The events of 9/11 made everyone rethink security and surveillance," said Bill Stuntz, president and CEO of BroadWare Technologies. "They did some great things in London tracking down who the perpetrators were—but they still had to do it after the fact. We think systems have to be employed in real time to alert the right people to these situations so they can become involved much earlier, relying on the video information to stop things from happening—or at least prevent them from getting any worse," he said.

At the heart of this system is staged, long-term storage using backbone software. This enables storing at a full 30 frames per second for a few weeks or a month, then 15 frames per second for the next three months and then switching the captured data to off-line storage for another year or two. What is also essential is establishing very secure storage of the video by establishing and maintaining redundant copies so that if anything should happen to one copy, there is a second one. Also fast access at any of those locations where the copies are stored is essential, so during an event of some kind as many people as necessary can access the video and study what is going on. With redundant copies, people and computers can view the same video at the same time.

Many modes of public transportation, including airports, railways, subways, buses, ports and highways have been slow to employ digital video surveillance systems because of price and complexity. Clearly, transportation is but one of many industries with a critical need for integrated security and data recovery.

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