BroadWare upgrades media server to enhance surveillance capabilities

Published 8 December 2005

Upgraded digital surveillance system will greatly benefit homeland security and law enforcement

Santa Clara, California-based BroadWare Technologies, a distributed video surveillance specialist, is releasing the BroadWare Media Server (BMS) version 4.5, the centerpiece of the company’s open standards-based digital video surveillance platform. Using BMS 4.5-enabled video surveillance systems, law enforcement and other organizations may connect plug-and-play cameras and encoders to IP networks and simultaneously store the same video on different servers and sites without overburdening the system. Users may view and archive audio as a separate stream in surveillance situations when audio alone is sufficient or is needed to augment a camera’s field of view.

Homeland security and law enforcement organizations may find a lot that they like in BMS 4.5. BroadWare’s open systems architecture may be used with most cameras, codecs, viewing platforms, and network topologies. In addition, new technologies such as video analytics and sensor technology can be seamlessly integrated into BroadWare-based systems. Within this scalable new platform, BMS manages, stores and distributes video that has been encoded at the source. The BroadWare Media Server includes proxy processes, archive processes, and a URL-based application programming interface (API). Those of us familiar with Comcast’s DVR technology would note, not without envy, the fact that BMS can simultaneously distribute the same video to multiple users and storage devices at different frame rates and bandwidths.

-see product specs at company Web site