Airship DVR / NVR Video & Video Management Blog

Surveillance Cameras in Seattle Parks

Interesting local Radio discussion (KUOW, The Conversation) about surveillance cameras that have been installed in a Seattle Park — a topic of frequent discussion around here recently, actually. Apparently ABC / Wash Post did a poll in July that found that 71% percent of Americans would like more surveillance in public spaces.

Abigail

Copper pair with ferrite

Humble as it seems (or ghetto if you like) I'm told this is a very important piece of technology, that manipulates signal noise (in this case used for an I/O Box). Good to know, since it looks a lot like the things my boys leave lying around the house that I instinctively throw away. I mean, wire with what looks like a thick washer strung through it?!

Abigail

Reuse (and moving to new office)

In the 'taking your own advice' column this week, and related to the fact that we are moving offices:

We took old shelves that didn't suit our purpose from the old tenants of our new office and repurposed them (slightly) in a way that suits us. Frankly, why burn it or trash it when a circular saw and a set of screws gives them new life?

Old Junk:

New Shelves:

Gryphon MacThoy

Surround-sound Branding (Colors you can almost hear)

We're moving offices, and let's just say the new property managers didn't do much to make the new space look inviting. We had to remove a bunch of cheap shelves anchor-bolted into the walls at shoulder-height, and the carpet is something perhaps better not to describe. (You can see the crappy shelves in the picture, on the floor.)

Anyway, so even though we're on a tight timeline to get the move over with, we decided a little morale-building prep work was in order. Gryph stayed late last night painting our office Airship Orange, and Doug came in with a rented carpet cleaner and made a big difference.

The orange office is just a few people — and many of those who who will be in non-orange offices have voiced doubts it was a wise color choice. Once the cubes are in, much of the orange will be covered and — hey — when the 2 PM slump sets in, the walls will give us the jolt we need. And Marketing will definitely find it easier than ever to stay on-brand.

Abigail

(ed by Gryph) Yeah, but some people have no style. And we can deco the place like some cool night club and serve tropical rum drinks on those grey Seattle days. THEN people will get the point of adding some color to your work space. And plants! Don't forget the plants we'll have.

Also, not seen in the picture - I was rocking out to KMFDM and The Murder City Devils while painting...

 

Devs Do Blog

Who says devs don't blog? The last two blogs (three, if no one blogs while I'm posting this one) are from the devs.

OK, I agree it's a rarity.

Prasoon

Airship DVRs at customer site

Recently I was at a customer site, helping fix a couple of issues that cropped up during installation — it's not usual for a dev guy to witness the installations. I was really in awe of the site with 10 DVRs, all powered up and running Airship software. Here is the picture of the DVRs Doug took while I was there. Click to enlarge.

Prasoon

Donate to the Hungry Devs Fund

We were recently informed that we would be allocated funds to repaint the walls in our new office. Puzzled with the choice of having to pick a color, we came to the best solution in a very dev-like fashion — in a chat room.

Here's the log showing our engineering genius, synergy, and perhaps hunger:

Aaron says:
OK. So we all agree that they should save the money for painting our room and buy us some beer or something?

Sam says:
what color is it now?

Aaron says:
White, I think.

Aaron says:
Which is what we have now.

Aaron says:
Gryph and Doug just wanted to spice it up.

Sam says:
yeah, save the money

John  Su says:
yes i agree in the first suggestion by aaron

John  Su says:
donate to the hungry devs fund

John  Su says:
we need food and drink to work

Prasoon says:
ha ha ha

Aaron says:
Haha. OK, I'll tell Abigail tomorrow.

If you would also like to contribute to the fuel which drives us to our goal of Airship software perfection, please donate to the Hungry Devs Fund. (Or buy an Airship DVR, since small percentage the profits indirectly goes to feeding the devs). Thank you for your support.

John Su

We're hiring. (Integral?)

We're growing our Sales and Business Development teams.

If you used to work for Integral (or want to be able to say that you USED to work for Integral) come talk to us. Email us at info@airshipdvr.com or call us at 425.462.4250 for more information.

(No, we're not kidding. Your experience is valuable — don't let anyone tell you otherwise.)

Gryphon MacThoy

Unmonitored video...

In the New Yorker, a very interesting story about elevators and a guy who spent 41 hours in one, stuck midway up an express shaft:

Eight McGraw-Hill security guards came and went while he was stranded there; nobody seems to have noticed him on the monitor.

It's completely weird that throughout the 41 hours the security guards never glanced at the screen and saw the guy LYING DOWN in the elevator...SLEEPING for hours. I guess this is an example of what intelligent video is meant to do: Catch and alarm really uncharacteristic behaviors. Especially since obvs., human error is a factor.

Anyway, click the image to see the video of the ordeal.

Abigail

Update: On the other hand, here's an example of over-monitored video

Video can do more

I like the characterization of surveillance video being "typecast" in this story (SecurityInfoWatch) — it supports our ongoing contention that users can get double and triple the business value they get from their video just by thinking about uses outside of security and loss prevention:

Sometimes a technology becomes "type cast" in industrial environments, suggesting that it can only be used for specific purposes. Industrial video is one example, generally considered useful for industrial surveillance, but it has many capabilities to assist in actual process control applications when used creatively.

Nitta Gelatin USA Inc. has taken advantage of the newest video camera and control technology to improve its processing and quality control procedures. The video control system, which resides on dedicated workstations, allows remote monitoring of manufacturing processes and viewing of alarm-activated live video, in addition to traditional video surveillance of the facility's periphery. The networked system can be controlled and monitored from a command center in the facility or even from the company's regional headquarters in Canada.