A couple of years ago we idiotically our left car keys in the ignition at a gas station. While paying the bill, the car was stolen.
The exterior and interior of the gas station were monitored by surveillance cameras. The clerk gave us an edited CD. In a wide angle shot, you could see the thieves – a young couple – stealing the car.
The footage looked something like this:
An earlier shot – framed from the waist up – showed the couple buying potato chips at the store counter. The girl had stringy blonde hair, the young man rubbed his jaw as though he had a toothache.
We excitedly submitted the incriminating CD to the local police who viewed it and immediately handed it back saying, “It’s too fuzzy – we can’t use it for identification and even if we could – it wouldn’t hold up in court.”
According to IHS research, there are about 245 million video surveillance cameras installed around the globe. Ninety-eight percent of them record in such low resolution that the footage has no value to law enforcement.
March Networks is working on solving this problem. Its video management platform is complemented by a portfolio of high-definition IP cameras.
March Networks is on our radar because the company has just integrated its technology with the weapons detection company Patriot One (PAT.V).
According to the September 26, 2017 Press Release:
“By combining real-time covert weapon detection alerts with high-definition (HD) video, the integrated March Networks and Patriot One solution allows security professionals in corporate buildings, schools, airports, stadiums, transit hubs and other commercial and government facilities to respond more knowledgeably, and quickly, to potential threats.”
Patriot One’s motto Deter, Detect and Defend promotes a technology that can reduce opportunities for active shooters.
It’s cold blooded – but from a sales perspective – having a product that ties into endemic global anxieties is not a bad thing.
Over the last three years we have met many wealthy Chinese nationals who send their children to university in Australia rather than the US – for “safety reasons”.
Universities vying for foreign student revenues are one of the many natural locations for discreet weapons-detection technology. It is not practical to bodily search hundreds of students a day.
The PAT technology has the ability to scan in tight or wide spaces.
On June 13, 2017 Patriot One reported confirmed sales commitments of $2.7 million.
Deals have been signed in Canada, the US, the UK, and South Africa. In Q4, 2017 shipments to end-user installations will begin. Patriot One has a scalable manufacturing process.
We have been up, down, inside out and once over Patriot One’s technology. Here’s the verdict: it’s necessary, it works, there’s a blue sky for this company.
If there was any weakness in PAT’s weapons detection technology, it was in the video quality, and real-time target-tracking.
The March Networks deal solves that.
“With the integrated solution, organizations can receive the alerts via the PATSCAN CMR Software as a Service (SaaS) user interface along with clear video images captured by a March Networks video recording solution, so they can immediately see who the suspect is and where they are located. Security staff can then access real-time video from multiple surveillance cameras simultaneously using the March Networks system to track a suspect’s movements through a building or space, as required.”
“We are excited to introduce this new integration with Patriot One, which leverages the capabilities of our video and business intelligence platform for this unique commercial application,” said Jeff Corrall, Head of Strategic Partnerships, March Networks.
“We see great opportunities with this partnership,” stated Dinesh Kandanchatha, PAT President and CTO, “as we roll out our technology around the globe.”
The phrase “destructive technology” is woefully over-used. But for manufacturers of traditional metal detectors, the PAT technology is screaming nightmare.
The day after our car was stolen, we got it back.
There was a small dent on the passenger door. Coins had been taken from the ashtray, and the floor was littered with McDonald’s wrappers (fish fillet appeared to be a favourite).
It wasn’t until a week later that we realised a digital camera was missing from the glove compartment.
No big deal.
It took fuzzy pictures.
Time for an upgrade.
Full Disclosure: Patriot One is an Equity Guru marketing client. We love the technology and the team.