Frank Street started out in 1997 importing and distributing CCTV equipment to the industry, and after only six months into business, a large installation company approached the company to supply CCTV equipment to the Edgar's chain stores.
The company gradually grew its customer base, forming strong relationships through quality service and commitments. With all the talk around Digital Storage back in 1998, Frank Street was the first to introduce the PC-based DigiNet digital video recorders from Kodicom in 1999. Four years on, the DigiNet DVRs are distributed throughout southern Africa and the Middle East. Kodicom has given Frank Street exclusive rights to assemble the DigiNet DVRs in South Africa. To date, Frank Street has supplied over 1200 DigiNet DVR units in South Africa. Much of this achievement has been attributed to the company's qualified engineers.
The company has indeed grown from strength to strength and in January 2002 moved to larger premises in Selby Ext 19, Johannesburg. Frank Street was started by Abie Ali and Zaheer Munshi and only employed two staff. Today, this number has grown to 15 people. "We have a definite management structure, with control and accountability at each level," said Ali. "All relevant technical staff are trained to a level commensurate with the equipment assembled and installed and from time to time, a refresher or new product course is provided to all relevant technicians." An equal opportunity company, Frank Street also offers training to installers free of charge so that they can keep track with new technology.
"We design integrated systems for various customers including the government," adds Ali. "Especially after the 11 September tragedy we now expect that airports, road junctions, railway stations and even shopping centres will be continuously monitored by advanced CCTV systems."
Networked CCTV - the future has arrived
Today's data networks have been rapidly evolving into 'information networks' capable of transmitting and switching voice, video and data at the same time. Data networking technologies such as Gigabit Ethernet allow broadcast quality video, audio and corporate data to share the same optical fibres and copper cables as well as a common hardware (hubs, switchers, routers etc) infrastructure. According to Ali a CCTV network user can expect the network to deliver:
1. Simultaneous recording, playback, archiving and live view of video across the network.
2. Immediate access to any data source, including live video and audio - irrespective of whether anyone else is using it at the same time or irrespective of where the user is located on the network.
"From a CCTV perspective, a whole new way of working opens up. Frank Street has already introduced this type of state-of-the-art technology to large corporations.
Our new technology DVR systems will be introduced soon where the operating system will be on a Flash RAM therefore making the DigiNet DVR a true embedded system that can be accessed through a network connection. Our first concept was and will stay the same TCP/IP based, meaning that it can be linked onto any networked system. With the current hard-drive technology, we can store up to 30 days worth of recordings using advanced motion detection," he states.
Digital watermarking
According to Ali the greatest feature of Frank Street's DigiNet DVR systems is that it has authentic watermarking. "To prevent unauthorised manipulation to recorded video and provide recorded images as indisputable verification of criminal acts in courts, all our DigiNet DVR systems are supplied with digital watermarking, embedding the watermark into the original un-encrypted video picture. The illegally modified content would be detected after authentication checking via the digital watermarking technology. The market is requiring more securable equipment with additional efficiency tools and algorithms. Therefore, digital watermarking is one of the total security solutions and will include more intelligent security functions in the future. "With all this in mind Frank Street is striving to provide the latest in CCTV technology for the industry," he explains.
"Our new showroom has advanced CCTV equipment and our customers involved in installation and system integration use our demo room for their customers thus ensuring that the end user is able to see first hand the technology and equipment that he or she requires. In addition, 95% of our products are available ex-stock as we now have a larger storage space."
Frank Street will be opening a branch in Umgeni Park, Durban this month to service its KwaZulu-Natal clients. In addition, the company has appointed Accrue Technology, a Cape Town-based company as its distributor in that region, and also supplies other resellers throughout South Africa.
For further details contact Abie Ali, Frank Street on tel: 011 838 4515, fax 011 833 2841, e-mail: sales@frankstreet.co.za
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