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- THE FRIDAY LETTER -
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| http://www.gilder.com/ | Issue 302.0/July 13,
2007
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HEADLINES:
- The
Week / Tredennick on Digital Video Surveillance
- Friday Feature / Real-time,
Geo-located Data Analysis
- Friday Blogger Bonus / 7 Bad Things About iPhone
- Readings /
SPECIAL
OFFER
|
Secret Defense Department Technology "Crosses Over" to
Civilian Market for a Rare Opportunity to Double Your Money by December |
The
Week / Digital Video Surveillance
Nick Tredennick, Gilder Telecosm Forum (7/13/07): Digital video surveillance will see explosive growth over
the next few years. Historically, the surveillance business has used cameras
wired to monitors in a system called closed-circuit TV (CCTV).
Going digital
IP-based digital video surveillance, called IPVS (Internet Protocol Video
Surveillance), systems are vastly superior to analog CCTV systems. Instead of a
dedicated coaxial network and expensive proprietary hardware, IPVS systems can
share the office network and use standard computers and peripherals and
standard software and operating systems. They are typically Windows based. The
server can be located anywhere that’s convenient and need not have either a
keyboard or monitor. Operators can maintain the system though a standard web
browser from any desktop or laptop computer or even from a PDA. Passwords, biometric
authentication, and encryption ensure privacy and security of access to
surveillance video. Even though any camera’s images can be viewed from any
computer connected to the Internet, system administrators can restrict viewing
so that maintenance people have access to some cameras and security people have
access to others.
A building security guard could call up the view of a surveillance camera,
where an alert has occurred, on his handheld device.
For large installations, cameras might page security based on trigger
events, such as someone loitering near a perimeter fence at night.
Video resolution can be better, access to video files can be to random
time intervals as opposed to the time-sequential access forced by tape
recordings, and there are no tapes to wear out. IPVS systems do not need to
record all the time as VCR-based systems do. IPVS systems can record at a slow
frame rate and increase the frame rate when they detect motion. Using
buffering, IPVS systems typically store triggered events (i.e., motion) with a
30-second window on each end of the motion sequence. Time references with the
event are very accurate. CCTV systems require a separate coaxial cable for each
camera; in IPVS systems, many cameras can use the same network already in place
for computer and Internet access. Video files can be stored at a secure remote
location. The ability to add or subtract cameras easily makes IPVS systems much
more flexible than CCTV systems.
Where to from here
The transition from CCTV to IPVS is leaving the industry without capable
installers. Electricians generally don’t have the expertise for network,
server, operating system, and application installation and configuration and
the computer geeks don’t have the expertise for physical installation of the
cameras and networks.
In the San Francisco bay area, Angie Wong and Kim Rubin stepped into this
breach. Angie’s business, Ojo Technology,
installs IP-based digital video surveillance equipment. The business was
growing too fast to manage, so Angie hired Kim to help streamline and organize
all of the businesses processes. Kim reorganized it top to bottom. He wrote
detailed procedures for bid submission, organized a menu of equipment options,
wrote detailed installation procedures, and documented processes throughout the
business. Angie’s company went from winning ten to twenty percent of its bids
to rarely losing a bid.
This didn’t fix the problem; winning more bids meant that the business had
to grow even faster. Further, demand was strong and was growing rapidly across
the country. But how could Ojo Technology take advantage of latent demand and
rapid growth with a business that has work crews restricted to limited
geographic areas? The answer is franchising that leverages Ojo’s experience and
Kim’s detailed process documentation. With detailed procedures for bidding,
limited menus of qualified equipment, and detailed instructions for computer
and network installation and setup, companies that once specialized in analog
CCTV systems could begin bidding and installing IP-based digital video
surveillance systems.
Angie and Kim’s new company, SightMind Inc., is that franchiser. It hopes
to be the McDonalds of IPVS installation companies.
Investment
IPVS companies such as Ojo Technology and Milestone Systems,
which provides IPVS management software, are privately held and SightMind is a
closely held startup, but Axis Communications,
which supplies network cameras, video servers, and video management software,
is public and is a leader in IPVS systems.
According to IMS Research the world market for
networked video surveillance products grew by 42% in 2006 and it is forecast to
continue strong growth through 2010, when it is expected to exceed $2.6
billion.
Investing in makers of network cameras, such as Sony and Panasonic, and of
video content analysis software, such as Aventura Technologies, might also be a
good idea. The problem with investing in Sony and in Panasonic is that network
cameras are too small a part of their respective businesses for the growing
market to have significant influence on their stock prices. IMS Research
expects the world network camera market, with a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 53%, to reach $1 billion by 2009 and the world video content analysis
software market, with a CAGR of 65%, to reach $840 million by the same year.
Of course, video analysis, encryption, compression, and decision-making at
the camera means signal processors in every camera. DSP makers Analog Devices,
Freescale, and Texas Instruments will benefit as will a raft of multiprocessor
startups, such as Ambric, Aspex Semiconductors, Cradle Technologies,
Intellasys, and Rapport, that specialize in video applications. Even Altera and
Xilinx could benefit as they work to augment or displace DSPs in video
applications. A four-dollar Altera Cyclone III chip can process four standard-definition
(SD) channels of HDTV simultaneously.
