to respond to crime alerts at their properties? You just might call it a recipe for disaster.
The Alarm Industry Research and Education Foundation (AIREF) has worked with Bisconti Research, a well-respected research firm out of Washington, D.C., to put together a look at Salt Lake City some six years after the town turned to verified response. The survey's statistics are a bit unsettling...perhaps especially so for politicians who think the citizenship is in favor of the policy.
More from the SecurityInfoWatch.com news bin:
Democrats and Republicans are working on a deal to salvage chemical plant security legislation. ... North American Video may have accomplished one of the fastest security/surveillance projects in getting the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Miss., ready to open. The casino had been destroyed in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. ... Gary Gardner, former FBI supervisory special agent and the vice president of the InfraGard chapter in Charlotte, N.C., has raced to NASCAR where he has been named the corporate security director. ... See you next week at ASIS 2006 in San Diego, Calif. SecurityInfoWatch.com, Security Dealer, Security Technology & Design, and Locksmith Ledger staff can be found at booth #1029. Please do stop by.
Finally, a look at our most read stories of the week:
- Cisco's Rick Geiger on Converging Physical and IT Security
- At Kansas Music Festival, Security Hopes for the Best
- Chemical Plant Security Legislation Moves Forward...Again
- Worst Breach of Capitol Security Since 1998
- What Security Executives Should Know About Marketing
- Catching Burglars with Remote Video at Home
