Jack Cabasso

Aventura Technologies, Commack, N.Y., and seven current and former employees have been charged with fraudulently selling Chinese-made video surveillance equipment while falsely representing that the equipment was made in the United States. Jack Cabasso, Aventura’s Managing Director and de facto owner and operator, is among the individuals charged. Unlawful importation and bank fraud The criminal complaint, unsealed Nov. 7 in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., charges unlawful importation and conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. According to the complaint, Aventura has generated more than $88 million in sales revenue since November 2010, and the charged scheme has been ongoing since 2006. “Mr. Cabasso and his co-conspirators secured products from outside the U.S. while purporting that these products were made in America,” says Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration Russell George. Chinese products branded 'Made in the USA' “In today’s global economy, ‘Made in the USA’ is too sacred of a mark to fraudulently use for one’s self interest,” states Internal Revenue Criminal Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Jonathan D. Larsen. In today’s global economy, ‘Made in the USA’ is too sacred of a mark to fraudulently use for one’s self interest"The complaint alleges that Aventura imported networked security products from manufacturers based in the People’s Republic of China, which have known cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and resold them to the U.S. military, other government installations and private customers while claiming they were American-made. In the course of an investigation, the U.S. government intercepted and covertly marked numerous shipments from Chinese sources to Aventura’s Commack headquarters. In some cases, cameras shipped from China were pre-marked with Aventura’s logo and the phrase “Made in USA” accompanied by an American flag. Money laundering and false contracts Four of the individual defendants, including Jack Cabasso and his wife, Frances Cabasso, are also charged with falsely seeking to obtain government contracts reserved for women-owned businesses, even though the company is actually controlled by Jack Cabasso. The couple is also charged with laundering the monetary proceeds of the fraudulent schemes. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, the defendants each face up to 20 years’ imprisonment on each charge in the complaint. Statement from SIA The Security Industry Association (SIA) released the following statement:SIA strongly encourages its members to operate ethically" “The Security Industry Association finds [the] charges issued by the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, against Aventura Technologies and members of its management team to be very serious, and if true, would represent business practices that SIA does not condone. SIA strongly encourages its members to operate ethically and comply with all U.S. laws and regulations. SIA also continues to fully support federal government efforts to strengthen the integrity of our nation’s supply chain. The SIA Board of Directors has begun to review these charges and the status of Aventura’s membership in SIA.”

The 10th edition of Secutech Vietnam will be remembered for its record-breaking increase in visitor numbers. The show welcomed 12,097 global visitors (2016: 7,473) – up 62% on last year, as exhibitors seized the opportunities presented by one of the most promising security markets in Southeast Asia. 270 exhibitors from 20 countries Across 9,000 sqm of gross exhibition space, there were 270 exhibitors from 20 countries and regions: Australia, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, the UAE, the UK and the US. The likes of Bosch, Dahua, EN3, Everdigm, Force 21, GIGA, Hikvision, Himax, Honeywell, NAFFCO, Nittan, Questek, Rapidrop, Seagate, SFFECO, Synology, Techpro and Vantech were amongst the leading security and fire brands at the fair. In addition, three pavilions were in place during the course of the show. The Silversea Pavilion housed integrated and smart security solutions, while the UL Pavilion showcased fire safety systems and technologies. At the KFI Pavilion, a number of Korean companies exhibited their state-of-the-art product designs and innovations. Speaking of the results of this edition, Deputy General Manager of Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd, Ms Regina Tsai, said: “The security market here in Vietnam is maturing, and shows a high demand for cross-sector technologies. Basic components cannot satisfy the market anymore. Therefore, as you can see, exhibitors have incorporated features for intelligent security solutions, smart buildings, smart city, home automation and fire safety and rescue opportunities in their products.” Across 9,000 sqm of gross exhibition space, there were 270 exhibitors from 20 countries and regions Advanced devices for end users Both newcomers and long-term exhibitors are aware of this market shift in Vietnam. Thus, they have introduced a plethora of advanced devices to end-users to the region. First-time exhibitor Boon Edam is a manufacturer of security entrances and revolving doors. The company’s Export Area Sales Manager, Mr Paul Liu, said: “With its surging economy, Vietnam is a rising market for the security industry with all kinds of opportunities. This is our first time exhibiting at Secutech Vietnam. It is amazing that the leading brands are all here at the show, which I believe is one of the reasons why there is a large flow of visitors.” Meanwhile, GES Co, an advanced security system provider, was delighted to meet target customers during the three-day show. Project leader of Overseas Business Division, Mr Hyun-il Ko, commented: “This is our first year exhibiting at Secutech Vietnam. We think the trade fair is well-organised in terms of visitor traffic and show arrangement. We’re excited to meet up with many distributors coming from commercial and government sectors. We’ll absolutely consider coming back next year.” Advanced technologies on display For some long-term exhibitors, Secutech Vietnam is a place to present their most advanced technologies. Drones and VR for security and rescue purposes as well as facial recognition management systems are some of the hot items. For instance, Vantech’s International Sales Manager, Mr Florian Le Guen, said: “This year, we’ve seen the highest traffic at the trade show than previous ones. Secutech Vietnam is an important business platform in Vietnam for security companies to show new products, and for visitors to see the future of