To become a GILDER TELECOSM FORUM member
and read Nick Tredennick’s complete report, visit: http://www.gildertech.com/
today.
|
Gilder/Forbes Telecosm 2007 CONFERENCE Register online today: www.Telecosm.info
|
Friday Feature / Real-time,
Geo-located Data Analysis
Nick Tredennick, Gilder Telecosm Forum (7/13/07): I'm trying to drag George and the forum into a broader
range of topics than telecom. Two topics I have spent time on lately are
biometrics (fingerprint, facial, iris, DNA) and digital video surveillance.
Gilder
Telecosm Forum Member (7/13/07): What about the potential for image
monitoring outside the usual spectrum of the human eye? For instance if you had an image
chip/processor/sensor in parts of the spectrum that could pickup moisture (or
lack of) in farmland or infestation of crops or timber?
Nick Tredennick (7/13/07): What you suggest is called multispectral imaging. It is a
big deal in military ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance). I
haven't seen it used too much in civilian sectors, but IR (infrared)
illumination and IR cameras would be excellent for nighttime monitoring
(intruders would be less likely to know they were monitored).
Military systems for collecting iris images use IR illuminators (sometimes
at multiple frequencies) to get a better picture. Using an illuminator that the
subject doesn't see reduces the liklihood of a blink and it improves collection
in a wide range of ambient lighting conditions.
Multispectral imaging is used in farming (one of the few examples I have)
with (I think) either aircraft mapping or satellite mapping to analyze farmland
soils, crop condition, moisture, temperature, and other indicators.
Gilder
Telecosm Forum Member (7/13/07): On the multi/hyper-spectral
imaging that is used for agriculture, is that analog that is interpreted by
humans or has it made the transition to digital that would enable some of the
productivity gains you suggested in your "Digital Video Surveillance"
piece?
Nick Tredennick (7/13/07): I have not kept up with recent developments in
applications of multispectral imaging to farming. It would be an interesting
topic to study. I suggest a Google search for "precision farming" and
"multispectral imaging." Using both gets only a few hundred hits. As
a further refinement, subtract Australia (-Australia) to leave out descriptions
of what seems to be precision farming based on manual analysis of photos in an
Australian application.
Precision farming has reached the
stage of multispectral digital imaging, but from the few articles I looked at,
I did not get the impression that image analysis is automated. Some day we can
expect real-time, geo-located data analysis systems that pass information
directly to autonomous machines in the field. Machines will deal with issues
such as pH in specific areas of the field.
To become a GILDER TELECOSM FORUM member and read
this complete exchange, visit: http://www.gildertech.com/ today.
|
The Gilder
Telecosm Forum |
Friday Blogger Bonus / 7 Bad Things About iPhone They Don’t Want You to Know
The
Internet Patrol (7/11/07):
Here is
the hands-on Apple iPhone review that they don’t want you to see: it’s the 7
bad things about the iPhone that they don’t want you to know. Thanks to our
exclusive interview with Shawn King, of the Your Mac Life Show in our exclusive
all iPhone scoop edition of our online show Three Things You Should Know,
who spent time up close and personal with the iPhone a week before its release,
and to some digging on our part, we bring you the 7 things about the iPhone
that you’ll never see in an Apple ad, because they don’t want you to know about
it.
1.
The iPhone browsing and other Internet experience when not using wifi (i.e.
when using the native AT&T data connection) is slow as molasses. This is
because it uses only AT&T’s Edge connection, and not the
faster 3G data connection. The reason for this is that there is not yet a 3G
chipset, which won’t cause such a significant battery drain on the iPhone that
you’d have maybe an hour of battery life at a time. (Source: The all
iPhone scoop edition of Three Things You Should Know)
P.S.
To make things worse, the iPhone is set up so that it will not ever default to
the mobile version of a web site, so not only is it excrutiatingly slow, but it
insists on loading the full site, not the mobile-lite version.
Check out reasons 2 – 7 on The Internet Patrol’s blog site:
http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/7-bad-things-about-the-iphone-they-dont-want-you-to-know
__________________________________________
Readings /
The
Weekly GTI
http://www.gtindex.com/
Is Icahn Eyeing
Samsung?
http://www.forbes.com/home/markets/2007/07/13/samsung-icahn-rumors-markets-equity-cx_jc_0713markets1.html
A New Way of Looking at the Internet
http://spectrum.ieee.org/jul07/5340
Google Lets Users Overlay Data on Personalized Maps
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-google-maps.html
U.P.S. Embraces High-Tech Delivery Methods
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/business/12ups.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
__________________________________________
FRIDAY LETTER STAFF
Editor: Mary Collins George / mcollins@gilder.com
Research: Sandy Fleischmann / sfleischmann@gilder.com
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