Milestone integration with mobile devices

A Milestone Blueprint Article

Sri L. Palasamudram Mr. Palasamudram is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for applying new technologies to solve existing problems. He has over 15 years' experience in Software, Internet, and Wireless technologies. After finishing up his MS in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University, Ames in 1994, Mr. Palasamudram started his career as a software engineer at Autodesk, where he spent 4 years and became a product manager. In 1998 he started GeoTouch—which is very similar to Google Maps—where he raised $10M in VC funds and brought the company from zero to $1M in sales. In 2001 Mr. Palasamudram moved on to run the U.S. Sales and Operations for Netyear—a strategy consulting company formed as a joint venture between GE and Dentsu. He sold the Netyear U.S. operations in 2003. Mr. Palasamudram has helped companies such as SONY and NTT to define WiFi and Content delivery strategy and also built CADopias retail distribution by working with distributors such as Ingram and MicroWarehouse. In 2004 Mr. Palasamudram started mobiDEOS to leverage the fast-growing mobile industry against real-world problems.

Introduction and Overview
What if you could turn your cellular phone, blackberry, or iPhone into a surveillance viewer and controller for your business, construction site, or school? What if you could do so in just a few minutes and with the hardware that you already own? Milestone Systems, the creators of the XProtect software, and mobiDEOS, the creators of the MobileCamViewer, have collaborated to bring you an application that will do just that. It will enable new capabilities and solutions for your business and save you time and money.



In this economy you may not have room in your budget to buy new cameras that are compatible with mobile viewer applications. This was one of the key driving force behind Milestone Systems and mobiDEOS when they created this application that enables you to use your existing cameras and mobile devices to access the latest in mobile viewing technology.

With virtually no cost for new hardware, you can now instantly access streaming video images (3 to 8 fps) of your business from your mobile device. The application will also allow you to pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) your camera with a simple touch of a button, so you can see what you want when you want it. Imagine the time and money you would save if, instead of having to drive to the location in person, you could simply push a button on your cell phone to check up on your business. You can even be on a different continent and still have real-time streaming video images of your business at your fingertips! Now that is true remote surveillance and business intelligence.

Case Studies
Several industries have already begun to use this innovative technology, including retail, construction, education, residential, manufacturing, government, and public safety. Customers who use XProtect with MobileCamViewer will see a savings in both time and in cost almost as quickly as they see their live video on their mobile devices. Further, the technology offers new capabilities and business solutions that have never before been available. For instance, with MobileCamViewer you can monitor your business from your home, your car, or even while on vacation. You can watch real-time footage of your business to monitor alarm activity and avoid false alarms or to monitor your employees' customer service performance. You can prevent shoplifting, maintain security, and track the arrival or departure of shipments from your phone. These benefits, along with many others, have made businesses more intelligent and, thus, more productive, efficient, and effective. Following are some of the success stories that business people like you have had with MobileCamViewer and XProtect. How can XProtect and MobileCamViewer help your business?

Guy Baroan, president of Baroan Technologies, recently worked with a client who uses Milestone XProtect software in its business. The client, which is a distributor of high-value hardware, software and network products, was searching for a technology that would enable its managers to use their Blackberries to view the company's surveillance cameras and monitor business operations in real time. Other mobile viewer applications that they had used were only compatible with Windows based mobile devices—not with the Blackberries that they preferred. To change from the Blackberries that they were using to a Windows based phone was not an option for the client, for the Blackberries were an intricate part of their business operations. After researching several options, Boroan concluded, "there was no other solution available for Blackberry. [MobileCamViewer] is the only Blackberry option for remote monitoring of video cameras." Baroan Technologies' client currently runs Milestone XProtect with 22 Axis cameras to manage its distribution operations and uses the MobileCamViewer to remotely view and control their cameras from their preferred mobile device: the Blackberry 8310. Baroan credits the MobileCamViewer's ease of use, quick installment, and operability as big selling points for the product. "It only took a few minutes to install MobileCamViewer on each of the Blackberries and activate it," said Gary Grinberg, a project manager with Baroan Technologies. "Connecting MobileCamViewer to MileStone Xprotect was a breeze; it was very easy and it quickly solved my customer's need." Using XProtect and MobileCamViewer allowed the client to maintain its existing infrastructure while updating its surveillance system.

