Will IP Camera Systems Change the Flow of Baseball?

We just finished watching the All-Star game which means we're halfway through the 2014 baseball season. So it remains to be seen what sort of impact the introduction of the expanded replay review will have on the pace of the typical baseball game. Commissioner Bud Selig, in announcing its approval at the January quarterly owners' meetings, had this to say.
 "This is really big. I'm proud of the changes we've made..... because they won't disturb the game as we know it.....Yes there will be some differences but because of our own technology, we've been able to do this."

IP Technology?
The technology to which he refers, brings up a question. Are they using IP camera systems? It sure would seem so, but since MLB is tightly closed mouth on exactly what technology they've employed, we can't say for sure. What we can say is that MLB put a lot of muscle and manpower into setting up the video camera systems in time for opening day.  Consider these numbers:

32,178 person hours and 682,788 person miles went into shipping and installing 42 tons of equipment at 30 ballparks, and running 172.14 miles of cable.  And don't forget that back in New York City at the operations center, 37 HD monitors had to be mounted.

The Rules and Regulations

Each manager is able to dispute  a call by requesting a video review. To do so, he must "verbally inform the umpire in a timely manner." Each manager starts a game with one allowed challenge. If it's upheld, he's allowed another. If it's overturned he gets no more. So will this further slow what's already a slow sport with interruptions and calls to "go to the videotape"?

The limit on the number of challenges is intended to keep with the rhythm of the game, but still there are a lot of instances in which a review can be requested. Approximately 90% of all plays will be subject to replay review including

• a home run
• ground-rule double
• boundary calls
• plays at first base
• force, tag, and trap plays

Tying It All Together with Technology

To insure impartiality, on-field officials do not review the video and make the call. That is carried out in the 900 square foot replay operations center in New York City on the top floor of a former Nabisco factory, now the fashionable Chelsea Market. Current MLB umpires rotate through duty there, reviewing video feeds.  In order to accommodate the innovation, two additional four-man umpire crews have been hired.
In the interest of uniformity, cameras have been mounted at the same twelve angles at each ballpark. So no matter which ball park the ops center umpires are viewing they are seeing the play from the same advantage.

Once the review has been completed, the on-field crew chief and at least one of his umpires is called to the

designated communications center where they use hard-wired headsets to hear whether the replay review umpires have upheld or overturned the disputed call. The crew chief then relays the news to the team managers.







The Bottom Line
Most team managers have shown a willingness to give it a try. According to the Associated Press, manager Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants  says "It's about getting it right, and with our technology today we can do that in a way I don't think interrupts the flow of the game."

But getting back to our original question of Baseball as we know it, just as some NASCAR racing fans consider car crashes part of the viewing experience and hockey fans, the fight, are the impartial cameras denying baseball fans the sometime comic scenes of volatile manager's disputing umpire calls. For instance,

  Billy Martin and his dirt-kicking tirades

Or

 Baltimore Oriole's Earl Weaver's turned around baseball cap

No, it doesn't appear managers have mellowed any. They're still arguing ball/strike calls which are not subject to expanded replay review, and so far, more have been ejected along with players and coaches than this time last year. But in their favor, thanks to the impartiality of the video, roughly half the out/safe calls they challenged have been overturned.

One fact that's never challenged is the expertise Kintronics sales engineers bring to the table in helping customers choose  IP camera security systems that best fit their needs. If you are thinking about installing  IP cameras, video management software, or PA over IP, give us a call at 914-944-3425, or fill out an information request form.

A Report from the Field

Here's another in our continuing series of reports from the field; the field of view that is. We like to look around the country to see how various cities are coming to appreciate the benefits of IP camera surveillance systems and how they're putting them to work.

Syracuse PD - Home Grown Cameras

You've heard of baby booms, well the Syracuse NY police department is in the midst of a camera boom. They began installing surveillance cameras in 2011 and the total number has grown to over 40, and counting. If all goes as planned, Syracuse will add 20 more by summer's end.

