$7.7 million in stimulus funds for airport surveillance announced

The stimulus package committed more than $3 billion for homeland security projects through DHS and GSA; of the $1 billion allocated to TSA for aviation security projects, $700 million is dedicated to screening checked baggage and $300 million is allocated for checkpoint explosives detection technology

DHS secretary Janet Napolitano announced approximately $7.7 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, aka stimulus funds) funding for the installation of new closed circuit television systems at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, Spokane International, Gerald R. Ford International and Boise, Idaho airports. "State-of-the-art surveillance technology provides another critical layer of security at our airports," said Napolitano. "These projects will inject critical Recovery Act dollars into our local economies and create sophisticated security networks designed to detect threats and aid our emergency response efforts."

Closed circuit surveillance systems are an integral part of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and airport security operations, helping in threat detection and enhancing emergency response and risk mitigation. CCTV technology is used at hundreds of airports across the United States, and TSA has collaborated individually with sixty-two airports nationwide to expand these sophisticated and integrated security networks to increase safety for airport facilities and employees.

To date, Napolitano has announced four projects funded by ARRA for new inline baggage handling systems that will improve airport security, travel efficiency and create jobs-totaling $62 million for technology upgrades at Orlando International, Jackson Hole, Philadelphia International, and San Francisco International airports.

In awarding ARRA funds, DHS says it prioritizes shovel-ready projects that infuse resources into local economies quickly while meeting critical security needs. DHS has obligated more than 20 percent of its ARRA funds to date, and is on track to obligate more than 50 percent by the end of September 2009.

ARRA, signed into law by President Obama on 19 February, committed more than $3 billion for homeland security projects through DHS and the General Services Administration (GSA). Of the $1 billion allocated to TSA for aviation security projects, $700 million is dedicated to screening checked baggage and $300 million is allocated for checkpoint explosives detection technology.

enVigil CCTV is great for remote monitoring, for multi location businesses and for upgrade markets

Cradle Technologies enVigil provides security and great remote monitoring on regular bandwidth.
Visit www.cradle.com/downloads.html to find out how enVigil is great for multi location businesses and also for replacement and upgrade markets since you can reuse the cameras and existing wring.

Here is the live preview
http://demo.cradlewatch.com/preview.html

U.S. considers cloud security standards

U.S. considers cloud security standards

Published 23 July 2009

Cloud computing is gaining among businesses, so the U.S. government says it may step up with a set of cloud-security standards to meet government requirements for protecting sensitive data

The U.S. federal government may step up with a set of cloud-security standards to meet government requirements for protecting sensitive data.

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra says he wants to certify cloud services that pass government muster so federal agencies can buy the computing or applications services they need and turn them on quickly. This requires establishing standards that officially meet 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act requirements that federal IT infrastructure must comply with.

NetworkWorld's Tim Greene writes that the IT industry in general is grappling with how to address cloud security, with a comprehensive outline of concerns being offered up by the Cloud Security Alliance. These concerns are left to businesses to consider and address on their own as they engage cloud service providers. There is no widely accepted third-party certification that cloud providers can claim to demonstrate the security of their offerings.

Kundra proposes that the General Services Administration (GSA) designate acceptable cloud service providers that government agencies can hire quickly without each agency having to independently determine that they are secure. The goal is to cut the cost and time needed to expand computing resources of government agencies by embracing the well known economic advantages of cloud computing.

Kundra likened this cloud environment to a storefront where agencies can buy what they need immediately. The underlying services would be provided by commercial cloud providers. This storefront scenario implies a set of standards that are acceptable to the federal government and that my prove to be transferable to what businesses need. Whether commercial businesses will think such standards are sufficient is another question.

Video Surveillance for Retail

enVigil offers the best solution for multi location retail shops and franchises.

enVigil from Cradle.com is a commercial grade product and is best for upgrade and replacement market since you can reuse the cameras and wiring and just change the DVR to enVigil and make your whole system modern.

Get SMS and emails with video on your fingertips
Best remote viewing smooth video on low banquets.


This solution is best for Retail Franchisees

enVigil is great for loss prevention and also for monitoring and improving customer support.

enVigil goes beyond security and helps you monitor business processes to increase bottomline.

