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The DIGIOP Team has arrived and the booth is ready.  DIGIOP will also be in our technology partner StarDot's booth.  We will be giving demonstrations of our latest products and software client, Reflection.  Stop by to meet with our team in Booth #359!

 

 

 

 

 

The DIGIOP Team will be hosting a booth at this year's ASIS show, September 21-24 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California!

Stop by booth #359 to see the latest from DIGIOP including our line of hybrid DVRs, NVRs, and our new client software Reflection.  Look for our booth near our technology partners StarDot and IQinVision and around the corner from the Food Court and Lounge. 

Register for the show and schedule a time to talk to a DIGIOP representative and receive a live demonstration. 

We look forward to seeing you at the show!

Andy Weixler, Marketing Manager [email] 

DIGIOP has launched a new series of online tutorials or screencasts intended to help customers with questions about installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of DIGIOP digital video recorders.  View the screencasts now by visiting our Online Tutorials page.  If you have suggestions for other topics, just drop me a line.

Andy Weixler, Marketing Manager [email]

 

DIGIOP is joining our partner Dell at the Indy Tennis Championships this week and at other ATP Tour events throughout the Summer.  DIGIOP and Dell will be offering product information and demonstrations during the tournaments.

The Indianapolis Tennis Championships Presented by Lilly is a world-class ATP Tour event held annually and is a part of the US Open Series. 

First held in 1921, the tournament has featured such legendary tennis greats as Pete Sampras, Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, and Andre Agassi.

 

 

 

 

As you may already know, the beta version of our new client software, Reflection has been released! Since the release, the DIGIOP Team has worked hard to advance the software based on your feedback!

We currently have more than 20 companies using Reflection Beta and have graciously received lots of positive feedback from a number of dealers and customers! If you are using Reflection Beta and have not yet provided feedback, please do so! Your feedback is what drives our success and provides the best product for you and your organization.

Last week, the DIGIOP Team held a company-wide Reflection Beta Test Party. Team members in all departments took a break from their day-to-day activities to check out the software and provide valuable feedback to the development team (while enjoying a delicious meal). The team had a great time and quickly fell in love with the software! (we may be a little bias..)

If you are not currently part of the Reflection Beta program, it's not too late to sign up! Watch a brief screencast of the software and contact us for details on how you can try it out for yourself.

Soon we will be releasing an updated version of Reflection Beta which includes PTZ control, faster thumbnail viewing and much more. If you want to be notified when this update is available, sign up to receive our communications (to the right of the screen)!

If you have any questions regarding Reflection Beta, please let me know!

Katie Fisher, eMedia Relations & Sales Communication Manager [email]

It's obvious that the business world is drastically changing. Companies continue to find ways to spend less time and money in every aspect of business. DIGIOP is no different. From the first signs of the recession, DIGIOP team members have worked hard to prepare for what's to come and it quickly became obvious that greater opportunity existed in an updated sales approach.

Through the years, sales teams in the security industry have focused greatly on consumer outreach tactics such as tradeshows and on-site company demonstrations to promote products and generate business. This approach devotes a large portion of company budgets to travel expenses, making a strong ROI much less achievable. Although these face-to-face approaches are still highly valuable today, we are discovering that many companies in our industry are cutting back, including our partners and customers.

In response to these changes, the DIGIOP sales team is now focusing more on inside sales and electronic communication, creating real-time, cost-effective information for our customers and partners. This approach includes online demonstrations of our software and equipment as well as training webinars and online support capabilities. Because we value face-to-face interaction, our sales team will still travel to tradeshows and businesses for demonstrations on occasion. However, we have decided that incorporating more of this new approach is not only more cost-effective but also more timely and convenient for our customers, partners and the DIGIOP team.

As part of this transition, we’ve welcomed three new DIGIOP team members. Gail Sandlin, our new Executive Administrative Assistant will work closely with the executives and our inside sales team through invoicing, generating quotes for customers, order entry and much more. Gail is also attending to our incoming calls, eliminating the automated response process. With Gail on the DIGIOP team, the Inside Sales group can work more directly and more timely with customers. We believe Gail is a huge asset to the company as she brings great administrative background and a friendly personality for our customers and partners.

DIGIOP also has two new inside sales representatives, John Murphy and Abraham Peniche. John will be working at our headquarters in Indianapolis along side our Inside Sales Manager, Anthony Bowers. Abraham resides in Mexico where he will assist the international sales team and our Vice President of International Sales, Cesar Gonzalez. With these additions to the DIGIOP team, our inside sales department is equipped for future growth and achievement.

