Video appliances could help resellers make money in moving pictures
Solution providers have had little reason to think about video, which in a corporate context has usually meant grainy security camera footage or jumpy videoconferencing. But a new appliance approach to video, coupled with third- party software, could turn video into a new revenue generator for resellers.
That's the goal for Vantum, a Boulder, Colo.-based company whose Active Video Appliance products are designed to turn video into another type of data to be managed, mined and utilized as easily as traditional data.
The appliances are really very small computers with a digital video camera on one end, according to Howdy Pierce, Vantum's president and CEO. The appliance connects to the LAN through an Ethernet port, and can be integrated into the existing IP management infrastructure. The appliances can be controlled through embedded JavaScript and a code-generating wizard that prompts users to help set up rules to allow the appliance to behave intelligently.
Pierce envisions a world where the appliances are used for everything from conducting research on sales patterns in retail stores to aiding in telemedicine applications.