The police call their camera network the Criminal Observation and Protection System, or COPS for short. Believing in transparency, the city lists the location of all its cameras on a special COPS Cameras map.

According to the city's website, Police Chief Frank Fowler says they're not done yet. He plans to continue deploying cameras as long as funding holds out. He may be installing as fast as he can, but a growing number of homeowners are taking matters into their own hands and installing their own cameras on their property. Other residents, some pro and some con, wonder if, like the cities of San Jose, California and White Plains NY (which we previously reported on), Syracuse PD will eventually seek to tap into these private camera feeds

- which brings us to Grand Rapids, MI

Grand Rapids, MI - Imported Video Feeds

Like many cities, Grand Rapids has sought to rejuvenate their downtown area with new restaurants, bars, and music venues. And like many cities, they have found that when after-dark activity increases, criminal activity does, too. The most recent example was a shooting incident that injured three youths after a Bruno Mars concert, and another one outside a downtown drinking establishment.

According to a post on www.mlive.com, a Michigan local  news site, the Grand Rapids PD and  Kent County Sheriff's Dept has beeb putting  Dept of Homeland Security funding towards expanding their surveillance camera presence in the downtown area with new and upgraded security cameras. Inspired by   how footage from privately owned security cameras helped authorities apprehend the Boston Marathon bombers, they are also looking to supplement their own real time surveillance capabilities by enlisting the help of downtown businesses who have mounted cameras on their buildings.

Prior to this program, when investigating an incident, police had to request footage from businesses whose outdoor cameras might have captured part of it. But with the new program in place, they'll be able to tap into the video feeds from cameras whose owners have agreed to participate in the voluntary,opt-out-at-any time project. So far 100 businesses have signed on and made their cameras feeds available to the police.

According to the Kent County Emergency Management Coordinator the agreement only applies to outdoor cameras, and they will not be used for "day-to-day" but only " in the event of an emergency. There would have to be an event serious enough to trigger us to monitor the cameras."

Speaking of serious events .....Dayton Ohio, has an ongoing one.

Dayton Ohio - No Dumping

Over the past three years, the Dayton Dept of Public Works has spent over $1million  to clean up illegally dumped refuse. In 2013,  in an effort to stem this practice, the city installed 23 mobile, motion-activated, day/night cameras to monitor 46 sites where the most dumping  occurred.

Each day, DPW staff reviews approximately 600 images to see people discarding old recliners, plumbing fixtures and piles of trash on abandoned lots, some even backing  trucks filled with building materials and debris, dumping them onto empty lots or abandoned properties."It's an on going battle," the director of  the Dayton DPW told the McClatchy News Service. "When we put cameras up, we see less dumping at that particular site."

Surveillance cameras may not have put an end to illegal dumping but they have resulted in dozens of prosecutions for illegal dumping and unlawful transporting of tires, leading to 20 misdemeanor convictions, and five cases of property seizures. City commissioners are satisfied enough to approve spending $14,000 from this year's budget to purchase and install 18 more surveillance camera systems

IP security camera  systems can be used to monitor situations like these,  as well as to monitor everyday retail operations, to keep track of assets, or as a resource in new-hire training.To speak to a sales engineer about the best camera for your application, call Kintronics at 914-944-3425, or fill out an information request form.

IP Security Cameras Tell the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth

It 's been nearly two years since militants, armed with grenades and anti-aircraft weapons, stormed the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, killing the US ambassador to Libya and three others, but the man suspected of orchestrating the attack was captured in Benghazi in mid-June. Last week, Ahmed Abu Khattala
appeared in federal court in Washington DC court to face formal charges of conspiring to provide material support and resources to terrorists, resulting in a death.

Fraught with Controversy

Perhaps as a sign of this contentious era, this incident of terrorism is not only tragic for its loss of life and destruction of property but it has been mired in domestic political infighting as well. Those on the receiving end of criticism include

• President Obama for his national security policies
• Hillary Clinton for how she responded  to the ambassador's call for security
• Susan Rice, the then UN Ambassador for her press appearances where she followed State Department talking points proclaiming the attacks spontaneous rather than a concentrated terrorist attack.