With these new team members and changes to our sales approach, we believe you will find much more convenience and greater opportunity when working with our team. If you have any questions regarding our updated approach, feel free to let me know!

Katie Fisher, eMedia Relations & Sales Communication Manager [email]

Last week when attending the Expo Seguridad in Mexico, I had the opportunity to visit a World Vision International Mission (en Español) project just outside of Mexico City in the community of Ecatepec. This community is associated with Mission 500, a project sponsored by the security market we work within. Its goal is to save at least 500 children’s lives with sponsorship provided by professionals and security organizations through World Vision International Global Outreach Programs.

Both Andrea and George Fletcher of Giprex (Trade Show Organizers) invited Cesar Gonzalez and I to join them on a day trip to visit a community of people in need of our support. On our way out to the community we stopped at a Super Store to get a few items for the kids (Balls, Books, Model Clay, Coloring Books, Drawing Materials, Snacks, etc).

On the way there, I truly did not know what to expect from the trip. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to help to support children who are less fortunate that than my own. As we came upon the community of Ecatepec, we took several pictures of the housing and living conditions (they do little justice compared to the experience of being there). The community sets on top of a couple large hills and the houses are made mostly of clay or stone block.

There are few areas for children to play and what is available is on a severe slope. We actually had to get out of our car and walk up the hill because our car did not have enough power to take four grown men up the incline (that is a kind way of saying we had one too many burritos). The facility we visited was a Community Center established for volunteers and World Vision staff to work from. It is a three-story facility built into the side of a steep hill like all the other houses in the community.

When we entered the 2nd floor there was a group of women from the community meeting with a World Vision small business educator. They were training a small group of women on how to design, sew, market and sell their clothing and apparel items. This is a course that runs for nearly a year to help the people learn a trade and be self-sufficient. After finishing up on the 2nd floor we proceeded upstairs where there are offices for the staff and a main gathering room. We were warmly greeted with smiles and a flurry of activity by about 50 family members and additional staff who gave us a presentation of their overall operation. As the staff was presenting to us, I noticed that the hall behind us started to fill up with more people from the community (about 25 more total).  

During the presentation we found out that this community has a population of 100,000 people of which 900 people have been supported by World Vision Sponsors, less than 1 percent of the community. We were informed that only 50 percent of the homes actually have a refillable water tank and the rest must find ways to transport whatever water is needed for their families. It reminded me how important it is for each and every one of us to help make this world a better place, however we choose to do so. So many of us have so much and there is a global population out there that were not born into their families, communities or countries with the opportunities that we have solely based on where we were born or our family situation. It's good to know that organizations like World Vision support the needs of the community by providing food, clothing, medical, education, training and spiritual growth.

After the presentations, many mothers stood up to talk about what they do to give back to the community. Many provide support domestic violence, medical needs, hygiene care, human rights education, etc. Once the presentations were over, Andrea and Jurgen of Giprex distributed the small gifts we brought for the kids. It was great to see the big smiles and sincere gratitude on the kids faces for receiving a small gift from us.

Once the candy and toys were handed out we took some time to meet the mothers and their families. One of the children (a 12 year old girl) came over to Cesar and I crying because her sponsor has not written her for a long time and she feels that they do not care about her anymore. That was heart breaking. It made me think of my kids and how important it is in the development of a child to show interest and positive involvement in their lives.

The individuals we met were a great group of people and not only was there a tremendous feeling of compassion for them, but also a pride in what these families have endured and what they continue to work through each and every day. Before we left the congregation area with all the families, we were informed that six children were not yet sponsored from the group we met and before we left everyone had a sponsor.
 

At the end of our visit we went to the first floor and met a classroom of people learning computer skills for data entry, clerical and other PC/SW related skills to help them in securing employment. Beside this room was an area where women can learn skills to become a beautician (hair, nails and makeup). The last room we saw was an educational and interactive play area for the children to have fun and learn.

As we left we had many grateful families there to say goodbye. They expressed many thanks for what us and those like us are doing to sponsor these very deserving families. It was truly a personally rewarding and heartfelt visit with these special people. I look forward to going back to see them again in the future to share and experience first-hand how they are progressing. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can help children or families in need globally, please visit Mission 500 or World Vision International (en Español) for additional information.

