DENVER, Colo. – September 10, 2008 – When Sen. Barack Obama decided to change the location of where he would accept the Democratic nomination for president of the United States only a couple weeks before the event, Lt. Ernie Martinez of the Denver Police Department (DPD) wasn’t worried about changing his surveillance coverage accordingly. This is exactly the kind of situation Martinez and his team anticipated months before when they and the City and County of Denver awarded Avrio Group a contract to design and deploy a city-wide surveillance system.
“We wanted a solution that was durable enough to be deployed permanently but also had the flexibility to be quickly reconfigured to adapt to short-term events like the Democratic National Convention (DNC),” said Martinez. “To ensure this we required Avrio to deploy a pilot in two weeks.”
The DPD’s initiative, called the High Activity Location Observation (HALO) system, was conceived not only for the DNC event but to continue to enhance the Department’s crime reduction strategy in ongoing safety and security efforts.
"We're able to not only utilize those cameras as a force multiplier, but dispatch officers to where we see events occurring,” said Chief of Police Gerald Whitman, who conceived the vision of this platform three years ago. In addition the system includes solar-powered trailers and PoleCams for even more mobility, and video can eventually be pushed to moving vehicles such as police cruisers. Lastly, cameras can be easily redeployed to other areas within the City once the convention ends.
In partnership with Denver’s Technology Services Division, the DPD’s HALO team developed leading-edge enterprise, open-architecture requirements including real-time, fluid, high-resolution video that could incorporate wired and wireless cameras and be viewed from multiple locations and by multiply agencies. To meet DPD’s requirements Avrio designed and deployed a solution utilizing a blend of state-of-the-art wireless technologies including mesh, microwave and point-to-point for video transmission and a software-based head-end for video management.
The foundation of the solution is Avrio Group’s PoleCam, a single plug-and-play device that contains a high-end camera, Firetide wireless radio and all electronic components needed to hang the unit on a pole or building. The solution allows for video to be viewed from mobile devices and also allows for integration with other security systems like access control, sensors including gunshot detection, video intelligence and future technologies.
“While we had to meet an aggressive timeline for the DNC it was also important to find a solution that would serve the Denver community for years to come and adapt to emerging technologies. We wanted a system that could scale easily and economically as budgets became available, not something that would require a forklift upgrade in a couple years,” explains Martinez. "The system has exceeded our expectations, allowing us to provide high-quality video to more than 60 federal and local government agencies during the entire convention."
About Firetide Inc.
Firetide is the leading provider of wireless mesh and access networks that enable concurrent video, voice and data for municipal, public safety and enterprise applications. Firetide HotPort® mesh nodes, HotPoint® access points, HotClient™ CPEs, HotView Pro™ network management platform, Firetide Mobility Controller, and Firetide WLAN Controller provide a reliable high performance wireless infrastructure and access solution for video surveillance, Internet access, public safety networks and temporary networks wherever rapid deployment, mobility and ease of installation are required. Headquartered in Los Gatos, Calif., Firetide is a privately held company with worldwide product distribution. www.firetide.com.
About Avrio Group
Avrio Group is a national leader in IP-Surveillance solutions for the public safety market. The company designs, engineers and deploys turnkey wireless surveillance solutions for the city-wide municipal market. Avrio Group customers include local, state and federal clients as well as enterprise commercial customers. www.avriogroup.com
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EDITORIAL CONTACTS
Mark Jules
Avrio Group
mjules@avriogroup.com
443-786-0102
Travis Murdock
Edelman for Firetide
tmurdock@ar-edelman.com
+1-650-740-6055
Ksenia Coffman
Firetide
kcoffman@firetide.com
+1-408-317-8985