Axis Communications

Five manufacturers of security technologies have teamed up to provide safety and security at the 72nd Annual Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) for the players, coaches and fans. For the first time, BriefCam and Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS Company are joining Axis Communications, Lenel and Milestone Systems to provide video surveillance systems, access control and network connectivity for the 10-day tournament.

These five technology providers have come together to develop a comprehensive security strategy for the 16 Little League Baseball teams and worldwide fans participating in the World Series from Aug. 16 to 26, 2018, held in South Williamsport, Pa.

“Each year, hundreds of thousands of people come out to Williamsport to enjoy their time at the Little League Baseball World Series,” Jim Ferguson, Little League assistant director of risk management and safety, said in a prepared statement. “Along with the safety of all of 16 participating teams, our top priority during the Little League Baseball World Series is to provide a safe and secure facility for visitors from all over the world to enjoy. Thanks to these providers, we can continue to offer all of our fans, players, and volunteers a fun and safe location to create lifelong memories and exciting experiences during their visit.”

BriefCam, one of the newest contributors, is providing the company’s latest video content analytics platform to this year’s Little League Baseball World Series security solution. BriefCam’s groundbreaking video content analytics platform detects, tracks, extracts and identifies people, objects, their attributes and behavior from raw video feeds. By presenting objects that have appeared at different times within the video simultaneously, BriefCam enables security operators to review hours of video in minutes. 

For the LLBWS, this means if children and parents are accidentally separated during the event, the security team will be well equipped to potentially locate and reunite related parties more quickly, the announcement noted. Additionally, BriefCam’s solution can be used to optimize operations such as attendee and vehicle traffic flows to ensure a safe and positive guest experience. The company’s video content analytics platform aligns with Axis IP-based digital video surveillance cameras and Milestone’s XProtect video management software for a comprehensive video surveillance, management and analytics solution.

“As this global event draws families from far and wide, it is important to further enable comprehensive safety, security and operational efficiencies,” Stephanie Weagle, CMO for BriefCam, said in a prepared statement. “Our technology will be on-hand to support the Little League in their endeavor to extract actionable intelligence from their video surveillance in the event that parents or family members need assistance in finding each other or streamlining operations to ensure that all involved have a great experience.”

Ruckus Networks, the second newest technology contributor, is providing a wireless mesh backhaul to deliver connectivity to both the scoreboards and surveillance cameras. Ruckus is deploying its T300 access points (APs), along with its SmartZone™ 100 management controller, to help ensure seamless connectivity for the outdoor environment. The T300s—the Ruckus flagship outdoor APs—allow high-definition video over Wi-Fi, enabling every video stream to be captured. For the LLBWS, this capability allows all the video cameras in the stadium to be constantly streaming, helping to ensure maximum safety and security at all times.

“In a digitally connected world, safety and security are critical elements that need to be part of every network,” Bart Giordano, vice president, worldwide business development and cloud for Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company, said in the announcement. “We are teaming with other companies to bring the most innovative security capabilities to the games so that every family can feel safer onsite. Our robust wireless technologies ensure every video stream is captured from all cameras, at all times, helping make this annual event fun and secure.”

Axis Communications has provided technology for the Little League for nine years and is providing AXIS Q6128-E PTZ Network Camera, a compact, outdoor-ready PTZ dome, offering 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, 12x optical zoom and autofocus. The 4K resolution provides four times as much detail as the standard HDTV 1080p resolution, improving the video quality significantly. Both of these cameras will be integrated into the scoreboard in Lamade Stadium.

"Each year we look forward to evolving the security system by leveraging the newest technology in the industry," Robert Muehlbauer, senior manager, business development partner ecosystem at Axis Communications, said in a prepared statement. "The total solution provides a comprehensive system to help keep players and fans safe so they can enjoy America’s favorite pastime, baseball. We are proud to collaborate with all of the companies involved and to continue our work with Little League Baseball.”

For the 20th consecutive year, Lenel, a leading provider in advanced security systems, will provide its OnGuard access control platform. Players, coaches, officials, staff and vendors are all enrolled in the system and receive a photo identification badge providing access to predetermined areas. The system is integrated with the Axis surveillance cameras so when someone presents a badge at one of the access card readers, live video and the cardholder’s photo are displayed on a nearby monitor, allowing a guard to authenticate the identification.

Milestone is providing its XProtect Corporate video management software, which is installed along with a Milestone Husky™ M500A NVR as one of the recording servers. The XProtect Smart Client interface includes advancements in system performance by leveraging the processing power of NVIDIA GPU cards for measurable hardware acceleration, enabling more concurrent High Definition or Ultra HD video streams on high-resolution monitors. The LLBWS is also using the XProtect® Smart Wall for viewing and sending pertinent video to monitors around the facilities, including a mobile command center. BriefCam is embedded in the XProtect Smart Client with a dedicated screen tab for easy access to search hours of video in just minutes.

“It’s truly inspiring to see the open platform community of partners coming together for this great international family event, ensuring safety through ongoing technology innovations,” Jeremy Scott, strategic alliances manager, Americas for Milestone Systems, said in the announcement. “Every year brings new winners — on the field, in the stands and behind the scenes.”

The Security Industry Association (SIA) has selected James Marcella, director, Technical Services, Axis Communications Inc., as 2017 SIA Committee Chair of the Year for his work with the SIA Education Committee.