And now that a suspect is in custody, there's a new swirl of controversy including

• the choice of Washington DC as a venue for the hearing since the prisoner must be escorted through city streets whereas if the prisoner were tried in the federal courthouse in New York or Virginia, the facility has an attached prison.

• no consideration being given trying him before a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay as an alternative to a criminal trial.
• Since it is a criminal case, the fact that Khattala was advised of his Miranda rights.

A Trial for the Books

Senior federal prosecutors and FBI agents occupied the first two rows of the courtroom at the United States District Court ( not your everyday courtroom spectators). This may be because, as the former United States Attorney for Eastern District Virginia put it, "This trial won't be a walk in the park."

 That's putting it mildly:

• In contrast to a typical trial where crime scene investigators have promptly vetted the scene of the crime for forensic evidence, security concerns in Benghazi following the attack prevented FBI investigators having access for over two weeks.

• Whereas your typical trial relies on witnesses who come forth voluntarily or are subpoenaed, the hostile environment in Libya, first of all, made tracking down, let alone questioning witnesses difficult, and what cooperative ones were found will have to be flown in from Libya and may not stand up well to cross-examination.
• While intercepted electronic conversations have yielded evidence that could be valuable, their classified nature precludes most of them from being presented at a public trial.

Surveillance Cameras to The Rescue

According to the New York Times, In addition to eyewitness accounts, the prosecutor is expected to rely on IP camera security systems video. Thanks to Video Management Software, Justice Department investigators were able to analyze over one hundred hours of video that allowed them to construct a narrative of the period leading up to the attacks, the actual attack, not only on the mission, but on the CIA annex as well, and the time following the siege.

As to how valuable the cameras' eyewitness accounts will be, the former United States Attorney has this to say " The Department of Justice bats nearly 1,000 percent in these kinds of extraterritorial cases but that's because they put so much diligence on the front end of the investigations."

Kintronics has faith in IP camera systems as well. If you are interested in finding out how IP surveillance cameras can served your home or place of business, call 914-944-3425 to speak to an engineer, or fill out an information request form.

Top Three Considerations in Getting the Most Out of Your IP Surveillance Camera System

IP surveillance camera systems are here to stay. You know it. We know it. Criminals know it. The Police know it. As we mentioned in our last post, surveillance video can be supremely valuable to the police--- or it can be totally worthless. To summon more of the former, and less of the latter, police department after police department has taken to giving advice and offering assistance to citizens wishing to install cameras.  They all cite the same three factors that can make or break a video's forensic value.

• line of sight
• lighting
• maintenance

Line of sight

This morning I watched a news story of an escaped convict. Unfortunately he had been caught on surveillance video. No, I didn't mean fortunately. My use of the word unfortunately was intentional, because all I saw was a large floppy hat that reminded me of a scarecrow. How about it. How many times have we seen news accounts of an assault or robbery that includes video from a security camera and the anchorman pleads" if you've seen this person call the police." We look and all we see is a Yankees cap or a hood?

This is the reason we need a camera system, with every camera having its own place and its own purpose. Yes, the high-mounted or wide angle camera is a must in any bank, convenience store, or lobby since it covers a lot of geography, and allows for surveying the scene and observing a crime as it takes place, and perhaps an escape route or extenuating detail that can be of forensic value to the police.

However, as evidenced in those top-of-the-head shots, every security camera system also should include at least one camera mounted in a prime location to provide a close-up facial view.
As a rule of thumb, mounting a camera at  a 10 - 15 degree angle gives the best line of sight for facial identification. In a convenience store or bank this could be right behind the cash register or teller, or at the door to catch a fleeing shop-lifter. An added value of a low mounted camera is that it can deter crime just by its obviousness.

