The nation will be watching the third debate between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney 9 p.m. tonight.
OnSSI, a company based in Pearl River's Blue Hill Plaza, will provide technology used to watch over Obama and Romney as part of the security tonight at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.
OnSSI provides Ocularis, a video management surveillance and security software that coordinates all video feeds at an event.
"Ocularis allows law enforcement officials to easily set up and manage large numbers of cameras from centralized, remote and mobile monitoring locations," said Gadi Piran, President and CTO of OnSSI. "The open-architecture system is scalable to simplify the process of adding cameras as the municipality's needs grow, and for special events such as the presidential debate."
The Boca Raton Police Department was already one of over 200 municipal organizations that use OnSSI's services, but they were able to expand their usual coverage for this event.
"It allows them access to remote cameras on streets and in buildings and those of other entities," Piran said. "They can record and use (the feeds) and automate some alerts in advance on behaviors.
"What we are doing specifically in Boca Raton, our system is already installed within the city. With the increased security, they have more cameras using our system."
In addition to coordinating the feeds from the cameras on the system, Occularis allows the video to be shared instantly with other agencies. That function can be important in an event with multiple agencies working together, such as the presidential debate. For example, that can help local law enforcement to collaborate with the Secret Service.
"With events like this, the issue is multiple agencies looking at the cameras and trying to analyze the video from their perspective," said. Mulli Diamant, co-owner and Vice President of Sales at OnSSI. "As we have seen in previous deployments, such as political events and conventions, different agencies had access to the video when such events happen. It helps in the collaboration of multiple agencies."
This is not the first time OnSSI provided its security technology during a presidential election. Ocularis was deployed at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN and the Democratic National Convention in Denver, CO in 2008.
"People are interested in the increase in security," Piran said. "With the President there, security is increased, but they like to hear how it is done."
OnSSI has been in Rockland County since it was founded in 2002, starting in Suffern and moving its headquarters to Blue Hill Plaza three years ago. They currently employ 55 people at the Pearl River location, but they are expanding.
"We are currently the number one provider in North America and looking for people to join us," Piran said. "We would like to hire people from the area. Now that Pfizer is trimming down, people need work and we are looking for good talent."
For more information about OnSSI, go to www.onssi.com.
