SpotterRF Brings Military Radar Surveillance to Civilian Clients

SpotterRF draws on experience delivering radar-based surveillance solution to military clients and offers affordable solution to commercial customers. >

Tom LeBlanc

While most surveillance needs aren’t as mission-critical as that of the military, SpotterRF says commercial customers can benefit from the superior rapid radar camera-cueing capabilities that have until recently been cost-prohibitive for most non-military clients.

During ASIS 2013, SpotterRF announces the rollout of its NetworkedIO and the new C550 compact ground radar.

In military surveillance, says SpotterRF CEO Logan Harris, radar technology allows the scan of a large area while looking for areas of interest and moving targets. Once identified, the cameras automatically follow the moving targets and issue alerts. This greatly reduced the manpower needed to operate surveillance posts and mitigates risk of human error.

“That type of capability has really only been available to the top-tier and very expensive security installations,” he says. The NetworkedIO and the new C550 compact ground radar release “is about bringing that capability to pretty much all system integrators, security professionals and, of course, their customers.”

SpotterRF’s price level makes the radar-based surveillance solution “accessible to anybody who can afford a PTS outdoor camera,” Harris says, describing the price per acre of coverage as about $600 or about $12 per linear foot.

The radar-based system is surprisingly easy to oversee and execute as I discovered during a live web demonstration with Harris. Through a web portal, I easily created trigger areas (see shaded areas in circle below) and received alerts as people walked into the zone at an undisclosed SpotterRF deployment.

SpotterRF demo

The simplicity and lack of oversight required, Harris says, is part of the appeal for commercial surveillance customers. It’s not so much about delivering military-grade security as it is about the cost-savings and business sense is makes for non-military clients.

“It’s about making it as flexible and adaptable to different situations as possible and that it’s easy to use,” he says. In the military, “you don’t want to be messing around too much with settings when people are shooting at you. If you ever get into a Humvee, you’ll notice there is no key, just a ‘start’ button. You don’t want to be looking around for you key; you just need to be able to push that button and go.

“We’re trying to bring that ease of use to the commercial world.”

Click for SpotterRF’s press release.

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