L-3 bolsters government video security business

L-3 Communications Inc. acquired the video security product lines developed by Sarnoff Corp. and marketed by its subsidiary Pyramid Vision, Sarnoff officials announced. The terms of the deal were not revealed.


Sarnoff's customers for the video products include the Department of Defense, defense and security system integrators and agencies of the Department of Homeland Security. The company has contracts with a U.S. military base in Djibouti, Africa, and the Virginia Port Authority at the seaports in the Hampton Roads, Va. area.


Among the products acquired are VisionAlert, a video content analysis tool, and Hawk, a rules-based security sensor management platform. These products assist security staff with monitoring up to thousands of surveillance cameras, said Vincent Endres, vice president of ventures and marketing.


"With the software we overlay a 3D image of the place being monitored," he said. "It provides a much better perspective of what you're looking over. And the software can atomically handoff one video stream to another to follow a person."


Developing technology and selling it off to another company is part of Sarnoff's business strategy, said Vincent Endres, vice president of ventures and marketing, Endres said.


Sarnoff is based in Princeton, N.J., and L-3 is based in New York City.