11 minute read
INCENDIUM Secure Live Streaming Solutions
from INCENDIUM BROCHURE
ABOUT INCENDIUM
Incendium is a Danish company specializing in secure live video streaming and networking. Incendium was founded in 2009 in Klitmøller, Denmark. In 2013 the partners realized the need for a simple, user-friendly, secure and visual streaming solution for first responders. The Incendium team combined their ideas with a solid knowledge of software, hardware, networking and streaming technologies and a thorough knowledge of their customers’ needs and practices.
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The team believed that in order to benefit the most from technological progress, it must be combined with an understanding of practices and excellent customer service. Based on these ideas, the Incendium team came up with an innovative and technologically advanced streaming solution dedicated to first responders.
Over the past years, the passionate Incendium team has been developing secure streaming and ingenious tailor-made solutions for emergency agencies that contribute every day to greater situational awareness between first responders in the field and their command centers. This resulted in the highly secure visual communication platform for first responders called IncidentShare.
Due to this intelligent solution, Incendium is a fast-growing company that is known not only in Scandinavia but in Western Europe and North America.
VALUES
We are passionate about putting the benefits of new technology into practical use for ourcustomers. We put all our efforts into delivering secure, reliable and user-friendly products.
MISSION
We improve communication in the public safety sector by empowering and equipping first responders, command centers and other colleagues and subject matter experts with reliable, high-quality, easy-to-use tools for secure digital video communication.
VISION
We aim to eliminate misunderstandings in public safetycommunication.
CASE STUDY LIVE VIDEO STREAMING IMPROVES COMMUNICATION
GREATER COPENHAGEN FIRE DEPARTMENT
1000 EMPLOYEES, 1 MILLION CITIZENS AND 80 VEHICLES
The emergency services in Copenhagen have around 1000 employees distributed between 13 different addresses in the Danish capital. The emergency services provide fire fighting support for around one million citizens in eight municipalities, to prevent injuries to people and damage to property.
Communication under very stressful conditions is difficult,” says Magnus Mattsson, Operation Commander, Emergency Services in Copenhagen. ”It can be difficult to get all of the important information out quickly in the initial chaotic phase of a fire, and many decisions have to made quickly.”
Before contacting Incendium, emergency services in Copenhagen had a traditional system. They used radio to communicate with the internal operations center during rescue operations.
The emergency services wanted help with a streaming video solution to streamline their work. Amongst other things, the internal operations center wanted to be able to send reinforcements and to support the rapid intervention team more quickly, in the event of a need for additional vehicles and personnel.
MAJOR SUPPORT IN STRESSFUL SITUATIONS
The emergency services engaged Incendium, who supplies technology for streaming solutions in realtime.
In the rear hatch of the vehicle camera was installed.The camera automatically triggers via the I/O moduleto start a live stream to the Command Central whenthe rear hatch opens and stops streaming when therear hatch is closed. The images are transmitted tothe operations centre using IncidentShare.
”The streaming of images in real time allowsthe incident commander to immediately shareimportant information about the extent and natureof an accident, including information that may bedifficult to communicate via radio. The internaloperations center gets a good overview andinformation to allow them to act quickly,” says AsgerPlaehn, Sales Manager at Incendium.
A technical challenge was that the image transmission should not be abruptly interrupted. The solution uses a normal mobile network but is based on being able to use mobile networks from several different operators simultaneously, using four SIM cards, adapted and optimized for video streaming. This way, an uninterrupted image stream and video signal in HD quality is ensured, even out in the countryside. It is an easily-accessible solution that does not make any major technical demands of the staff but is simple to use.
Each command and control vehicle has two cameras:one in the windscreen and one fitted at the rear of
the vehicle. ”When we stop the vehicle, the camera in the vehicle‘s windscreen can film what things look like when we arrive at the accident site, where the fire is burning and how intense it is. The operations centre is provided with all of the information and we can communicate with operations command at the same time,” says Magnus Mattsson.
USER-FRIENDLINESS IN FOCUS
When a fire alarm sounds, the incident commander starts the streaming with a simple press on the first camera. The co-workers in the operations centre and other key personnel can then follow events via the front camera in real time, from the moment the emergency response vehicles rolled out of the fire station. The incident commander’s rear camera is aimed at a whiteboard at the rear of the vehicle, and it starts filming automatically when the tailgate is opened.
The incident commander uses the whiteboard to create an overview of the situation with sketches and satellite images, assembles the emergency services personnel and goes through the rescue operation.
The operations center can assess whether reinforcements are needed, analyse the risks of fire spreading and start evacuation of people in adjacent buildings, if necessary.
”Sometimes you need to call in an external expert. For example, if we suspect a building may collapse
then a building engineer can be given access to the video images and analyse them to determine whether we need to evacuate a property. If we can avoid evacuation, we save troubling the people involved as well as save money,” says Magnus Mattsson. More efficient emergency services and improved public service information ”Using video images has made a fantastic difference.
The solution has provided incredibly huge benefits and has given us completely new opportunities to streamline our work so that we can save more lives,” says Magnus Mattsson.
The camera solution also allows an improved analysis and evaluation after the event as well as documentation of the course of events and the response operation. The emergency services can better plan the resources needed in the long term. The internal operations management can more quickly inform the people affected and alert the general public.
“In general, there is a great need for information in society on how citizens and society are affected in the event of a fire or accident. Now the internal operations management can quickly use social
media to send out a tweet if they assess something is important public service information,” says Mattsson.
In addition, the solution has meant an increased focus on how the emergency services personnel act and react in pressured situations.
