Keith Jernigan Sr.

Modern home security systems have come of age with innovative technologies that enable homeowners to have complete control over every aspect of the system. MOBOTIX’s Keith Jernigan Sr. and Hunter Fort explore the immense capabilities smart video surveillance technology to make a huge impact on the home automation systems by driving down energy costs as well as storing massive amounts of data. Home automation is not as new as most people would imagine. It has been around for several decades in luxury homes, but the industry as a whole took some time before gaining popularity. A ‘connected home’ system was seen as hard-to-use, high maintenance and expensive, and the need for professional installation didn’t help with its image. But times have changed. Now the home automation industry is estimated to surpass $21 billion by 2020. With leading companies and retailers getting interested in the opportunity it presents, home automation has captured everyone’s attention. But in all the chatter about its potential, the impact of smart video surveillance solutions for the connected home has been largely ignored. What Can Video Surveillance Do For The Connected Home? A smart camera can become the centerpiece of an automated home but since video surveillance is still relatively new, this technology is not yet used in the majority of homes. Its potential to influence the connected home hasn’t yet been fully explored. A huge advantage of a smart video surveillance solution is the analytics component. Video surveillance technology, largely driven by video analytics offerings, can have a significant impact on home automation. Modern video surveillance solutions can help with the reduction of false alarms, make a connected home ‘smarter’, and offer better data retention. Now the home automation industry is estimated to surpass $21 billion by 2020. With leading companies and retailers getting interested in the opportunity it presents, home automation has captured everyone’s attention This is of immense importance. With the help of Edge Processing, businesses are able to store months and months of data in SD cards. Micro SD cards provide good data retention offerings in 30/60/90 day timeframes for home automation environments, and provide usable intelligence to the automated home. Smart cameras are everywhere and they are churning out massive amounts of data that will undoubtedly become overwhelming if the home automation system doesn’t have a video analytics solution to make sense of all that information. Smart cameras with analytics capabilities will help to avoid a data overload. Intelligent video surveillance and analytics solutions can better work with all the data made available by continuous video monitoring, compared to traditional analytics solutions. Modern video surveillance solutions are able to measure things like light and heat in homes, and are an integral part of two-way video communications. A camera is now a data source for the connected home, as it can measure lux levels and temperature variations with great precision and detail. Smart video surveillance solutions will be able to interact with a home’s heating and cooling systems while better understanding and managing a home owner’s heating/cooling needs - presenting an opportunity for the smart camera to become a vital part of the automated home. Saving Energy With Smart Video Surveillance Technology While smart video surveillance solutions that can impact home automation are still in nascent stages, the potential is immense. Modern video analytics and surveillance technology has the capability to offer convenience to the connected homeowner and lower energy consumption. By determining the optimum lighting, heating and cooling needs of a connected home, smart video surveillance technology can drive down energy-related costs significantly. Smart cameras will also have an impact on the need for DVR/NVR products in an automated home, as analytics-driven video surveillance solutions that generate large amounts of data will reduce the need for these devices. By integrating a video doorintercom to an app-basedautomated home solution, homeowners will be able to monitortheir homes simply by keepingan eye on their smartphones There are major drawbacks to a connected home that doesn’t have video surveillance and analytics tools. Without intelligent video detection technology, there is potential to waste a lot of energy. Also, users will want to use a one-home, one-app automated home solution. Keep in mind that the use will change if their existing home-automated system is unable to integrate with a video analytics and surveillance technology suite. Today, video surveillance technology comes equipped with 180-degree and 360-degree view cameras, reducing the need to install multiple cameras in the home. Consumers will have to use several cameras for their video monitoring needs if they don’t use a smart video surveillance system, with the capacity to take wide panoramic images. This will surely drive up power consumption, increase costs for installing and maintenance and will create a need to use more raw materials. Don’t Forget The Video Door Intercom Video door intercoms are an important element to consider in the connected home. With a video door intercom, homeowners can monitor package deliveries and surprise visits from friends and relatives. A really important application is in home security as it allows home owners to detect criminals and avoid instances of vandalism and robberies. Also, more people are switching off their personal computers and accessing the web using their mobile phones. By integrating a video door intercom to an app-based automated home solution, home owners will be able to monitor their homes simply by keeping an eye on their smartphones. The Challenge? Most home automation systems are either geared to or intend to become a one-app solution. So companies in the video surveillance and security industry will have to figure out a way to connect and integrate with standard home automation software. Though many companies offer high-quality physical security and IT solutions that can provide more information about the connected home and generate more data, it will still be a challenge to make it work if it is unable to interact or interface with routine automation systems. If video surveillance solutions come equipped with smart video management software, it will be easier to do a software-to-software integration with home automation systems. Video surveillance and analytics can do many things for the home owner, from lowering energy consumption and costs to better managing a home owner’s cooling and heating needs. The smart home is here to stay, and it just makes sense for automated home systems to fully utilize the advantages offered by a smart video surveillance solution that will ultimately deliver a superior living experience.