technology.” Managing Director of Aventura, Mr Jack Cabasso, also commented: “Vietnam is the most significant emerging security market in the region and Secutech Vietnam fulfils the industry needs. We’ve seen a great amount of high quality attendees with current and upcoming security product requirements at the show this year.” Drones and VR for security and rescue purposes, aswell as facial recognition management systems, are some of the hot items Events and seminars What’s more, Secutech Vietnam offered more than just business opportunities to industry players. A series of concurrent events featuring leading security firms and associations aimed to disseminate insights and market trends. The Fire & Safety Seminar examined the most recent developments and applications of fire equipment. In addition, the Global Digital Security Solutions Forum, with the theme ‘Play Smart in Security – Applying Smart Solutions with Utmost Added Values’, received positive feedback from both speakers and attendees. The Asia Fire Protection Inspection Council General Meeting also concluded on a high note, with its exclusive 10 member countries discussing issues in their respective markets. There was also the Outdoor Demo Zone which displayed the latest fire equipment.  Secutech Vietnam 2018 Secutech Vietnam is supported by the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Science & Technology, the Ministry of Planning & Investment, the Ministry of Industry & Trade, the Ministry of Construction, and the Ministry of Transport. The next edition will be held 16-18 August 2018 at the Saigon Exhibition & Convention Center, Ho Chi Minh City.

Aventura continues to expands expand its feature set of products beyond PSIM As the 61st annual ASIS 2015 kicked off in Anaheim, Calif., it became increasingly clear that physical security continues to move from the realm of traditional intrusion detection, video surveillance and alarms into value-added applications that extend into new markets, uses and purposes – many of them centred on business and operational processes. While video surveillance, intrusion detection, security and safety of course were an overriding emphasis, there was an underlying one as well: that connectivity, integration and the Internet of Things (loT) will continue to move the industry into new specifications that focus on situational awareness and extend the everyday practicality of systems solutions into new, valuable applications. With the need to ensure security and safety of citizens at large, organisations are developing real-time information and analytics tools meeting the needs of first responder and users. More integration Visit after visit confirmed that it’s a new era for all – and one that increasingly benefits the end user. Jack Cabasso, Managing Director of Aventura, Commack, N.Y., spoke of total situational awareness and how the company continues to expand its feature set of products beyond Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) and into totally integrated solutions meeting needs of users, installers and even first responders. “We continue to build more functionality into our solutions. Today, you need total situational awareness – security, life safety, safety and more, with everything integrated enterprise-wide.” Cabasso says it’s important for video management software to have open architecture and the ability to support many different interfaces and products, whether CCTV, access control or other solution categories. “With an open system, the evolution of everything working on the network continues,” he says. Quicker incident response Verint Systems Inc., Melville, N.Y., also announced enhancements to its Situational Awareness Platform, including solutions that help enterprise end users drive rapid incident response reporting and enhanced field communications. “We’re engaging with the public and responding authorities in more meaningful ways with new capabilities designed to move the needle forward in actionable intelligence,” says Kevin Wine, Vice President of Marketing, Video and Situation Intelligence Solutions, Columbia, Md.  The company recently unveiled new situation management in its Verint Situational Awareness Platform that’s designed to transform the way users engage with responders, field resources, other public safety stakeholders as well as the general public. The platform uses situational awareness with built-in dispatch and bi-directional information flow for continuous communication between citizens, intake operators, field resources and command centre personnel and allows responders to provide mobile reporting through streaming video and live images. Stanley Security is focused on vertical market solutions that extend beyond traditional safety and security “Simply providing security is not enough,” he says. “Citizens expect immediate interaction, and now platforms combine PSIM, Computer-Aided Dispatch and more to bring it all together and provide actionable intelligence,” he says. Jeremy Morton, Vice President and General Manager of Software & Controls for Stanley Security, Indianapolis, reiterated that the company is focused on vertical market solutions that extend beyond traditional safety and security and focus on compliance, regulations and business operations processes. “With retail, we integrate video with point of sale and in this way can repurpose end-user assets (security) to become proactive business tools. Our partners can become more efficient with software driven tools to meet the needs of different vertical markets,” he says. Real-time information and analytics At the show, Stanley unveiled its new Stanley Insights™ Professional Services and Analytics Solutions Software, a solution and consultancy programme with the ability to correlate data streams, analyse trends and measure business activities and operations, using analytics to help optimise business performance. Morton says businesses are asking for real-time information and analytics to help draw meaningful information they can put to use. Stanley Insights Analytics Software is designed to compile data from multiple, disparate systems – including video analytics, intrusion, point of sale, electronic article surveillance, weather platforms and more into any easy to use dashboard to report on key metrics for a business, creating actionable business intelligence across their locations. ASIS, one of the leading international security shows, provided evidence that while physical security remains important, continued integration of devices, solutions and services is ultimately the direction of the industry, and one that will add paramount value to end users at all their facilities.

