Milestone debuts embedded VMS

COPENHAGEN—With an eye toward taking advantage of consumers moving from analog to IP-based systems, open-platform VMS provider Milestone has announced a new embedded video surveillance platform for its hardware partners that is specially designed to make the installations of IP-based video surveillance systems easy and inexpensive.
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Called Arcus, the VMS runs on Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems. It's for "hardware vendors of NAS devices, DVRs, for camera manufacturers," explained Lars Nordenlund, VP of Incubation and Ventures at Milestone.
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"We are working with a number of partners that we've invited into an early adopter program," Nordenlund said. "We're open to working with partners that run on different platforms and hardware," he added.
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“It's a very basic VMS developed with the purpose of ease of use, ease of installation,” he said. “You basically unwrap it, boot it up, it detects the cameras ... licensing and everything is taken care of. You don't need IT skills to set it up.”
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While it's simple, Arcus “can run quite a few cameras. The performance of the software is pretty high,” Nordenlund said.
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The embedded solution will be co-branded with Milestone. Arcus has a new “development code in its core” and is the first product offering of Milestone's Incubation and Ventures business unit, he said. The new unit is part of a reorganization of Milestone that took place last summer and was announced in February.

Milestone said it plans to release new versions of the entire XProtect VMS product line. The portfolio will focus on “ease of deployment in the low end as well as flexibility and centralized management in the mid- to high end of the market,” according to the company.
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Milestone will be showing XProtect Expert 2013, XProtect Corporate 2013 and a new system concept called Milestone Interconnect at ISC West in April.
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Milestone Interconnect will enable different XProtect VMS products to connect with XProtect Corporate in order to “manage centralized surveillance across geographically dispersed sites. Milestone Interconnect is designed to enable efficient branch rollouts with easy installation and system cloning possibilities, combined with optimized daily operation where proactive alarm detection and remote management reduce the need for costly on-site visits,” according to the company.