NEW ORLEANS (ASIS, Booth #2032), September 15, 2003 - Sony Electronics today announced that it has developed a plug-and-play, fully integrated IP monitoring solution together with Cisco Systems. The new IP surveillance solution combines Sony's IP video monitoring cameras, servers, and sophisticated software (Real ShotTM Manager) with Cisco's networking infrastructure.
The Sony IP Surveillance Solution built on Cisco Infrastructure has been developed to meet the specific needs of education customers. The Sony and Cisco solution is practical, easy to implement, and is designed to work with schools' existing infrastructures.
"Our schools are now safer and more productive for less money," said Warren Williams, assistant superintendent for information and technology services at Grossmont Union High School District in San Diego. "Sony and Cisco have provided one of the best value-added products we've ever purchased."
Sony conducted joint testing on the solution. As a result, all components of the Sony IP Surveillance Solution built on Cisco Infrastructure have been pre-tested and pre-integrated, providing a more reliable, scalable infrastructure. Integrating Sony's surveillance capabilities with Cisco's network infrastructure allows educational institutions to satisfy their security surveillance needs over a single physical infrastructure. The two companies will continue their collaboration to build on their current offering and extend its abilities to meet educational institutions' future needs.
"Sony Electronics and Cisco Systems now offer the industry's only end-to-end optimized IP surveillance solution," said Steve Baker, vice president for Sony Electronics' Business Solutions Division. "This solution allows educational institutions to use the power of the Internet in a new and effective way."
"This solution offers a highly effective and affordable answer to many of the critical challenges in the education market," said Steve Steinhilber, vice president for strategic alliances at Cisco. "As Grossmont Union High School District has already demonstrated, the joint efforts of Sony and Cisco are helping schools become safer and reduce vandalism while making the most of existing resources."
Sony and Cisco have created a solution that allows Sony's IP Surveillance cameras, its robust surveillance software application and information gathering technology to be integrated with Cisco's routers, networking infrastructure and software. Each of the cameras and other sensors provided by Sony has its own Internet Protocol address, making it as easy to monitor school facilities as it is to surf a web site.
One of the biggest assets of the solution is its ability to multiply the effectiveness of security personnel and provide new levels of functionality and flexibility. Adding the intelligence of Cisco networks to security surveillance systems enables a single security officer to monitor many times the locales than is possible with a traditional, analog-based system.
Embedded-web servers in the IP Surveillance cameras allow up to 50 simultaneous feeds using 25x optical zoom lenses and 12x digital zooms. Working through the Internet infrastructure, users can control the cameras or access information from PCs, laptops or even handheld PDAs. All the information generated by the cameras is in fully Internet-compatible formats, which means that still and video images can be monitored, recorded and printed anywhere on the network by authorized personnel. Archiving is also quick and easy.
Tailored to a customer's specific needs, the solution includes Sony's SNC-RZ30N or SNC-Z20N network cameras and FSV-M5 network attached storage servers running Sony's Real Shot camera manager application software over the Cisco Systems network. Cisco components are Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series switches, Cisco Aironet Access Points, PCMCIA wireless LAN adapters, PIX 500 Series firewalls, VPNs and CiscoSecure ACS for Windows®.
The Sony IP Surveillance Solution built on Cisco Infrastructure is available immediately through Sony and select Sony resellers. More information can be found at www.sony.com/onsite.