 H.265/HEVC coding format will bring major benefits to IP video cameras offering a new level of video quality at an economic price The emergence last year of a new format for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is poised to have a huge impact on IP video surveillance cameras over the next few years. Among the benefits of the new H.265/HEVC coding format over the legacy H.264/MPEG-4 is a 40 percent or more bit rate reduction at the same visual quality. Therefore, a camera could provide either better visual quality than H.264 with existing network and storage requirements, or it could provide the same visual quality with 40 percent less network and storage needs. H.265/HEVC could enable IP cameras with even larger megapixel counts – 20 megapixel cameras, for example – to operate more efficiently without overwhelming network infrastructures. H.265/HEVC also brings improvements in noise levels, colour spaces and, most importantly for surveillance, an enhanced dynamic range. H.265 implementation inevitable but some years away Implementation of the new standard in most IP video cameras, however, is still years away. As with other video standards, the security market inherits the H.265/HEVC format from the much larger consumer electronics market. Typically, after standards are developed, it takes several years for their use to make its way into various markets, starting with the consumer video market and later into security and other smaller markets. Currently, the leading video coding format is H.264/MPEG-4, which was initially developed in 1999 and has only recently become the de facto standard in the security/surveillance market, more than a decade after it was approved. Mainstream application of H.265/HEVC is also likely to take several years. Jack Cabasso, Managing Director of Aventura Technologies, Hauppauge, N.Y., says implementation of the new format in video surveillance is “inevitable.” He adds, however, that industry research and development takes time. He predicts the first prototypes from major camera manufacturers will emerge around the ISC West 2015 trade show, with products rolling out the following year. Aventura focuses on the higher-end market, and image processing has been one of the company's core competencies throughout its 15-year history. Cabasso describes the company's business as “project-based.” The supplier deals with large enterprise customers and city-wide surveillance systems, and doesn't sell through general distribution. "The first prototypes from major camera manufacturers will emerge around the ISC West 2015 trade show, with products rolling out the following year", says Jack Cabasso, Managing Director of Aventura Technologies Aventura’s large customers are eager to take advantage of any new developments, a preference that has driven Aventura's early entry into the H.265/HEVC arena. It's not surprising that the company introduced its first H.265/HEVC camera and recorder at the 2013 ASIS International show, just months after the standard was approved. “The people on large enterprise projects want to be on the front of the cycle,” he says. “They want to be technologically current,” says Cabasso as the company has been deploying the cameras since the fourth quarter of 2013. They have already seen “several large shipments to existing customers adding onto existing larger projects.”  Despite the company's early entry in the market, Cabasso predicts widespread implementation of H.265/HEVC in the surveillance market will come later. Although some consumer electronics are already using H.265/HEVC, most security products that embrace the new format won't be introduced until 2015 or after. Benefits of H.265 will vary on manner of implementation The benefits of the new video compression format will be realised in how it is implemented by each manufacturer, Cabasso says. “Just because you adopt a standard, it doesn't mean you can produce something useful with it.” He compares the new format to the raw food ingredients that might be used by several chefs – the resulting meal will be very different based on each chef's cooking techniques. “Just because you use a particular technology doesn't mean you can deploy it successfully,” he says. Although IP cameras employ video standards, each manufacturer deploys a standard in its own proprietary video encoding system. Therefore, each camera has to be used with a network video recorder that features a compatible decoding system, or else IP camera manufacturers can share their software and interfaces with recording software and hardware companies seeking to interoperate with their cameras. Better quality surveillance video, more economically Although H.265/HEVC is more “computationally expensive” than H.264, the computer chips inside most current cameras are more than up to its needs, says Cabasso. In general, the processing power inside IP cameras is increasing anyway (as chip prices go down and capabilities go up), so processing power should not be an impediment to embracing the new format. H.265/HEVC could help the industry offer a new level of video quality at an economic price. In addition to standard definition and high definition (HD), a new standard called UHDTV (Ultra-High Definition TV, including 8.3 megapixel or 33.2 megapixel images) could become more common. H.265/HEVC can also support up to 300 frames per second (fps), which is helpful for some machine vision applications. However, in the security market, Cabasso says 60 fps is more than enough for effective license plate recognition. Today many cameras are dual-stream and incorporate both Motion JPEG and H.264. Cabasso expects cameras over time to transition to dual-stream (Motion JPEG and H.265/HEVC), with a few models embracing triple streams – Motion JPEG, H.264/MPEG-4, and H.265/HEVC.