Amcomm Wireless, a wireless reseller, uses cameras to monitor their 20 retail stores in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Kyriakos Konstantakis, one of the company's founding partners, and Brent Murray, a branch manager, are constantly busy or on the road. Murray explains, "MobileCamViewer lets us watch any store anytime on our Blackberries, through which we can see what is going on in the store and how we can act to make the store operations more efficient and effective." The technology allows business owners like Konstantakis to monitor employees' customer service and prevent internal theft. It also allows them to monitor their stores' operation from anywhere in the world. They can see the number of people in their stores at any given moment, confirm the arrival of an order, and check the inventory in their warehouses. Finally, if something triggers the alarm at their business, they can check for any suspicious activity before calling in the authorities and avoid false-alarm fees.

Caletti Jungsten Construction Inc., based in Mill Valley, CA, manages custom homes and remodeling projects ranging between $250,000 and $8 million. Their work has been featured in mainstream publications such as Better Homes & Gardens, Sunset, and Coastal Living. Construction site superintendent Justin Drenner is responsible for managing several jobsites at the same time, and, of course, he's not able to be at all of them at the same time. "In those circumstances when I need to be in two places at once, I use MobileCamViewer so I can monitor what's going on at the jobsite on my BlackBerry Curve. MobileCamViewer helps me stay productive and its use allows me to react to situations in a timely fashion." With MobileCamViewer, Drenner has instant access to real-time video of his construction sites, stockrooms, and warehouses at the touch of a button.

Schools have also seen the benefits of this technology. School campuses can be very large, and, as a result, very difficult to monitor. In general, a school's security staff is divided between two functions: monitoring video surveillance from a control room, and providing physical presence throughout the campus. MobileCamViewer with XProtect allows schools to combine these two functions. If security guards are able to monitor the campus at the same time as patrolling it, they will be able to react more quickly to situations when they arise. Fewer security guards in the surveillance room means more presence on the campus—which is really the most important function of a security staff. With MobileCamViewer and XProtect, school administrators are able to ensure the safety of their students without having to increase the size of their security staff.

Technology and how real is it?
It wasn't very long ago that a portable device that allowed you to watch and control the surveillance cameras at your home or business would have been a very expensive investment. Times have changed, however, and while today's technology is not perfect, it is far better than it was even two or three years ago. Cell phone companies such as AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon have created a wireless infrastructure that makes it possible for you to view live streaming video images (3 to 8 fps).



The diagram above shows how Milestone Systems and MobiDEOS bring live surveillance of your home or business to your fingertips. The video stream, as you can see, must pass through several systems between the camera and the cell phone. As a result, the frames per second (fps) of the streaming video is relatively low at 3 to 8 fps. However, as technology advances as it always does(the CPUs in cell phones become stronger, and as bandwidth becomes broader) the quality of the streaming video will only become better.

MobileCamViewer is already integrated with major cell phone and PDA manufacturers such as Apple (iPhone & iTouch), Motorola, Nokia, BlackBerry(RIM), Sony-Ericson, Dell, HP, LG, Samsung, Sanyo and HTC and supports over 450 different models.
MobileCamViewer has been on the market for over two years and is a carrier class product, tested and passed with leading cell phone carriers such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless (RIM), Sprint/Nextel and Orange.

You can see the demonstration at http://www.mobileipcamviewer.com/MS/ebdemo_milestone.html
The collaboration of Milestone Systems and mobiDEOS is an important event for the future of surveillance and security. It represents the coming together of two companies at the cutting edge of their respective technologies. Both Milestone Systems and mobiDEOS are dedicated to creating business solutions that keep you and your assets safe while saving you time and money.

The joining of Milestone Systems and mobiDEOS seems in many ways meant to be. The technology that each company offers seems to have been designed with the other in mind. "Milestone's Open IP platform allowed us to easily integrate via industry standard HTTP protocol and CGI," says mobiDEOS CEO Sri Palasamudram, and adds, "testing was seamless with XProtect." Integration with XProtect allows customers to connect remotely to over 500 IP cameras that are already on the market.
Milestone's API is easy to understand, implement, and verify. Its open platform methodology allows MobileCamViewer to quickly retrieve and list the cameras that are connected to XProtect and then to obtain live streaming images from any of the cameras.

Summary
The partnership between Milestone Systems and mobiDEOS is a win-win situation for all involved parties: from the business owners who use the technology to the dealers who sell it and all the way up to Milestone Systems and mobiDEOS who developed and maintain the technology. Business owners, who will be able to use their existing infrastructures to substantially increase the efficiency of their businesses, will receive an excellent return on their investment and peace of mind. Dealers will be able to offer their customers a product that they stand behind and in so doing increase their revenue and better satisfy their customers.