MDI says partnership opens new doors

SAN ANTONIO--An escalating partnership between MDI, a provider of open integrated access control and alarm management products, and Hummingbird Defense Systems has enabled MDI to showcase its technical expertise and led company officials to believe it may open doors to new markets. MDI announced August 1 that it helped Hummingbird Defense Systems, a developer and integrator of command and control systems, develop a command and control center for use at airport checkpoints. This product, which the companies refer to as a dashboard, will be used in an undisclosed number of airports in a phased-in pilot project funded by the United States Transportation Security Agency. The system is already operational in two airports, one in Beijing, China, and the other in the United States, said J. Collier Sparks, chief executive officer of MDI. Other airport installations are in various stages of completion, he said, and the likelihood of additional projects is possible. Hummingbird called upon MDI to customize its signature product, SAFEnet Open Systems Integration Platform and to develop a completely touch screen version of the product, said Hummingbird Chief Executive Officer Steve Greschner, which is based in Phoenix. The dashboard may be customized to the security needs of an airport and it's easy for airport security to use, he said. A number of alarms--silent or audible--can be set to alert security personnel under any number or conditions. For more on this story, see the September issue of Security Systems News.