We just returned from an extremely productive ASIS 2009 in Anaheim. New exacqVision features were introduced, the booth was packed throughout the show, and we participated in a number of multi-vendor demonstrations and seminars.

New Features Introduced – We showed a number of just-released and about-to-be-released exacqVision features including:

• Smart Search enhancements – further search granularity that returns just the video segments when a particular portion of the image changed. Works across all cameras (IP and analog), and allows for playback, scrub, export, and save of just the smart-searched video.
• Multi-System User Configuration – part of the new Enterprise Server option in Version 3.6, this feature allows for quick and easy administration of user accounts across all servers in an enterprise deployment.
• Mapping – highly intuitive and simple to use. Maps are integrated right into camera views; any number of maps can be used; maps can come from any source. Cameras, audio, POS streams, etc. can be dragged onto a map, alarm events produce animated icons on the maps, video sources can be pushed from maps to viewing panes. Nested maps allow additional detail (entire campus, building, floor, wing, etc) and alarm events on a nested map can “bubble up” to the top level map for instant assessment.
• exacqVision Web Server enhancements – upcoming release enables viewing cameras from multiple servers simultaneously, search and playback across multiple cameras, ability to save and e-mail/text a URL of a specific camera view grouping. exacqVision Web Server comes standard with exacqVision software.

Multi-Booth Wireless IP Demo

The multi-booth wireless IP demo worked flawlessly. Firetide set up wireless mesh nodes in their booth and in the Exacq, IQeye, Pivot3, and Anixter booths.

IQeye megapixel IP cameras were connected in all five booths, video was being recorded on a Pivot3 iSCSI SAN storage with an embedded virtualized server running exacqVision server, and exacqVision clients were in multiple booths enabling viewing, searching and playback of the video. This was a great real-world open-standards technology display.

More pictures from Firetide here.

Other ASIS News:

• Exacq was once again featured in the popular ASIS seminar What’s New On The Floor, a review of the hottest products to see on the show floor.
• We had our engineering contingent at the ONVIF Annual Meeting on Wednesday. Exacq is an ONVIF member.
• Monday evening saw a great turnout for our Manufacturer Rep & International Distributor meeting, where we reviewed our product and sales roadmap for the next year.
• Tuesday night was baseball night courtesy of our channel partners at Security-Net. It was the Angels-Yankees game at Angel Stadium, and Security-Net presented Exacq with an award at the tailgate reception before the game.

We appreciate everyone that stopped by our booth, as well as all of our technology and integration partners who were showing exacqVision running with their products in their respective booths. Below are some pictures from the show, click for larger versions. More ASIS 2009 pictures here.

The ASIS 2008 tradeshow, held Monday-Wednesday of this week in Atlanta, has ended.  It was a great event for us and our resellers. We showed several new things this year:

exacqVision Version 3.2
This latest version of our software, out in a pre-release form now and final release in a couple of weeks, fully incorporates H.264 support from the newest IP cameras including Axis and Arecont Vision.  We had side-by-side comparisons of both Arecont and Axis H.264 models along with their mjpeg or mpeg4 counterparts running in the software.  We’re impressed with these new cameras, and see more server efficiencies, clearer video, smaller average file size (in some cases significantly smaller) and generally higher frame rates.  Version 3.2 also incorporates the new line of Sony IP cameras, plus several other new features and improvements.  Also connected to the exacqVision systems were the latest cameras from IQeye, ACTi, Panasonic and Vivotek.

Integration: ioimage and Lenel
We showed the ioimage analytics-based IP cameras integrated with exacqVision, a solution that provides analytics options as easily as adding another camera to the network.  A preview of the ioimage integration is here.  We also showed our new Lenel access control integration.

Windows, Linux, Mac
The use of the Macintosh in video surveillance applications has generated a lot of buzz.  exacqVision operates natively on the Mac, as well as Windows and Linux.  There was once again a great amount of interest in our Mac software.  We’ve seen significant adoption of exacqVision by educational institutions who cited the availability of a Mac client as a key factor in their decision.

iSCSI Storage & Serverless Computing
We showed exacqVision working with three of the leading iSCSI storage vendors: Pivot3, Intransa, and DNF Storage.  In the case of Pivot3, we were running our server software on their unit, creating an all-in-one storage/recording system.

While there has been some online chatter about this year’s ASIS traffic being lighter than normal, we saw the opposite.  We had a steady stream of visitors throughout all three days, and often were so busy that we spilled over into Axis’ booth right next to us.  We certainly appreciate our Rep, Distributor and Reseller channel partners who came by, who brought their customers and spent time with us in our booth.

A roundup of integration partner press releases from ASIS is here.  ASIS will be held in Anaheim in 2009 and we’ll be there.

Pictures from our booth are below, with even more pictures here.

We’ve been exhibiting at the big ASIS 2007 tradeshow in Las Vegas this week, which just ended yesterday.  It has been a whirlwind of activity, and our booth was packed all three days.

We showed some new things:

Linux: we showed Linux versions of both exacqVision server and client software.  We’ve been running Linux versions of our software internally and at some beta sites for many months with great success and we plan to release it in the November timeframe.  The first distribution is Ubuntu 6.06.  On the server side, you get identical exacqVision functionality and performance under both Windows and Linux.  Windows clients can  connect to both Windows and Linux servers.  The Linux exacqVision client is virtually identical to the Windows version, save for some minor aesthetic differences between the two operating systems.  The complete list of IP cameras we support are also fully supported in our Linux version.

The IP camera vendors, and many of our integrators, were very enthusiastic about the upcoming availability of Linux, as that is increasingly becoming a requirement.

Version 2.8:  We showed the upcoming version 2.8 of exacqVision, which will be released in mid-October.  Among other features, highlights of 2.8 we showed were Vivotek IP camera support; Zoom Box – instant zooming on a selected area; Drag-and-Drop, an enhance to the multiple monitor support that allows for seamless drag-and-drop of video cameras and other elements between screens, making for a more highly-integrated client.

Rep Meeting: We had a great meeting with our North American Manufacturers Rep firms, as well as some international distributors, Monday night at the Gordon Biersch Brewing Company.  Good food, good beer, and an opportunity to discuss our product, sales and marketing plans for the next few months with them all.  Thank you all for attending.

Exacq highlighted in Seminar: We certainly want to express our appreciation to Roy Bordes of The Bordes Group, a security consulting firm, for highlighting Exacq in his Tuesday seminar What’s New On The Floor 2007.  We were one of about 15 vendors Roy featured for having new and innovative products.

Below are some pictures from our booth.  More pictures are available here.  ASIS moves to Atlanta next year, and we’ll be there.