This article by Keith Jernigan Sr., General Manager - MOBOTIX Corporation states the enormous impact of smart surveillance on various sectors. Highlighting the changing trends of video surveillance, Keith talks about the several benefits of IoT. He mentions that the new era will see video surveillance companies as more than just video security cameras sellers. To summarize, IoT is forecasted to conjure up businesses offerings, reduce costs and hazards, create jobs and opportunities, thus leading to robust results. The Opportunity - Smart Surveillance Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things (IoT), a trendy area of tech that is fairly new and growing exponentially. According to some estimates, the Internet of Things will connect 50 billion devices (not including PCs, smartphones and tablets) by 2020 – 250 of which will get connected every second. Also, the global economic value of IoT will reach $19 trillion by 2020. These figures have gotten everyone interested, including big players like IBM, which has recently invested $3 billion in its IoT division. So what is the significance for the video surveillance and security sector? The Internet of Things is likely to have a tremendous impact, as all types of organizations will look to connect their devices, enhance security and create ‘smart surveillance’ solutions. Approach Reformulated With IoT For many years, the focus within the video surveillance industry has been to connect most systems to Internet Protocol (IP) based networks. The next phase, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) as we call it, managed to create a connected device-based industry, and IP video surveillance systems perfectly integrated into that. Typical M2M successful examples would be GPS tracking solutions and remote asset (fixed or mobile) monitoring, to name a few. The result of these migrations was a huge amount of data that businesses had to manage. With the recent improvements in mobile network (like LTE high speed connections), cloud technology and readily available fiber optics backbone, the Internet of Things (IoT) came into play. IoT brings a holistic approach to the table where connected systems and generated data are analyzed locally, or in the cloud, returning to decision makers the information they need, when they need it and in a fully customisable and easy-to-read interface. Applications – IoT In Mining Industry For example, in the mining industry, the technology can optimize operations and reduce risk. It can be used to monitor operations and videos, estimate the traffic going underground in the mines, and help with sub-systems management. Advanced video surveillance solutions, powered by the Internet of Things, can be used to read sensors and integrate with them. Thus, IoT can provide an array of connected sensors to businesses, which will help reduce the points of failure. With the deployment of IoT, 10-25% of operating costs can be reduced, like those associated with people and vehicle counting, and temperature and gas sensing. Advanced video surveillance solutions, powered by the Internet of Things, can be used to read sensors and integrate with them IoT can also help in the reduction of costs involved in the special care that has to be taken with monitoring and managing operations around inflammable gases. With smart surveillance and sensing systems, cameras can be programmed to trigger notifications. This can help businesses be better prepared and allocate resources strategically. Another direct application would be to help with managing the airflow in mines. There is also a risk of loss of lives, when it comes to mining operations, and this can be prevented with smart sensor systems. Connected sensing systems and smart video surveillance support with a predictive analytics component can help businesses predict hazards and take corrective actions in real time. Smart Surveillance In Aviation Industry Another industry that can benefit greatly from IoT is aviation. An airbus A380-1000, expected to be ready in 2020, will have 10,000 sensors per wing. An aircraft of this size is estimated to generate 8 Terabytes of data per day, which can be gathered and analyzed. Also, the aviation sector sees 35 million departures per year and, while there is surveillance data, nobody is analyzing these sensors. So, the opportunity in the aviation industry is huge. Security vulnerabilities are a major cause of concern for this industry, and this is where a smart video surveillance and sensory system can be helpful. By analyzing connected sensors and learning from the vast amounts of data generated, air travel can be made safer. IoT In Banking, Retail And Healthcare Sectors IoT can also help in the reduction of costs involved in the special care that has to be taken with monitoring and managing operations around inflammable gases The Internet of Things helps businesses beyond video surveillance and security solutions, e.g. in operations, monitoring and even corporate initiatives such as marketing and advertising.  