SAN FRANCISCO--Known for years as a company specializing in video search with facial recognition, "we're really grown up quite a bit," said Steven Russell, founder and chairman of 3VR. Now, he said, "the product is a platform," similar to the iPhone or Windows operating system, where, because of the company's open API, other manufacturers can plug in new analytics or applications to improve a security system that is 3VR-based.

This has led to more partnerships and more interest from integrators in installing the product--"over 80 integrators are selling our products today," Russell said.

This week, 3VR announced, for example, a strategic partnership with Diebold, whereby the integrator will use 3VR's searchable surveillance platform to help reduce fraud for organizations in the financial, retail and government verticals. On the manufacturing side, 3VR announced, too, a partnership with Schlage whereby it will integrate with the Bright Blue intelligent access management software, to allow video search and video management through the Bright Blue interface.

The Schlage deal, in particular, said Russell, gets at 3VR's goals of bringing video analytics to the mass market. "You'll see that trend continue," Russell said. "Analytics will be much more fundamental to any distributed surveillance solution on the market."

At ISC West, 3VR will release its S Series product line, which targets this "mainstream of the market." As the platform becomes more ubiquitous, it will become more likely that developers create ways to integrate with the platform. For example, a Korean partner, Russell said, has developed a plug-in that allows for Korean license-plate recognition.

"If you're a smart person," Russell said, "who's developed an interesting thing to do with video," why reinvent the rest of the video management system? Why not just plug it into the 3VR platform? "The value of 3VR is that we're not just a device that's deployed as is and never evolves. You can install these new plug-ins at any time and partners can write their own plug-ins that can be installed."