Mass High Tech
May 4, 2007
by Efrain Viscarolasaga
A growing number of the more than 100 million security cameras worldwide are moving to an Internet protocol (IP) environment -- and away from closed-circuit television systems considered standard industry fare until now. The IP migration is spurring innovation in the security surveillance industry, and a trio of Massachusetts companies are working to take a chunk of the $1 billion dollar networked video surveillance market.
For instance, VideoIQ Inc. last week spun out of Bradenton, Fla.-based GE Security Inc. and into Waltham, armed with $8 million in Series A funding from Atlas Venture and Matrix Partners, and an established video analytics technology. The technology, designed to automatically spot unauthorized human activity in a given area, has a 95 percent accuracy rate, said VideoIQ executives.
Two other Bay State companies, IntelliVid Corp. in Cambridge and RemoteReality Corp. in Westborough, meanwhile, are ramping up their own networked video technologies and businesses. Executives at all three firms say they see opportunities to get a piece of the market with their individual expertise, but also to partner with solutions designed for specific industries.
"(The move to IP) has made a huge difference in what and how people deploy security systems," said Patrick Sobalvarro, CEO of IntelliVid. Analysts predict the migration of closed-circuit TV security systems to Internet protocol networks, coupled with the heightened emphasis on security across almost all industries, has positioned the sector for major growth. In a report last month, research firm iSupply Corp. in California estimated global revenue for video surveillance could grow from $4.9 billion in 2006 to more than $9 billion by 2011, with IP cameras overtaking closed-circuit cameras as the main format that year.
IntelliVid focuses on the retail environment, where the 30-person company's video analysis software helps retail store managers prevent theft and fraud. The niche for 16-person RemoteReality is in its technology designed to provide a 360-degree view of high-security areas. The main target for the company is in government applications (it recently closed a sale with Lockheed Martin Corp.), but the company has also been garnering interest from the private sector, particularly from casinos.
VideoIQ's technology was originally developed by Mike Gardner and Mahesh Saptharishi, and then launched through Broad Reach Security LLC in Framingham in the late 1990s. It was licensed by GE Security in 2000 and gained a customer base of about 200 chemical plants, water treatment facilities, corporate campuses and private residences. VideoIQ's spinout, which includes Gardner as vice president of operations and Saptharishi as chief scientist -- both of whom followed the technology to GE Security -- also includes former GE Security team members Doug Marman as CTO and Steve Lefkowitz as vice president of sales.
Scott Schnell, a former executive at Apple Computer Inc. and Bedford's RSA Security Inc., was brought in to lead the 13-person VideoIQ team as CEO. As an independent company, he said, VideoIQ has a better chance to succeed in a growing industry with many players and few gorillas."We concluded that there wasn't really a good way to build this business within GE because you have to integrate with so many other large vendors," said Schnell.