Banks are today able to use smart IoT-enabled video surveillance solutions for analytics, targeted marketing and to better optimize branch operations. The retail sector will be able to improve supply-chain, inventory, logistics and fleet management. The IoT-integrated-video surveillance systems can also help the healthcare sector, by optimising hospital process flows and improving the quality of emergency services while reducing the patient’s length of stay. The new wave of connected systems will help businesses across different industries with smarter project management. Job Creation Unlike the past, when video surveillance systems offered a tactical solution to businesses and were a capital expense, IoT will lend intelligence and strategic support. In order to manage these smart surveillance systems, experts are and will be needed. Organizations will need to train and hire experts that can bridge the current business model from one of physical security to that of holistic IoT security. Highly skilled professionals will have to manage these IP networked systems, understand their benefits and inherent risks and deploy IoT systems that enhance and don’t compromise on the physical security component, CPTED principles, etc. With the addition of these experts, businesses can scale their offerings and achieve better growth than ever before. Video surveillance is a resource intensive process. If the industry can leverage the Internet of Things correctly, it will create a great space for itself in the market. Before IoT, video surveillance offered functional support. With an integration of IoT and video surveillance, physical security solutions will be able to help with complex tasks like operations management, predictive maintenance, risk reduction, cost reduction and conflict management. The Internet of Things will ensure that video surveillance companies are not limited to only selling video security cameras. With the intense migration to IP and a smooth adoption of IoT, physical security as an independent business component could become obsolete. The era of ‘smart surveillance’ is (almost) here, and corporations should be prepared to make the best of it.

Foot traffic improved a little on the second day of ASIS International in Anaheim, California. Furthermore, the high quality of meetings at the big industry show tended to overshadow complaints about attendance. There is plenty to talk about in Anaheim. “The conversations have been much more substantial than you usually have at a trade show,” says Charles Hunger, Product Marketing Director, Anviz Global Inc. “They’re not general conversations, they’re ‘How can I use it? I have a very specific problem I need to solve.” Cloud-Based Services For Biometric Access Control Anviz specialises in small- to medium-sized business (SMB) applications. The company’s biometric time-and-attendance systems are strong in the retail/restaurant/small medical facility market, while the manufacturing vertical favours Anviz biometric access control applications. A relative newcomer to the U.S. market, Anviz announced at ASIS that it will begin offering cloud-based services for biometric access control and time and attendance. In business since 2001, Anviz has been successful in the Latin American market (especially Argentina) and entered the U.S. market in 2010, selling products manufactured in Shanghai, China, including a line of surveillance cameras branded under the Anviz name. The company has about two dozen dealers across North America, moving deliberately with a strategy to pay for growth in the U.S.  market from sales revenues. OnSSI Ocularis v5.0 ASIS is a great venue to highlight product improvements, and some new products introduced just last spring have been upgraded and improved since their initial launch. For example, OnSSI introduced Ocularis Version 5.0 in the spring, the first version of OnSSI’s flagship software that uses the company’s own recorder (versus an OEM’d recorder.) Ocularis Version 5.1 now includes additional integrations with camera manufacturers, including Arecont Vision and Canon, in addition to the cameras previously supported. The system also uses server-based motion detection. ASIS is a great venue to highlightproduct improvements, and somenew products introduced just lastspring have been upgraded andimproved since their initial launch  Fully encrypted using 256-bit AES, the software can be used in banking and government applications.The system also manages storage of video and load-balances storage among multiple drives to increase capacity. “The customer reaction to Ocularis 5 has been tremendous,” says Ken LaMarca, OnSSI’s Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “They are embracing it because it is a wholly owned product.” He says the quality of attendees at OnSSI’s booth has been very good. “But there haven’t been enough of them.” Placing confidence in the uniqueness of a product line is a good strategy in the era of commoditization. That seems to be the case for MOBOTIX, which has always charted its own product development course. The German company emphasized IP video when analog was still dominant, and they were also early to the idea of edge storage. Even with a heritage of innovation, Keith Jernigan, MOBOTIX General Manager, says the company needs to work to educate the market on who they are.  