”Before you start filming, it’s of great importance to have an internal discussion on morals and ethics. In extremely pressured situations, you sometimes say things that may be misunderstood and which are risky to use out of context. Everything is included when the communication is streamed live,” says Mattsson. Copenhagen emergency services currently have around 80 emergency response vehicles and they plan to install a streaming solution in all vehicles, and in all fire engines during the first phase.
“Video is an effective way of conveying what’s happening. I believe that streaming solutions will become even more widespread during the coming years,” says Magnus Mattsson.
INCIDENTSHARE
TURNKEY SOLUTION FOR FIRST RESPONDERS
PROVIDES FACTS IN TIME
GIVES DETAILED INFORMATION
LEAVES NO ROOM FOR MISUNDERSTANDING
ESTABLISHES COMMON SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
One of the challenges encountered during emergency response management is the lack of timely and reliable information, i.e. the information that is required for making high-quality decisions under pressure. The IncidentShare platform provides all individuals involved in the incident with common situational awareness through a live video input from the incident.
When first responders and other emergency agency staff get the same view on events in real-time, they achieve a better common situational awareness. This enables them to work more efficiently and deploy resources in the best possible way. In other words, the emergency agency staff gets real-time visual input from a scene of an incident, that allows to observe and orient in the situation and make timely decisions and act. The ultimate result is more saved property and lives.
WHY CHOOSE INCIDENTSHARE?
IncidentShare improves the communication process for the staff and all units involved at an incident by providing live video from the scene, and it supports an efficient information flow by giving access to the visual perspectives of the incident.
At the core of each IncidentShare solution lies the central server(s). To view the incoming video the user just needs a web browser or the IncidentShare app for smartphones. No special software is needed on the workstations and the app can be downloaded from App Store or Google Play. That means that it is extremely easy to roll the solution out in your organization.
Transmission of video to the central server can be done in a multitude of ways. It can be as easy and lightweight as just using the transmit function of the IncidentShare app or using the built-in capabilities of your favorite video source (i.e. GoPro camera or DJI drone). For the more demanding scenarios or special video sources or simply to minimize the necessary user interaction at the incident, we have developed a range of hardware units that fit seamlessly into the IncidentShare ecosystem.
IncidentShare is a user-friendly, secure and easy-to-maintain tool for observation and recording of real-time events, orientation, and interpretation of a situation. Furthermore it allows involving more people that can contribute and support during an incident from their home/office. The platform has a wide range of useful features that allow observers to see the incident timeline, to archive the most important moments, to view the history of the incident, to download the video feed from the incident and share the video for evidence or educational purposes.
HOSTING FAQ
INCENDIUM PRIVATE SERVER
WHAT IS INCENDIUMPRIVATE SERVER?
It is a set of servers dedicated to you, but managedby us. We use high performance virtual linuxservers for all of your secure video transmissionand storage needs in Asia, North America and inEurope. We host your transmission data securelyso you can allocate your resources elsewhere.
WHO CAN BENEFIT?
Among the benefits of an Incendium Private Serversolution are: speed, flexibility (easy upgrade whenyou need more power/storage), no worries aboutfirewalls and infrastructure (we handle all that foryou).
HOW DOES IT WORK?
When you sign up as a new customer at Incendiumand choose an Incendium Private Server solution,we create a set of separate, isolated virtual serversfor you. The servers are located in a securedatacenter in a location close to you.
ABOUT SECURITY
We know that protecting data is vital in PublicSafety and have done so from day one. We areexperts in building mission-critical applications forfirst responders and take great pride in keepingyour data secure.
Among our tools are extensive use of highlyencrypted VPNs, aggressive firewalling, geofencingand a security- comes-first code ofconduct.
SELF HOSTING
WHAT IS INCENDIUM SELF HOSTING?
We offer local the IncidentShare software as a local installation, so you can have it on your own servers or cloud and let your own IT staff take care of hardware and infrastructure.
WHO CAN BENEFIT?
Agencies with very rigid demands on the geographical locations can store their data might need to keep everything in-house. Another benefit is, that you are free to add more storage whenever you like without having to upgrade your subscription with us.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
When you sign up for the Self Hosting solution, we send you the specification for your IT staff. We offer a remote installation service and you will typically be up and running in less than 1 day.
The subscription for the IncidentShare is the same whether you choose to the Private Server or Self Hosting. From our point of view the benefit of not having to pay for your power consumption and use of hardware is outweighed by the extra work it takes for us to keep a remote system up to date.
In general the cost for you is higher when hosting yourself, unless you really need a lot of storage and have cheap access to it.
CASE STUDY CBRN RESPONSE TEAM USES INCIDENT SHARE
The primary task of Greater Copenhagen Fire Department CBRN unit (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) is to handle accidents involving dangerous substances. The firefighters in the CBRN units are specially trained to deal with accidents involving dangerous substances including toxic, corrosive, oxidizing and flammable gases, liquids and solids, etc.
Specialized teams from CBRN Command find IncidentShare app to be a valuable tool during incidents. The app allows receiving and transmission of video of a high quality from an incident.
“Video utilizes the magnificent human capability to receive a lot of visual information, and help us improve our communication”.
When an incident occurs a quick response from the fire department is crucial. Using IncidentShare CBRN responders are able to make a dynamic risk assessment based on the live images seen and mobilize the appropriate resources to deal with the incident and thus strengthen the response.
On-site, as well as on their way to an incident, CBRNresponders are able to stream secure video images
with low latency. This allows them to increase common situational awareness and make better informed risk based decisions on the hazards they are facing.
“The app is intuitive and easy to use”, claims Incident Commander Kristian Levy. The firefighters just open the app, press the button and they are either transmitting a live video to, or receiving a live video from their colleagues.
