Video Convergence lands two DOT jobs

SPRINGFIELD, Va.--Video Convergence, the video surveillance integration and product development wing of Cornet Technology, announced two transportation-management bids won over the past three months. In August, VC won a long-term contract to design, test and install a surveillance system on arterial roadways for the Virginia Department of Transportation. In early October, the company announced a contract with the Georgia Department of Transportation to use the company's iVDO Streamer encoders and decoders to upgrade the Atlanta Metro Area Intelligent Transportation System to an IP-based network. Building on parent company Cornet's background in IT consulting and the manufacture of routing and switching products, Video Convergence combines camera and system manufacture with installation on an IP network and has specialized in the intelligent transportation system network. However, "the technology of transporting video to a central location overlaps into lots of markets," said Makan Abousaeedi, vice president of sales for Video Convergence. "We have started to get into a strategic surveillance side, with bridges, tunnels, border security--trying to get into the high-end, large applications." VC had to customize and repackage many of its products for the rugged outdoor environment at the top of a pole where transportation cameras sit. It's the central design of the system that makes it work for transportation, said Abousaeedi. "You have to transport the video and understand what is happening on the video," he said. "We have content analysis and NVR technology, with the intelligence on the edge, on a per-camera basis. The user can create an algorithm, design his own way of identifying things." Video Convergence typically does all of the installation for such products, only sub-contracting out the heavy construction work like putting up the poles and laying the concrete.