Lighting 

Quite often surveillance video will be too dark to be of much use. Sometimes it's because the camera was installed during the day when the business was open and well-lit, without giving much thought to the fact that burglaries and break-ins most often take place at night. Bright lighting should be employed at all times. Better yet, if the business can afford it, the best step to take is to install low light performance cameras that perform well in dark situations.

When using outdoor cameras, one should always consider the various light changes that occur in  the course of a day. Direct sunlight will "blind" the camera and reduce image sensor performance. The best position for mounting a camera, if possible, is with the sun shining from behind a slightly downward-angled camera.

Back-lighting can also an issue. Problems occur when the object of focus is in front of a window or brightly lit door. The camera will focus on the well-lit background while whatever is going on on front of the door or window will be dark and hard to identify. In the case of a window, curtains, plants, or posters will help, as will the most obvious, re-positioning the camera. Adding a camera with wide dynamic range to the system is  the best solution if one can afford to spend a little more.

Maintenance

Obviously maintenance involves making sure each and every camera is functioning at its best. This involves not only cleaning them but keeping then up to date with all the current software updates.
In the case of outdoor cameras, care should be taken that surrounding trees and bushes haven't grown to the extent that they are blocking the camera.

Indoor camera sites should be checked to make sure all lights are functioning and that the addition of any new equipment isn't blocking the light. Any changes since the camera was installed, such as a new paint color or the addition of floor tiles, can also make a room darker and require extra lighting.

If all this sounds familiar, it's because these are the same three points  Kintronics, has been hammering home in our newsletters and blogs for years and years. If you have questions about setting up your IP camera or anything IP  give us a call and speak to one of our sales engineers. 914-944-3425 or, if you prefer,  fill out an information request form

IP Camera Systems and the Police - Partners in Crime

Telephone system, highway system system, transit system, heating system, cooling system. We talk about systems all the time but just what is a system? Merriam-Webster.com defines a system as a group of devices or artificial objects, or an organization, forming a network especially for distributing something or serving a common purpose.
                                                                                                                                                               This holds true for IP camera security systems too. Their common purpose is to provide situational awareness. But this is possible only if the cameras are working together, and optimally placed.

As police come to depend more and more on the forensic assistance IP cameras can give, they are also becoming increasingly frustrated when a video is of such poor quality that it cannot be used to furnish  positive identification of a suspect. To this end, several police departments have taken to the Internet to offer assistance to citizens wanting to install cameras.

• The Philadelphia Police Department devoted a post on their Philly Police Blog. to proper mounting practices for installing IP surveillance camera systems on the typical  row houses found in so many Philadelphia neighborhoods.
• The Oakland Police Department offers for downloading what it calls a Security Systems Tool Kit, an 11-page  white paper that amounts to a crash-course in surveillance camera systems, starting with what they are, what is needed, an explanation of terms and features, then on to the best installation and maintenance practices, and finally,  how to contact them should a camera capture video that can be of forensic value to their detectives
• The San Francisco Police Department posts one of their press releases entitled Retail Video Tips for Crime Prevention that covers a wide range of  points including camera selection,  placement and placement 

Lights, Cameras, Action

The FBI has gone Hollywood in its efforts to advise on optimum usage of surveillance systems. Their Operational Technology Division created a 20-minute fictional video, using real actors and narrated by AnnieWersching, co-star of TV's 24, which they make available to law enforcement, business owners, schools, security camera vendors and installers at no charge..
Caught on Camera  portrays fictional terrorists shopping for bomb-making supplies in a pharmacy and a home improvement and how one store's properly installed, well-maintained security cameras are able to aid the FBI in apprehending terrorists while un-maintained cameras placed without much forethought produce flawed video that is next to useless in terms of forensic value. At the end, one of the characters sums it all up quite nicely.
"When the system works, it can make all the difference...... If you are going to install a security camera
system, do it right, for yourself, for law enforcement, and for your community."