To see all the photos from our trip, visit the DIGIOP Facebook page and learn more about our DIGIOP Cares program.

Rich Mellott, President [email]

Over the last several months the news seems to be filled with doom and gloom about the economy. Businesses continue to report cutting projects, budgets, and jobs. As a result, decision makers are being forced to re-evaluate their security needs and ongoing projects. Security industry observers report that customers are looking for solutions that are good enough to get the job done at a price that they can afford and are opting to pass on the bells and whistles that often increase video management system costs.

Rich Mellott, DIGIOP's President, commented the other day in a meeting that DIGIOP has always been a cost-effective solution. What that means to us at DIGIOP is that we strive to offer products with the greatest number of key features at an attractive price point. We believe that this results in true value for our customers.

We have continued to pay close attention to this goal as we've developed what I think is a very attractive portfolio of solutions with a strong feature/cost balance for our customers.

To achieve this cost-effective product position, we focus on three elements:

First, DIGIOP offers hybrid solutions that provide customers with a technology bridge that allows customers to use their existing analog surveillance infrastructure with networked cameras. Our approach appeals both to customers who want to take incremental steps towards migrating along the technology curve, as well as those who want to immediately benefit from the latest advances in IP cameras and high resolution cameras.

DIGIOP's relationship with Dell means that customers no longer have to worry about hardware troubles that have long been a source of frustration across the industry. Because DIGIOP products are all built on the latest Dell hardware platforms and are backed by Dell's award-winning support, DIGIOP customers will see a much lower total cost of ownership (or TCO) for DIGIOP systems.

Finally, DIGIOP has partnered with leading companies that help bring strength to our solutions. Our Technology Alliance Partner, Object Video, provides some of the most advanced video analytic capabilities in the market. DIGIOP customers can now get real-time, visually integrated business intelligence from their camera infrastructure that was once viewed as simply a means for theft reduction. As a Microsoft Certified Partner, DIGIOP has invested in the people and technology to continue to create digital video management software that is feature-rich and to ensure we have the support from Microsoft to provide better support to our customers and a quicker response on future software enhancements.

Because of our commitment to be cost-effective, and to provide a strong feature/cost balance for our customers, we feel that our products are well positioned to be attractive today with features that will serve our customers well into the future.

I do not believe that business leaders will have the need to return to spending lavishly on premium priced systems. Nor will they settle for cheap, stripped down systems that provide limited features and little hope for support after the sale. At a time when business intelligence is becoming increasingly essential for successful businesses, I think we will see more customers seeking advanced features at an affordable price, a cost-effective solution, when evaluating video management solutions.

Andy Weixler, Marketing & Communications Manager [email] 

The DIGIOP Team that attended the EXPO Seguridad show in Mexico City last week, received a warm reception from a very large group of security professionals. 

Rich Mellott and Cesar Gonzalez also met with our partners ScanSource Latin America and Dell Latin America.

For additional photos and videos from the event and DIGIOP's outreach effort to help with the Mission 500 project, visit our Facebook page. 

Don't forget to sign up for updates by becoming a DIGIOP fan on Facebook.

Andy Weixler, MarCom Manager [email]

 

The DIGIOP Team is in Mexico City this week attending the EXPO Seguridad show. Cesar Gonzalez, DIGIOP's VP of International Sales, gave a presentation entitled, "Digital Video without Data is Worthless." 

The team is also demonstrating the latest client software from DIGIOP called Reflection and giving an overview of the new product line.

Andy Weixler, eMarCom Manager [email]

The DIGIOP Team received a great reception at the ISC West show in Las Vegas. We had back-to-back-to-back meetings with dealers, integration partners, and technology partnters.  The days were long, but we enjoyed meeting with each of you and sharing the exciting things that are happening at DIGIOP. 

For those who missed the event, we had opportunities to experience and demo our new video management client software, Reflection, and to share information about our new product line including new DVR models, new NVRs, and a great mass video storage device. 

We joined our partners Object Video and StarDot in their booths to showcase how our technologies work well together.

If you are interested in learning more about Reflection or our new products, call or drop us an email.

Andy Weixler, Marketing & Communications Manager [email]

J.D. Story, Chief Technology Officer and Founder of DIGIOP Technologies, will participate in an executive panel discussion at the IMS Video Content Analysis Conference being held in Miami, Florida March 10th and 11th.