Do become member of gobeyondsecurity.com
the video surveillance network to connect with more retail business owners nd also video surveillance experts

Networked DVRS (Analog) V/S IP Cameras and VMS

Ram Natarajan Cradle Technology CTO talks about the advantages of Networked DVRS (Analog) V/S IP Cameras and VMS

Smart networked Analog Servers like enVigil incorporate efficient streaming of compressed video ( MPEG4 or H.264) using a matrix of cameras and streaming a single of channel of Video with multiple cameras embedded into it. This is accomplished by having a matrix composition in the memory at a high refresh rate ( about 10 to 15 frames a second), encoding using MPEG4 or H.264 and streaming it at anywhere from 200 to 500 Kilo-bites per second. The resulting user experience is much better compared to remote view of NVRs or consolidating IP cameras at the same bit rate. This is mainly because the IP cameras stream individual JPEG streams and because of the low Internet bandwidth available one ends up with a inferior quality of video with low refresh rates. Since it takes enormous amounts of processing power to composite the incoming IP streams in a matrix form (because it involves decoding the incoming JPEG/ MPEG4/ H.264 IP streams scaling down and composition), it is impossible to achieve the same smooth motion rendition video as with the networked Video Servers.

Also with IP Cameras the internal LAN bandwidth requirements significantly increase when the number of cameras exceed 32 and when you want to save the video data at high quality. You are forced to use a parallel network that will carry the IP Video Streams. So in affect the claim from IP Video Surveillance people that the customer will save on wiring is just not true. In terms of power supply the IP cameras and Analog cameras behave in the same manner, in that they need a power supply unit. Analog has an advantage since the power and Video, Audio and RS485 signals can all run on a single CAT5 cable.

enVigil for Hospital Surveillance

Hospital- video surveillance
In hospitals and healthcare facilities, video surveillance is an effective tool that goes beyond security and helps the hospital administration monitor the business processes and increase productivity, quality of care and also control costs and wastage. Surveillance systems like enVigil can work to protect hospital employees and provide valuable visual evidence to prevent dishonest claims. enVigil from www.cradle.com can provide the video technology to the hospitals with added flexibility in their video surveillance installations, while offering benefits such as remote video monitoring and more effective storage capabilities.
enVigil provides these benefits to the hospitals & health care facilities.

1. Increase security and safety – enVigil can help to prevent crimes and break-ins and monitor for unauthorized visitors in restricted areas.
2. Improve productivity – enVigil improves productivity and quality of care because you can train and monitor the staff.
3. Prevent dishonest claims – In instances where patients or visitors falsely attest to injuring themselves on hospital property, visual evidence from the facility's security cameras can disprove such assertions, saving the hospital from pricey unwarranted insurance claims.
4. Resolve employee disputes – Employee disputes are easily resolved when clear visual proof is available. Surveillance cameras can shed light on incidents in question.
5. Continuous real-time monitoring –Cradle’s enVigil System allows authorized hospital employees to monitor critical areas continuously, in real time, from their personal computers and notebooks.
6. Extended Storage –. enVigil systems enable the user to store recorded footage digitally on the enVigil DVR (up to 2 TB) and then also Networked Attached Servers (NAS), where the surveillance video is easily accessible to authorized users, and offers improved searching capabilities.
7. enVigil offers section wise security- enVigil offers section wise security and you can have multiple enVigil servers monitoring the hospital buildings dividing the facility in smart sections to do the monitoring easy and give the monitoring job to appropriate personnel.
8. Remote video monitoring – Remote monitoring is an extremely helpful tool in medical facilities. enVigil Systems allows hospital employees to view security camera footage remotely from any PC with network access.
9. Smart Alerts via SMS, Emails- enVigil can send you smart alerts by sms and emails with visual picture attached.
10. enVigil can be integrated with Access Control systems- You can integrate enVigil with existing access control systems
11. Easy upgrade and reuse of infrastructure- enVigil is a smart upgrade because you can reuse the cameras and wiring of the current system and just changing DVR will make your whole surveillance system have up to date technology.
12. enVigil is specially good for multi location hospitals- Since enVigil can provide smooth video and it can work on regular band width it is specially good for multi-location facilities

A well balance physical security and video surveillance combination is a way to go
Over reliance – While video surveillance is an important part of any hospital's security plan, it's also critical that the appropriate level of physical security personnel is in place.
Privacy Issues needs to be addressed
A hospital should be aware of patient’s personal privacy. Security cameras are effective tools for monitoring many sections of a hospital, but patient privacy should be considered when determining whether or not cameras should be placed in a facility's more private areas.

Analog networked Video Serveillance can do same or better job then IP systems for SaaS

Analog networked Video Serveillance can do same or better job then IP systems for SaaS.



For remote management and Security as a service model, Networked Analog DVRs do same or better job than IP cameras.

system like enVigil

enVigil will measure the bandwidth and according to the available bandwidth send the video packets.
Our video is very smooth and no jerks at all . enVigil can stream 32 videos live on surprisingly minimum bandwidths.
So if you want to offer Security as service enVigil that is Analog networked Video Server( CCTV) is great as a product to use.