Kintronics, as ever, is available to answer all questions about IP technology, whether it's surveillance cameras, IP door access control, or PA over IP. Call 914-944-3425 to speak to a sales engineer of fill out an information request form.

First FAA-Authorized Drone Takes Off

Last week the Federal Aviation Administration announced it had granted permission to oil company BP and drone manufacturer Aerovironment to fly a drone, the Puma AE, over the North Slope of Alaska. This approval is the first step the FAA has taken toward meeting the the 2015 deadline mandated by Congress. The agency has until then to regulate commercial drones' use of airspace over land and water to guard against their interference with other aircraft.
A word to companies hoping to use new high tech drones in commercial ventures: Don't get your hopes up for a speedy approval. The FAA relied on the military's experience with  this specific drone platform.  Since it had already been approved by the Department of Defense, the FAA waived its own airworthiness requirements in approving the Puma AE, a hand-launched 4-1/2 lb unmanned air vehicle (UAV)  with a wing span of 9 feet

Specifics

 The new regulations limit the 4-1/2 lb Puma AE to flying

• at an altitude of 200- 400 feet above ground 
• only in daylight hours 
• when visibility remains at a minimum of 3 miles
• within sight the remote pilot
• only after air traffic control has been notified.

The battery- powered drone has a maximum speed of 45 mph and can go 3-1/2 hours between charges.
BP announced that it will be used to fly aerial surveys of their North Slope pipelines, roads, and equipment, for the purpose of

• 3D road mapping
• pipeline inspections
• volume analysis of PB gravel pits
• aiding in search and rescue operations
• target maintenance needs.

Its maiden flight took place Sunday over Prudhoe Bay, the largest American oilfield.

Present Drone Use.

Drones are already inhabiting the airspace. The FAA has been granting case-by-case certificates of authorization  to police and fire departments to insure public safety and to several academic entities for the purpose of  carrying out research, but it has been coming down hard on unauthorized usage. It is currently engaged in upholding a $10,000 fine it levied against a commercial pilot who is challenging it with the National Transportation Safety Board.

 Aerial and Production companies doing work for the TV and movie industry have been among those seeking regulatory exemptions and the Motion Picture Association of America has facilitated petitions on behalf of its membership. According to USA Today, an unauthorized drone was used in making the film Wolf of Wall Street.

The Rush is On

As the drone industry chomps at the bit, eyeing myriad opportunities to get the UAVs in circulation of jobs deemed too boring or dangerous for humans, Nevada will host the next round of mandated research sites where regulators will continue to develop uniform procedures to determine

•  the qualifications of remote pilots
•  the safety of particular drones, 
• the drones capability to  sense and avoid  other aircraft, and, should contact be lost with the pilot, land itself.

Judging by his comments on the BP/Aerovironment approval,  Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx seems to be ready too: "These surveys on Alaska's North Slope are another step toward broader commercial use of unmanned aircraft. The technology is quickly changing and the opportunities are growing."

IP technology is keeping pace, and when drones are part of the airspace, IP camera systems will be part of the drones. Meanwhile if you're interested in IP cameras for any application, Kintronics is the place to turn to. Call 914-944-3425 to speak to a sales engineer, or if you prefer,  fill out an information request form.

A Crying Need for Security Cameras

The New York City Housing Authority owns 178,895 apartments housing 615,000 low-income tenants.In essence that makes NYCHA New York's biggest landlord.

NYCHA has been in existence for 80 years now, dating back to 1934 when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia established it as the nation's first public housing authority. In 1935 he cut the ribbon on its first public housing development, First Houses, on the  Lower East Side site where tenements had previously stood. These apartments had  private kitchens and baths, electrical outlets,  refrigerators, and stoves, veritable luxuries for the 11,000 applicants who hoped to move into one of the project's 123 apartments.