Topics of the panel discussion entitled "Scrutinizing Benefits of Video Content Analysis in the Real World Deployments" will include:

- Hype surrounding video content analysis -- common misconceptions
- How can video content analysis be used in reality?
- What are its limitations?
- What makes users choose video content analysis?

Keven Marier, Editor in Chief of IPVS Magazine, will moderate the panel which will also feature experts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, iVerify, IBM Global Technology Services, and Johnson Controls.

Andy Weixler, eMarCom Manager [email]

 

We are proud to announce that we are now supporting Mission 500, the security industry's response to children in crisis and part of World Vision. 

Mission 500 provides food, housing, clean water, education, health and much more to children and families in crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean. At this time, Mission 500 has raised more than $65,000 in donations and currently sponsors 193 children. Mission 500 gives 100% of every donation to the cause.

In April, DIGIOP team members will be staying in Mexico for the Expo Seguridad tradeshow. During this time, the team will be visiting children in the area that are supported by Mission 500.

We invite you to please join us in supporting this very important mission as we reach out to those less fortunate than us through Mission 500's online giving.

Regardless if you can sponsor a child or give $1, every bit can help to give a child a better life and a brighter future. Be sure to check back for pictures and stories of the team's visit to Mexico.

Thank you for your support of DIGIOP Cares!

Katie Fisher, eMedia Relations Manager [email]

We've just published our new White Paper entitled Visual Integration of Business Intelligence.

Bill Hobbs, DIGIOP's Vice President of Sales, North America, explains how digital video management systems can help you better understand your business data, bring value to your organization, and take the next step in strategic decision making.

Andy Weixler, Marketing and Communications Manager [email]

Are you an existing DIGIOP customer with a great story to tell?

Would you like to tell about your DIGIOP installation and have a case study appear in an eNewsletter or trade publication?

If so, please contact me. We are looking for customers who want to promote their unique applications!  

Andy Weixler, Marketing & Communications Manager [email]

Prior to moving to Indianapolis in 2004, I knew Indianapolis as the home of the Colts, The Indy 500, and that movie about basketball. Fast forward to 2009, Indianapolis has developed into a hot spot for businesses in the digital video and security industry.

Within a 10 mile radius there are several technology companies that are focused on digital video management, electronic access control, and other security related products.

Most of the new companies can be traced back to Truevision, a manufacturer of digital video capture boards. Several employees left Truevision and started Integral Technologies. This got the series of spin-offs rolling. Let's look at some of these Indianapolis based companies:

Integral Technologies – (now part of Pelco)  Integral was one of the original, big four digital video manufacturers.  Many of the current Indy-based video manufacturers have former Integral employees in key roles of their organization.  It was recently announced that the Indianapolis facility of Pelco will be phased out as a result of the company’s decision to focus on their core business. [website]

DIGIOP Technologies – DIGIOP provides intelligent visual integration to business systems.  Integrating hybrid video recorders to third party applications and devices is at the core of the DIGIOP offering.  DIGIOP solutions are based on Dell’s hardware platform, which alleviates any hardware support concerns.  Much of the DIGIOP team is comprised of former Integral employees.  [website]  

Exacq Technologies – Exacq is a developer of open architecture video management systems for security and surveillance applications.  The company provides hybrid DVR and software only recording solutions. Many of Exacq’s employees are also former Integral Technologies employees.  [website]  

Best Access (A Division of Stanley) – Best Access/Stanley provides hardware and electronic locking systems and access control products.  They are a manufacture as well as a reseller / integrator of these products.  [website] 

Ingersoll Rand, Security Products Division – One of Ingersoll Rand’s major brands is Schlage locks.  Schlage manufactures electronic and biometric access control systems, locks and locksets, door closers, floor closers, exit devices, and time, attendance and personnel scheduling systems.  [website]

dPict Imaging – dPict is a designer and manufacturer of video acquisition technologies for OEM video solutions. dPict's products are currently deployed in several vertical markets, including machine vision, medical imaging, bioscience and microscopy, security, and surveillance.  [website]

Video Forensics Laboratory – The University of Indianapolis and the Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association have announced a partnership to operate a video analysis laboratory.  The facility will provide a permanent training resource for law enforcement to learn the latest techniques for investigating and managing video evidence.  [website] 

There are other digital video companies that have sales, engineering and distribution centers in Indianapolis, but are headquartered elsewhere. Many of these companies are staffed by former Integral employees as well.

