David Borish, CEO and co-founder of neo 360 PRO, has been a serial technology entrepreneur in several vertical markets over the last decade. So he knows that when the windows of opportunity swing open they can close just as quickly. Not wanting to waste time, he and his team decided at the eleventh hour to take an exhibit booth at the recent ISC West security conference in Las Vegas, figuring they were already staffed at the National Association of Broadcasters big event at the same location. This would provide a chance to take the pulse of the security industry and confirm that their technology indeed met a need.
“I follow all the emerging technologies in most industries and it is very rare that you are afforded a window of opportunity into an industry with a technology no one has ever seen before. We are going to try and grow and scale it as quickly as possible and partner it with a provider that shares our vision,” explains Borish, who has partnered with another long-time tech entrepreneur in Teknikos CTO Jason Hartman for a joint venture technology solution they call Capticast SVT.
Capticast SVT was initially founded with the vision of creating an entirely unique SaaS software solution for large-format touchscreen displays primarily used for broadcast and professional sports market segments. Powered by its core video technology called neo 360 PRO, the technology application possibilities for security and the public safety sectors unfolded as he was presenting a technical session a couple of years ago and was approached by a veteran reporter from the Associated Press after his talk. The excited journalist, who covered many police beats during his long career, told Borish his solution would be revolutionary in the news business.
Borish asked him what he meant trying to explain to the reporter that this technology was geared mainly toward high-speed video, but the reporter quickly responded that it would still be a perfect fit for security and public safety video applications.
“I said to him that security video is usually low speed. He replied that they had a problem in the newsroom with law enforcement video they receive since all they can really do is start and pause it and are unable to grab screen captures or use the footage on air. I said we would give it a shot running it through our encoder to see what would happen. They sent over some police video along with a screenshot of a recent suspect that police had been searching for in the precinct,” says Borish. “So we went ahead and ran both the video and the screenshot through our special encoder then onto the app and sure enough, in just a few seconds, we were able to get not only a much clearer screenshot and frame of the perpetrator but also the control abilities to manipulate and control the video provided.”
Borish credits this encounter with the AP reporter as the impetus for his company’s serious journey into the security industry, figuring they could expand to serve security end-users in the public safety and law enforcement space as well as venturing into other security verticals like critical infrastructure, schools and universities, casinos and retail facilities. “We figured if this was something that could make life easier for police reporters then it would work for law enforcement agencies as well. We figured there was a void to fill.’’
Soon after his conference encounter with the AP reporter, Borish and his team met with a couple of retired high-ranking members of the NYPD to get their expert feedback related to the difficulties of using multi-sourced video. The veteran cops validated Borish’s assumptions, strongly indicating that this was a technology solution that could be used immediately.
“They said when police arrive on a crime scene after an incident, one of the first things they do is canvas the local stores and businesses asking if they have surveillance cameras and if they do they collect the footage, bring it back to the facility and try to work off that. They explain with that there are plenty of technical issues the agencies have with then getting that footage out to patrol officers and other agencies. Using it for any type of forensics was an entirely different issue,” Borish says.
The police consultants added that most of the time there really wasn’t much of a problem playing the video, but that’s about all they could physically do with it because of certain codec restrictions for certain cameras. Borish knew that his technology could take multiple screen captures of the footage, run them through the neo 360 encoder and then send it to every police officer within 10 miles who would be able to receive the information on their mobile phones, hand-held devices and tablets in their patrol cars.
“This process would allow the officers to receive the video and have full control of it. Think of it as ‘crowd-sourcing intel’ of the crime. Someone who might not be able to access this video for days in a normal scenario will have total access to it within minutes. The ability to shrink time after a crime is committed provides law enforcement a much better opportunity to keep a suspect within the perimeter and make the apprehension. This solution is all about saving time and providing better video data to those who need it,” says Borish, who adds that Capticast SVT can be upgraded to include mobile-share functionality. Once upgraded, field team members possess the ability to choose and send any clip on their mobile devices with a quick swipe.
The Capticast SVT tech team had been toying with the idea of migrating the technology to the security space. Borish had initially approached a friend of his who was associated with one of the security industry’s top camera manufacturers. He ran the neo 360 technology solution past him. The vendor thought it was a nifty technology but probably was not that adaptable into the security space since most of the cameras on the market were low-frame rate.
“But I explained that frame rate was not an issue. Our core technology is an encoding process that takes any video and any codec and breaks it down to its metadata that is then fed into a proprietary player that plays the video in a series of different unique sequences based on what the client requests – slowed down, speeded up, reversed, forward. That is why this video looks different than anything people have ever seen in this industry. It is a completely new method of playing and analyzing video surveillance footage,” Borish says.
“The mobile applications certainly worked in the public safety space but now we could see them also playing in other security verticals like casinos, retail and a potentially huge market for schools and universities,” he adds. “Given the fact that most college and university campuses are huge, this technology would allow campus police to receive video data to see and analyze who they are perusing as opposed to a radio description of some guy in a yellow shirt.”
Capticast SVT is currently working with several partners to get a feel for where the technology best fits into the market. What Borish is hearing from his potential tech partners is that the market for security is ripe for this new solution. “The school environment is really the hot button issue right now, and casinos, since they usually have the money to invest in new technologies, are also a target. Law enforcement has been impressed with our solution, but we’re not really sure where it will get the most traction,” admits Borish.
But he and his team are certain that the emerging SaaS market in the security vertical will offer myriad opportunities to grow their business. According to all business markers, this route makes sense for both the company’s eventual customers and its sales channel.
“We are currently looking to partner with some of the video controller providers in the industry, as well as putting our encoding process in the cloud. Once we do that we can have the Johnson Controls, the Boschs, and all the bigger companies that offer enterprise video solutions basically adopting our technology and integrating it into their surveillance solutions with their existing clients as a SaaS solution,” concludes Borish.
About the Author: Steve Lasky is the Editorial Director of SouthComm Security Media, which includes print publications Security Technology Executive, Security Dealer & Integrator, Locksmith Ledger Int’l and the world’s most trafficked security web portal SecurityInfoWatch.com. He is a 30-year veteran of the security industry and a 27-year member of ASIS.