With this award, SIA honors Marcella for his work in strengthening education programming for the security industry through SIA Education. SIA Chairman Denis Hébert will present the 2017 Committee Chair of the Year Award to Marcella at The Advance, SIA's annual membership meeting, scheduled to occur on Tuesday, April 10, 2018, during ISC West in Las Vegas.

“I am humbled and honored to be recognized for my work with SIA,” said Marcella. “SIA serves as a keystone for the security industry, connecting many different companies together in a common cause. It serves as a powerful platform for promulgating the latest industry education, whether to share news of regulations and best practices or to update professionals on the latest developments in state of the art technology. I look forward to continuing to guide SIA course offerings as the association’s Education Committee Chair.”

Scott Dunn, senior director, Business Development Solutions & Services, ‎Axis Communications, said, “James takes every opportunity to educate our current and new team members on the mission and values of SIA and the importance of being involved in moving our industry forward to meet the challenges we face. He is a great internal teacher as well. He instructs us on our work with SIA and how to maximize the efforts with various other committees to bring value to SIA and its members. He has made us all better in that work.”

SIA CEO Don Erickson added, “I very much appreciate the time James has put into leading the Education Committee and working with SIA. I recognize there are many different places he could spend his time with associations and the fact that he has made so many important contributions to help educate the industry in this role is greatly appreciated!”

The contributions Marcella has made as SIA Education Committee Chair include:

•    Co-creating the curriculum for the Systems Technology Associate in Applied Science Degree in Security Systems and Technologies, and serving as the main instructor
•    Leading the update of the Security Project Management Common Body of Knowledge Guidebook
•    Serving as a member of the ISC Education Conference Advisory Board
•    Assisting with the development of Securing New Ground executive conference program content
•    Championing the Certified Security Project Manager certification
•    Promoting SIA across the security industry

Hébert will present the Sandy Jones Volunteer of the Year Award and SIA Chairman's Award, at The Advance, held during ISC West in Rooms 505/506 of the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday, April 10, 10:30-11:30 a.m. The Advance is co-located with ISC West, produced by ISC Security Events. Find more info, click here.
 

The Security Industry Association (SIA) recently announced its establishment of the SIA Public Safety Working Group, which will be chaired by Steve Surfaro, industry liaison, Axis Communications.

“This working group has been in the works for quite some time,” Surfaro told Security Systems News. “SIA began working on public safety through some work with the Homeland Security Science and Technology group, and it was thought that one of the best ways to really serve the security industry and public safety industry was to come up with a very agile and focused working group.”

According to SIA CEO Don Erickson, the goal with standing up the SIA Public Safety Working Group is to develop recommendations to improve the safety, security, and sustainability of cities and communities using technology, as well as provide advocacy of public policies in support of the group’s mission.

"As new and developing technologies undergo trial and testing or enter the field in use by public safety agencies, it is critical that the security industry maintain its voice in the appropriate adoption and deployment of these technologies," Erickson said in the announcement. "SIA members are uniquely qualified to provide council alongside active practitioners in police, fire, emergency medical services and other disciplines to maintain the safety and security of our cities and communities."

Erickson is excited to have Surfaro as the inaugural chairperson for the SIA Public Safety Working Group. “His connections throughout the security industry are exemplified by his achievements, for example, as chair of the Security Applied Sciences Council for ASIS International," he said.

The working group will involve a number of different key entities within the security and public safety spaces, including practitioners, solution providers, systems integrators and specialty manufacturers.

“The most important thing to realize is the PSWG is going to have equal representation across all interested parties, by both practitioners and solution providers, especially SIA members,” said Surfaro. “The mission is to provide guidance through education and publications, including special education sessions and events at ISC West and ISC East, for example, as well as a centralized repository of subject matter experts who have already had success overcoming public safety security challenges.”

In addition to looking at emerging technologies, such as autonomous systems and unmanned vehicles, the working group is creating a Tactical Solutions Handbook, a working document that will be the working group’s “first deliverable,” said Surfaro.

“A while ago with Homeland Security Science and Technology we had some great success together with SIA in publishing a Video Quality handbook,” he explained. “But now things are not just about video—they are about access control, acoustic sensing and signal detection, thermal imaging, screening techniques, body worn cameras, license plate technology, explosives detection—to name just a few.”

He continued, “Everything that we are going to put into this handbook is going to be equally used by both public safety and corporations with high risk, which will be able to get guidance for hardening their facilities as well.”

The working group should have four- to five chapters of the handbook ready by the fall, said Surfaro. “Each chapter will have a structure where a SME leads each chapter, and then has contributors,” he explained. “And then each of the contributors for the other chapters are going to be reviewers on the chapters they did not write, which will add to the collaborative nature of the handbook.”

Surfaro said the handbook will benefit greatly from having so many different perspectives. “We need to be agile enough to be able to work with multiple practitioner groups and leverage the SIA membership, which is very far-reaching with a lot of solution providers, and they will have a tremendous opportunity to contribute to the working group and to this handbook.”

Another goal with the handbook is to provide a guide for matching the different types of emerging threats today with an appropriate tactical solution. “So it will be a nice use-case method where the security industry will learn more about what is happening in public safety and public safety will learn about how many of the solutions that they need to defend against these emerging threats already exist,” said Surfaro.

Since the announcement, SIA and Surfaro have already gotten a great response from those interested in contributing. “In the past week alone, there are many who have reached out to SIA and myself pledging interest in the working group,” said Surfaro. “And it has been a wide variety of folks—systems integrators, solution providers, as well as those who are involved in law enforcement and fire. Working within a consensus-driven environment is vitally important with a group like this.”