United States Secret Service for the 2005 Presidential Inauguration
07 March 2007
The US Secret Service was responsible for protecting Very Important Personnel (VIPs) during the January the 20th, 2005, presidential inauguration procession. To accomplish this, the Secret Service needed to achieve the highest level of situational awareness along the National Mall in Washington, DC.
The Secret Service wanted to closely monitor the crowd’s activities from a remote command center, so that they could communicate and act upon any suspicious activity that occurred. It was essential that the video transmission be secure from hackers.
FIPS 140-2 VALIDATED™ 3ETI WIRELESS VIDEO SERVER SOLUTION
Video cameras were mounted on top of the vehicles used in the inaugural procession, including a gurney vehicle that had a camera mounted on its cab. A FIPS 140-2 Validated™ 3eTI wireless video server was installed into a total of 12 vehicles at a Secret Service depot in Maryland.
The 3eTI wireless access point installed inside each vehicle was tied into an 802.11 secure wireless network that was already established in the Washington, DC area. The 3eTI wireless video server delivered virtually live video to a centralized command control video monitoring operation watched by Secret Service personnel.
Secret Service agents in the crowd were equipped with Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), so they could watch the video as it was being recorded. Secret Service personnel in the command center could control the movements of the video cameras and determine what portion of the crowd they wanted to monitor. This solution captured real-time video from all 12 vehicles, including video of President Bush when he exited his protective vehicle and walked for a part of the procession.
THE BENEFITS
The inauguration was without incident. In the event of a threat to security, real-time video would have enabled the Secret Service to react proactively if any suspicious behavior had been detected. If an emergency were to occur, the Secret Service could have used the video to dispatch personnel to the appropriate locations. They would also have recorded video to be used to play back in the future, if it were needed. 3eTI was the sole source for this very essential project.