ClickIt  [website]

H&K  [website]

In addition to these manufactures and satellite offices, there is a long list of national and independent value added reseller / integrator firms that have a strong presence in Indianapolis.  ADT, SimplexGrinnell, Siemens and Koorsen Fire & Security are well represented in Indianapolis.

About the Area

In addition to being a hot spot for our industry, Indianapolis is a wonderful city with mild weather, a lower cost of living compared to the coasts, and a good quality of life.  However, if you are a snowboarder/skier, or boater, you will need to use your vacation days traveling.    Learn more About Indy

Do you know of other video or security hot spots?  Are there other locations in the U.S.  that have 5 or 6 digital video or security manufactures located within a 5 to 10 mile radius?  Let me know!

Andy Weixler, Marketing & Communications Manager [email]

(Note: Information for this posting was gathered from the respective company web sites
and is presented in good faith. If any information is incorrect, just let us know.)

The DIGIOP Team is committed to using the latest in digital marketing techniques to help you stay current with news from DIGIOP. We've started using Twitter to increase and improve communication with our friends. You can follow DIGIOP tweets at www.twitter.com/DIGIOP.

Also, if you want to tell your friends and colleagues about something new on our web site, just click on the button on the bottom of each of our pages.

We invite you to join our community!

Andy Weixler, eMarCom Manager [email]

We've created a short tutorial on how to get the latest information from the DIGIOP web site using our RSS feeds. 

In this screencast, we use Firefox to demonstrate adding our feeds to MS Outlook and Google Reader. 

However, if you use a browser that has RSS support or if you use Internet Explorer, you can simply click on any orange RSS feed icon and have it added to your MS Outlook or browser bookmark folders.

We hope this tutorial will help you stay plugged in to the latest at DIGIOP!  Thanks for visiting www.digiop.com!

Andy Weixler, eMarCom Manager [email]

The DIGIOP Team received a wonderful reception last week at the NRF Convention and Expo in New York. 

We enjoyed meeting retailers from around the world and demonstrating how DIGIOP can provide intelligent visual integration to their retail business systems. 

Marketing, Merchandising, Loss Prevention and Training groups can all benefit from DIGIOP retail solutions.  

With video analytics in place, DIGIOP systems can reduce internal theft from fraudulent returns, more accurately track and measure store traffic, and improve effectiveness of training.

For those of you who were at the show, thank you for stopping by to see a demonstration of our software integration with Gilbarco's Passport and Microsoft Dynamics RMS point of sale systems and IP and megapixel cameras from Arecont, IQinVision, StarDot, Axis, and D-Link.

If you have any questions about how to integrate real-time and recorded video into your organization or how to build the business case and ROI to show the value of the DIGIOP solution, let us know and we will be glad to help every step of the way.

Finally, a special thank you is in order for our Technology Alliance Partners Dell and Alert Technologies for hosting us in their booths.

Andy Weixler, Marketing & Communications Manager [email]

 

Tell us about your experience at the NRF show!

The DIGIOP Team would like to thank you for visiting our new web site!  We hope you like it, as we designed it with you in mind.  In addition to providing information about our solutions and products,  the new site was designed to provide better support to our existing customers and help others looking for a way to extend the value of video to get a feel for the powerful intelligent solutions that DIGIOP provides to customers around the world.

From our retail solutions that enable a leading women's clothing retailer in the U.S. to evaluate in-store traffic and merchandising effectiveness to financial services solutions that improve security and loss prevention in a large bank in Latin America, DIGIOP is working to change the way video is used in business.  If you would like more information about how DIGIOP can provide greater operational efficiencies, improved customer service, and increased profitability, give us a shout!

Our website and our electronic social marketing initiatives are the foundation of DIGIOP’s marketing efforts. Please visit our site often to obtain the latest information, learn about new solutions and partnerships, or you can opt-in to receive our electronic notifications.  You will be able to view and share with your counterparts our weekly blog postings, video podcasts, monthly electronic newsletters as well as email updates!

We have links to our Technology Alliance Partners, Certified Integration Sales Partners, as well as links to industry related web sites.  We hope you will join our community.

We will continue to update and bolster our web site in the upcoming months and hope you will stop by frequently to get the latest company and industry buzz.

Let us know what you think of our new website . Thanks again for visiting! 

Andy Weixler, Marekting & Communications Manager [email]