New Thermal Cameras Offering hemispheric cameras, a new thermal radiometry camera and improved video management software (VMS) that is touch-screen and intuitive to operate, the company has a lot to tell the market about. There is also a 6 megapixel camera in the lineup and “Moonlight” low-light imaging. “We believe in the technologies the company was founded on,” says Jernigan, noting that many technologies have become more common since they were pioneered by MOBOTIX. Another message for MOBOTIX at the show is use of video for functions beyond security, such as use of the new thermal camera to detect temperature extremes to monitor manufacturing or other processes. Open House Events Placing confidence in the uniquenessof a product line is a good strategy inthe era of commoditization After the show closed, events in the evening continued to draw crowds, including two open house events in nearby Irvine, Calif., a center of technology. Axis Communications hosted an open house at their new “Axis Experience Center,” a learning facility that can host up to 28 people and also focuses on use of Axis products in a variety of vertical markets, with full displays of systems targeted to markets such as gaming, education, retail and banking. A short ride away, Dahua was also hosting an open house at its Irvine facility. The Chinese company is on the verge of expanding its presence in the U.S. market, building its channel, and positioning Dahua as a trusted brand in the video surveillance market. The company has been in the U.S. market for years as an OEM/ODM manufacturer, but is now beginning to build up its branded business. The global company is already selling products, including HD cameras, NVRs, video display walls, VMS software and video analytics, in 140 countries. It’s one of the companies that makes the ASIS show truly international. 

Jernigan will manage the company’s business seeking out new opportunities to drive growth particularly in North America MOBOTIX recently announced the appointment of Keith Jernigan as General Manager of MOBOTIX Corp. Keith Jernigan is an experienced leader who has held key strategic roles in sales, business development and product management. He will manage the company’s business seeking out new opportunities to drive growth particularly in North America. “Keith is in the unique position to help build the North American markets on behalf of MOBOTIX as he delivers the experience needed to develop and nurture relationships with integrators and end users,” said Klaus Gesmann, CEO of MOBOTIX. “He has a proven track record for driving significant business growth, as well as leading security companies, making him a valuable asset to our organization.” Keith Jernigan has extensive experience in sales, marketing, operations management and sales leadership and is a security industry veteran. Most recently, he was the Director and Government Programs Sector Head at G4S Technology, where he helped grow government revenue through market strategies and programs with key federal government entities. Prior to that, Jernigan served as the Vice President of Government Programs for Stanley Healthcare Solutions; Regional Director with Tyco Fire & Security/ADT; Branch Manager with ADT Security; and Business Development Director with Woolpert LLP. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Management and Marketing from American International College. “I am eager to join the MOBOTIX team and use my experience to develop and maintain channel and end-user relationships,” Jernigan said. “Having lead teams and worked with a number of security and governmental agencies over the years, I’m confident that I can bring a new perspective to the MOBOTIX team, as well as the company’s sales and business development strategies.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted MOBOTIX’s request MOBOTIX Corp. was once again successful in a patent dispute with San Antonio, Texas-based e-Watch Inc. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted MOBOTIX Corp.’s request and determined that all challenged claims of U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,023,913, 7,228,429 and 7,733,371 are not patentable. MOBOTIX Corp.’s success story in the patent dispute against e-Watch Inc. continues. In August 2014, the USPTO had determined that U.S. Pat. No. 6,970,183 is not patentable. Shortly after this decision, a district court in Texas dismissed the patent infringement lawsuit filed by e-Watch Inc. against MOBOTIX Corp. Now three more patents owned by e-Watch Inc. have been successfully challenged by requesting inter partes review at the USPTO. “Although the three decisions had no relevance to the patent infringement lawsuit any more, it was important for us to carry on with the review proceedings at the USPTO. We have been a successful pioneer in the IP video surveillance market for more than 15 years, and – using documentation on the MOBOTIX camera model M1 published at the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover, Germany, in 2000, as well as third-party documents found through extensive prior art search – have shown that the patents-in-suit are invalid as they claim inventions that were already known well before the filing of the patents-in-suit,” explains Keith Jernigan, General Manager at MOBOTIX Corp. “We are very pleased with our continued success in the patent dispute with e-Watch Inc. All challenged claims of all four patents have been determined unpatentable and will be canceled. Requesting inter partes review of the patents has proven to be effective and we will follow the same approach in the future to counter patent infringement lawsuits,” says Keith Jernigan explaining the company’s corporate strategy.