Secure City Technology Alliance

Several security and telecommunications companies have announced to form Secure City Technology Alliance (SCTA). The alliance focuses on providing governments with interoperable, city-wide security solutions that can be rapidly deployed, easily managed and will enable instant coordination for dramatically improved public safety and emergency response.

According to the SCTA, the market for these types of integrated solutions is large, global and growing - with spending predicted to accelerate by 30 percent annually to reach USD 5.7 billion by 2014, according to projections based on data from IMS Research and Infonetics Research. SCTA founding members comprise industry leaders in wireless networks and services, video surveillance, and data and voice networking, and include: BelAir Networks, Benbria, Bridgewater Systems, DragonWave, March Networks, Mitel, Solace Systems and the Wesley Clover Group of Companies.

Secure Cities

City, municipal and state governments today face significant pressure to ensure that their emergency teams can prevent, respond to and recover from disasters and threats - both man-made and natural - in an informed and coordinated manner. Their mandate is broad, spanning critical infrastructure concerns such as airports, seaports, railways, subways, electrical power systems, water supplies and gas utilities. Further complicating this responsibility is the fact that these teams must manage emergency events using disparate and complex systems across multiple groups, jurisdictions, formalized command structures and varying standard operating procedures.

To improve today's systems, government agencies need a flexible platform that will allow them to collaborate more effectively among government organizations, non-government services and civilians. SCTA aims to work with systems integrators and consultants to deliver end-to-end wireless solutions that support integrated voice communications, video surveillance, sensor monitoring, mass notification and telecollaboration capabilities. Its members have ensured interoperability across their solutions to simplify the integration process and save organizations both time and money.

"This is an opportunity to transform how our public and civilian organizations deal with threats and emergency incidents," said Terence Matthews, a technology industry enthusiast who has founded or been actively involved in more than 80 technology companies and will serve as SCTA Chairman. "The challenge is to improve interoperability between communications and security systems to enable immediate, coordinated responses to emergency incidents. We are uniting world-class technology companies and thought leaders to ensure we fully realize the capabilities of safety and security organizations globally."

 "We are seeing increasing global interest in these types of secure city initiatives, as governments begin to modernize their telecommunications and security infrastructure. In response, we have formed SCTA to bring together best-of-breed telecommunications and security suppliers for integrated city surveillance solutions that are fast to deploy, reliable and easy to manage," said Peter Strom, President and CEO of SCTA member March Networks. "We look forward to working with our partner members to introduce these innovative solutions to our markets and help our customers maximize the potential of their IP video surveillance networks."

"Assuring the safety of the world's cities requires managing flows of diverse, real-time information so decision makers have the situational awareness and context they need to take confident action," said Craig Betts, CEO of SCTA member Solace Systems. "Together, the members of the Secure City alliance are integrating our proven individual technologies to reduce the time and cost associated with delivering improved national and regional security."

Background ionformation about the SCTA Member Companies
BelAir Networks is the market leader in Service Provider Wi-Fi solutions, and the trusted choice of Armed Forces and Public Safety agencies for high-performance wireless networking.  BelAir is the only provider of multi-radio switched mesh offering the highest capacity, lowest latency, and fewest numbers of egress connections with end-to-end quality of service. 

Benbria delivers next-generation notification applications by leveraging unified communications. The company is ranked by Branham Group in the top 25 Canadian up and coming information and communications technology companies.

Bridgewater Systems provides market leading mobile subscriber, service, and policy control solutions that help public safety agencies authenticate and authorize subscribers and devices, and prioritize emergency network resource and applications. More than 150 leading service providers and public safety agencies use Bridgewater's solutions to deliver innovative mobile services. 

DragonWave Inc. is a leading provider of high-capacity packet microwave solutions that drive next-generation IP networks. The company provides carrier-grade point-to-point packet microwave products and was named 'Vendor of Choice' for last mile enterprise access by BAUD Telecom.

March Networks is a global provider of intelligent IP video management solutions that enable customers to realize the true business value of networked video. For more than a decade, large-scale commercial and government organizations have used the company's digital video and business analysis applications to reduce losses, mitigate risks, improve security and work more effectively.

Mitel is a global provider of business communications solutions and services, consisting of unified communications and collaboration software applications, IP telephony platforms, mobility applications and managed and network services. Mitel enables businesses of all sizes to move beyond basic fixed telephony tools toward integrated multi-media collaboration solutions, accessible from anywhere, helping to improve performance, gain competitive advantage, and reduce costs. 

Solace Systems is the leading provider of messaging middleware appliances with the world's most scalable, highest capacity, geo-intelligent sensor message router. Solace products have revolutionized the delivery of vital and delay sensitive sensor messages through dedicated hardware-based routing - versus current industrial practices of using software approaches running on generic computing processors.

Wesley Clover Group is a world-class investment firm that is in the business of building businesses. The firm leverages the experience and knowledge of Sir Terry Matthews and a veteran management team that collectively represents many decades of experience in the networking and telecommunications equipment industry. Its portfolio includes companies such as Magor, an industry-leader in telecollaboration solutions, and Teldio, a provider of communications solutions targeted at linking IP-based communications with RF communications.