ATLANTA, Sept. 29, 2014 (ASIS 2014, Booth 225) – Today, businesses are challenged with easily managing, securing and safeguarding assets such as people, property and things in remote sites. Limitations on bandwidth availability and the expense of alternative solutions or on-site personnel coverage makes it very difficult to protect and secure assets across distributed locations and field operations. Cisco announced today Connected Safety and Security solutions and collaboration with a group of ecosystem companies that remedy these challenges and leverage the new capabilities and benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT) to help businesses and governments cut costs and provide better safety.

At the core of these new solutions is Cisco’s Video Surveillance Manager 7.6 (VSM). VSM 7.6 is a proven, mature and highly scalable IoT video surveillance platform that enables customers to easily manage highly distributed multivendor, edge-based analytics applications. The solution now provides new IP Camera application management features that, together with video analytics, connected edge storage and IoT connectivity, are solving a broad range of safety and security challenges for public sector, energy, transportation, industrial and service provider customer by delivering reliability at scale.

Highlights of the solution include:

• VSM’s Connected Edge Storage (CES) feature provides the flexibility to store video at the edge, on cameras with the intelligent ability to transfer the data centrally on demand or automatically to preserve limited bandwidth to remote sites.
• Cisco’s IP Cameras provide technology partners and application developers with an open application development platform and SDK for IP Cameras, allowing customers to easily add functionality as needed, effectively turning IP Cameras into intelligent sensors capable of processing more than just video and supporting multiple analytics apps that provide information and automation at the edge, such as audio analytics, SIP applications and other analytics, acting as IoT-ready smart endpoints.
• Video analytics at the edge allows intelligent event processing and classification and enables exceptional event action and management even before the data is analyzed at a central location. For example, it can recognize glass breaking, aggression or gunshots through video and audio enabled capabilities via apps in the cameras, and take actions at a local level, such as starting detailed recording, alerting the central monitoring centers or signaling other cameras to focus on the same event from different angles.
• These capabilities also save customers on the cost of storage and bandwidth, as only relevant video data is sent back for archiving or detailed analysis. With VSM and edge-based capabilities of Cisco’s Smart Endpoints (IP Cameras), customers can manage IoT applications for remote site monitoring of assets across industries, allowing companies to achieve significant ROI benefits from improved operations, even for sites where there is limited connectivity and bandwidth.
• The Cisco Safety and Security Desktop application enables security operators to easily and quickly identify alerts and events associated with positive analytic activities at the remote sites, decreasing the reaction time for potential threats.

Working with partners to deliver benefits through analytics and connected endpoints: Cisco works with global strategic alliance partner AGT International, a leading IoT analytics company, to provide customers with highly secure, interoperable solutions and services in order to take advantage of the IoE.

• The AGT and Cisco solutions collect data from sensors and cameras, and filters content using sophisticated analytics to identify relevant information.
• The City Safety Solution helps law enforcement agencies monitor public area, accurately detect incidents early on, track suspects and respond faster through analysis of unusual activity patterns. The solution combines data from multiple sources to help identify real incidents and reduce false alarms.
• The Traffic Incident Management Solution helps traffic departments quickly detect more incidents, and respond faster by monitoring and analyzing traffic flow data. The solution fuses data from multiple sources to help identify real incidents and reduce false alarms, and integrates data from multiple applications into one comprehensive solution.

Cisco is also announcing support for Cisco Instant Connect mobile applications on Apple iOS devices, in addition to Google Android devices. To learn more about Cisco Instant Connect, please visit the Instant Connect solution overview site.

Supporting Quotes 

Kip Compton, VP, IoT Systems & Software Group, Cisco, said: “The Internet of Things is enabling us to connect devices and control the physical world in new and exciting ways that add not only to business value but to employees’ and citizens’ quality of life. VSM7.6 powers intelligent video surveillance as a valuable business tool to mitigate risk, improve operational processes and provide better customer experiences.”

Mati Kochavi, CEO, AGT, said: “The promise of the Internet of Thing lies in our ability to apply powerful analytics to the disparate data created by the connection of billions of endpoints. Through our work with Cisco, AGT is helping cities realize that promise, with data management; analytics and visualization capabilities can detect previously unseen data patterns and provide insights that improve public safety and the operation of city infrastructure.”

Jason Rossi, director, Safety and Security, University of San Francisco, said: “Now the attendant only needs to verify people who the system doesn’t recognize. We’ve made an unmanageable situation manageable.”

Supporting Resources:

• Visit Cisco Physical Security at: www.cisco.com/go/physec
• In-depth blog on AGT and Cisco’s New IoE solutions for Smart Cities
• Watch the webinar, “Creating Safer, Smarter Cities,” to learn about Cisco Smart+Connected™ City solutions
• Cisco Video Surveillance Manager 7 solution overview and data sheet
• Cisco IP Interoperability and Collaboration System Release 4.8 solution overview and data sheet
• Cisco IP Interoperability and Collaboration System (IPICS) Mobile Client solution overview and data sheet
• Cisco IP Camera Applications and Utilities
• Cisco Video Surveillance 6500PD and 7530PD IP Cameras

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to thenetwork.cisco.com.

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