The clusters of high-rise high-density buildings that sprung up in every borough were called  public housing developments, but known to city residents as "The Projects."  The road, however was taking a gradual slant downhill.  By the time this author was growing up in upper Manhattan, in the 1950's and 60's, the neighborhood projects, pictured at right, while having a bad

reputation, were, in actuality, not really that much worse than the surrounding area. But then this might be because projects were only built in high-crime areas.
By the 70's and 80's,many projects had sunk to the level of unsafe, violent  pits of crime.And so it remains. A tenant in the Baruch houses on the Lower East Side told The Villager, a local community paper, that she takes a hammer with her each time she goes into the hallway or elevator.

Security Cameras ????
A survey conducted in 2012 in the Baruch Houses polled 520 residents. 80% said they would feel safer with cameras. This begs the question why, in a city where the New York Police Department maintains 7,000 surveillance cameras, mostly in Manhattan's downtown business and tourist areas, are there no IP camera surveillance systems in public housing?

The answer is, actually there are.  NYC has not abandoned the projects. At the time of the survey, it was found that  the city had allocated  funds for security upgrades, but $42 million of that money was sitting unused in the housing authority's coffers, along with an additional $750,000 specifically earmarked for cameras. The Baruch Houses had installed cameras - but only in six out of its ten buildings.

What brought this travesty to the forefront was a shooting in the nearby Seward Park Houses where a police officer had chased a man into the stairwell of one of the buildings, who then turned around and shot him point-blank in the chest. His bullet-proof vest saved him but questions arose as to whether the presence of a surveillance camera  in the stairway, might have allowed police to capture the fugitive without putting an officer in the line of fire

It Takes a Tragedy
This past Sunday, two young children a six-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl were stabbed in an an elevator in the Boulevard Houses in Brooklyn as they interrupted adult-supervised play on the project's grassy area to go upstairs to bring back some ice cream. The girl remained in intensive care all week, and was just transferred to critical care on Thursday. The boy was buried today. The Boulevard Houses have no security cameras.

And it's not the only one. Investigations by a city galvanized by the tragedy found that only 58% of its 334 projects have cameras on their grounds. Of these, only 41% have "some" cameras in the buildings, leaving the majority of elevators, lobbies, and stairways un-monitored.



It  also brought to light that $27 million the city funded to NYCHA in 2013 for the purpose of outfitting 49 housing projects with surveillance cameras still sits buried in what New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio (who'd made public housing a campaign priority)  calls "unacceptable bureaucracy."



Declaring that "the buck stops here," the mayor vowed that the $27 million would be freed up, and the 49 projects, including Boulevard, would see functioning cameras by year's end.

Weighing in from the Bronx, a city council member on the committee overseeing public housing asked "how much violence has to occur before we begin to address the widespread plea for greater security, for greater cameras?" and estimated it would take another $500 million to install cameras in every housing project.

A City Joins Forces

As the community rallied to find the killer, police were able to put together a sketch from neighbors who'd seen a man in a grey shirt fleeing the projects before the children were discovered. It resembled a homeless man who had been hanging out on the grounds and hallways and depending on residents for food. When the

media circulated the drawing, a man who'd witnessed another stabbing, one that had taken place in a subway station the following Wednesday identified the man as the person who'd wielded the knife. Forensic evidence found in the elevator and the subway station was found to belong to a mentally-ill man recently released from prison. The NYPD managed to find him and arrest him the same day.

This was a case of tremendous cooperation between the community, the media, and the police but still the question remains. While a surveillance camera in the elevator or lobby in all sad likelihood wouldn't have prevented the senseless killing, might it have led to a speedier apprehension, perhaps preventing the subway stabbing?

Let's hope that Mayor DeBlasio follows through on his promise.

Kintronics was instrumental in installing IP surveillance camera systems in a private housing development in NYC, Parkchester, in the Bronx. Since one of these cameras helped  identify a suspect in a brutal robbery, we are always sensitive to the role cameras can play in bringing criminals to justice. Should you be interested in finding out more about IP cameras, IP door access control, or other IP-based solutions call 914-944-3425 to speak to a sales engineer or fill out an information request form.