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Options the DV-1 has Over the Competition

  1. disc overflow, the system continuesto record footage even when the DVD is full.  You never lose video. (Flash cards and DVD-RAM systems cannot do this.  Once these medias are full you are done recording which is not practical in the middle of a fight or pursuit).
  2. disc archive, if a DVD is lost or damaged an exact copy can be made from the last 6 recorded DVDs stored in the hard drive.  $200 flash cards can be misplaced and the contacts can wear out.
  3. background recording, whenever the DV-1 is on it is continuously recording to the hard drive so footage not recorded to DVD can be downloaded and burned to DVD for court purposes.
  4. original footage the DVD can be removed from the system and immediately played in a $50 DVD player or PC using Windows Media Player.
  5. split screen recording, record both the front facing and rear seat cameras at once on a split screen.  Our rear camera is colour with infra-red instead of a low quality black and white one.
  6. in cold weather operation where officers are wearing gloves are the system buttons from competing systems small and cryptic or are they easy to use like the WatchGuard's.  Do competing systems have an operating temperature range of -30 C to 85 C without the use of a heating/cooling system?
  7. system safety, heaven forbid but if something happens to the officer can a suspect easily rip the camera system off the windshield with a good tug?
  8. playback quality, do competing systems have 352 x 480 pixel quality in the 8 hour mode like WatchGuard or is their quality down to 320 x 240.
  9. ease of use of low cost media, DVD+RW discs cost .86 cents to $2 for an 8 hour disc.  It can cost 15-30X more to store video on a server compared to DVDs.Special software programs or players are not required to view the DV-1’s video.

****With the WatchGuard Hybrid Solution an agency can save all metadata from recorded DVDs onto a database which allows a supervisor to search the database according to officer name, vehicle, date, time etc. The premium program will allow an agency to save 'critical' video incidents to a database in its original MPEG2 format. This will result in a server which is smaller and only contains 'valuable' video instead of daily junk video which can fill up a server very quickly. The cost of a critical event server will be much lower.

If a vehicle is recording 4 hours of video per day X 365 days you will need 650 Megabytes of server storage space per vehicle with a standard flash card system at a cost of $5,000+. However you will only require 187 DVDs per vehicle at a cost of $160. Plus the DVDs are re-useable up to 20 times so if you are storing your recorded video for one year and then recycling the discs your cost remains almost the same as the DVDs will last 20 years.****

 

SYSTEM FEATURES

The WatchGuard system uses a DVD-video format instead of a DVD-RAM format. This means that instead of using a $9-$12  9 hour data disk or an expensive computer server (which only adds an extra expense and time consumption to the process) the WatchGuard DV-1 uses an .86 cent 8 hour DVD+RW disk which can be re-recorded numerous times. Over a two year period that is a savings of $2,600 per vehicle compared to a DVD-RAM system (assuming 4 hours of video footage is recorded per day for 730 days) and nearly $5,000 or more for a server. The DVD-RAM system has sold for $10,000 or more. 

Wireless systems range from $7,000 to $10,000. The expensive DVD-RAM disks require a laptop and a special player for use in court. Wireless systems transmit the original footage recorded in the vehicle to a central server. To play that footage in court someone has to save that file to a playable format for viewing on either CD or DVD. The original footage is no longer original. The WatchGuard DV-1 uses DVD disks which can be played in court using a $50 DVD player from your local department store. The disk footage recorded in the vehicle is the same footage played in court. Why bother purchasing and using special players?

Here are the WatchGuard's features:

  1. In-cab installation between the sun visor clips (no trunk mounting)
  2. 1.5 hour installation time (for electric light switches, slightly longer if an electronic trunk panel system is used)
  3. 5 inch LCD display with night-time dimming/dark feature and cool blue keys
  4. Front facing and rear facing cameras which can be recorded simultaneously on a split screen.
  5. Two video recordings- one recording to the DVD and one recording to the hard drive. If a pursuit or other serious incident occurs the hard drive recording can be saved to the DVD.
  6. 1 to 10 minute capacity for pre-and post-event recording for departments that need to know what took place 2-3+ minutes before the emergency lights were turned on.
  7. High shock and vibration tolerance for use on rough roads.
  8. Free crash record feature to know what happened before and during the collision.
  9. Disk overflow handling- if the DVD is full the overflow is recorded to the hard drive. When a new DVD is inserted the overflow is recorded automatically to the new DVD.
  10. Officer name pre-program feature.  Your officers choose their name from a drop down list to display it on the screen.
  11. GPS and radar interface.
  12. 2.4 GHz microphone automatically turns on when the emergency lights, siren or record button are activated.
  13. Free software upgrades for the life of the system
  14. One or two piece design. One piece for Crown Vic, Charger, Impala, Explorer, Expedition, Tahoe, Silverado. Two piece system for vehicles with large factory overhead consoles or fire suppression system (Crown Vic).
  15. Extended warranty 2 to 5 years.
  16. The hard drive can store the footage from the 6 previous DVDs (in the event a DVD is lost or damaged a new DVD can be recorded)
  17. The hard drive can withstand an impact shock of up to 200Gs and has an operating temperature of -30 to 85 C (this means our system will be operational before the windshield is defrosted)
  18. Supervisor controls (settings are password protected)
  19. Record after the fact. The WatchGuard is always recording even when the DVD is not. If an officer drives by a crime scene without knowing it he or she can record the footage to DVD after the crime is reported. A 5 year warranty is available for $1070.00 at the time of purchase (that's $267.00 per year for peace of mind)
    20. Cost Comparison of DVD vs Wireless Transfer Server Systems

