One Monitor Instead of Five: New Security Technology

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In a tense election year and a summer of protests, ensuring the safety of people in and around the political conventions is crucial.

To help secure the Republican National Convention, Cleveland officials have chosen to  use a  video integration and data management system from Vienna, Virginia called Vidsys. Cleveland’s Department of Public Utilities and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority had used the software on earlier occasions and recommended expanding its use for the convention. in addition, the platform was used at the NCAA Men’s Final Four in Houston earlier this year and the Baltimore Grand Prix in 2011.

According to the company’s website, vidsys.com, the company has also started helping with the security of the Aljazira bank. These statistics display the diversity of the company’s services showing they remain rellevent across multiple events and structures and sectors: finance, sports and politics.

According to gcn.com, Vidsys’ Converged Security and Information Management platform collected and analyzed video feeds from cameras and sensors throughout downtown Cleveland and around the arena where the convention was held. The platform integrates the data from all the video management systems so agencies can get real-time information and manage convention security through a unified dashboard.

“When you have multiple agencies involved, there are multiple different technologies, there are disparate communications issues,” Vidsys CEO James Chong said. “What we do is provide software that helps solve that problem.”  

Securing events like political conventions involves collecting and analyzing data from as many as 20,000 to 30,000 cameras and even more sensors. Because the devices record video and audio around the clock, the platform uses artificial intelligence and analytics to sort through the data and present information that is “meaningful and actionable,” Chong said.

“That gives a human being the ability to manage the situation,” Chong said. “There’s no way a person can monitor all the data.”