    If you are interested in storing video to your server we can accomplish this with our Critical Event Server software.

    Since wireless download systems transfer all recorded video to the server your dept will require a very large server to store the hundreds of hours of video your systems will record. The cost to record video to a server is 15-30X more than DVDs. Our cost saving solution is recording all video to DVD but the officer 'tags' video deemed valuable or 'critical'. After an officer has stopped a recording they will be prompted to classify the video as routine or critical by answering a standard question on a menu. Once the DVD is ejected from the system and submitted to a supervisor for storage it will be inserted into a PC for uploading to the server. The evidence custodian will be prompted to upload critical video. If you have an 8 hour DVD and only 30 minutes involved a pursuit, arrest, drug seizure etc and the remaining 7.5 hours involved only traffic stops only the 30 minute segment will have been tagged as critical and will be uploaded to the server. However, the date, time, car #, officer name, GPS readings of all the DVD's video (otherwise known as metadata) will also be uploaded onto the server. Your dept will be able to search this criteria and create reports. If you want to know how many traffic stops officer Smith conducted in Jan of 2008 simply type in his name and a list will appear.

    The result of this method will be a lean, less expensive server which will contain only valuable video which will be stored in its original MPEG-2 format. This means the video will be considered original. Wireless transfer systems record in MPEG-4 which is usually lower quality. If an agency wants to copy the footage to DVD the video will be altered from MPEG-4 to MPEG-2. This conversion often results in video degradation and requires additional 'authoring' time. In MPEG-2 a DVD copy will be able to be made directly from the server without degradation. 

    For every hour of recorded video you will require 500 MB of server storage space. For example if you have 10 vehicles recording 4 hours of video per day for 365 days per year (14600 hours of video) you will need a server that can store 7 Terabytes of video. If 10-15% of recorded video is deemed 'critical' then you would only need a 1 Terabyte server to store WatchGuard Video recorded video for that year. The routine video would be archived on 86 cent rewritable (re-usable) DVDs. 

    Now every server has to have a backup to protect against catastrophic data loss. Basically your server has to have its own server as protection which is an added expense. With a WatchGuard Video system you do not need another server because ALL of your recorded video is stored on DVD. After a year (or the end of your retention period) simply format the DVDs with our free formatting program and your DVDs (which can be re-recorded up to 20 times) can be re-used. That's an 86 cent DVD which could last 20 years. Now using the same 4 hours of video per day for 365 days your dept will require 187 DVDs per vehicle per year. At 86 cents each (or less) that's $160 per vehicle to store 1460 hours of video but remember, that $160 could last you 20 years ($1600 for 10 vehicles over 20 years). Compare this cost to a 7 Terabyte server and the maintenance and upgrades over 20 years.

    Now our competition will have you believe that DVDs are not reliable and that dust and vibration can affect our system but did you know that many large companies and federal departments store their archives on DVD? Our system has been designed to withstand dust and vibration so these claims are baseless. The DV-1's hard drive can withstand a 200G impact. The DV-1 also has features no other system has such as split screen recording, a colour rear facing camera with infra-red, DVD archives (make an exact copy of a lost or damaged DVD), overflow recording (you never lose video) and many more options. Therefore, when a server system salesman tells you that their system is better ask them how big of a server their system will need and what the quality of their video is and compare their answers to WatchGuard’s. 

    The company also offers a DVD Copy Station which is a desktop PC with all of the system software included, dual DVD drives and a bar code reader for our EVIDENCE DVDs which have a unique serial number. Also remember that the WatchGuard Video DV-1 does not use proprietary software. DVDs can be viewed using a $50 DVD player or Windows Media Player so there is no difficulty watching the video in court (no lap tops or special players to drag around).