Razberi redux

CARROLLTON, Texas—Tom Galvin, an industry veteran who created the razberi NVR, announced in December that he's launched a new business, Razberi Technologies, based here.

GVI Security, which went out of business last summer after parting ways about one year ago with its longtime partner Samsung, had purchased the razberi technology from Galvin in 2009.

Now he's bought back the razberi technology and intellectual property, and plans on bringing an enhanced version and new product line into production.

“I'm really excited that the company is built around the razberi concept,” Galvin said. “It gives us an opportunity to focus on that and take it in a broader direction and launch an entirely new set of products.”

The concepts for the products have been in the works for more than a year, he said. Galvin characterized the main investor in the company, Dynacolor, an OEM manufacturer of video surveillance products, as an active investor that has lent engineering resources to razberi for this product launch.

 “We want people to understand that although we acquired the technology from GVI, [Razberi Technologies] is a different company—a progressive, innovative technology company,” he said. “We also want them to understand we've taken a giant leap forward with new products. We've left '1.0' behind.”

New products include one designed for alarm companies that has “a more DVR-like form factor, it's a hybrid model that accommodates analog as well as IP cameras. It will have the same plug-and-play concept everyone liked with razberi,” Galvin said.

Another product is a “form factor that targets the systems integrator channel—those who are comfortable with IP systems,” he said. “We plan to provide an open platform where we partner with other VMS providers … those software packages will run directly on the razberi. This will give the systems integrator the ability to put together smaller, more compact systems … ones that don't require large IT infrastructure.”

Having established its headquarters here with engineering, customer support and sales resources in place, Galvin's immediate goals are to “have an open platform relationship where we have established VMS partners … and building a manufacturers rep network.”

Galvin was formerly head of R&D at Verint and also worked at GE Security as head of video development. He became GVI's head of product management after GVI Security purchased his company, PacketNVR, in 2009.

“The idea of combining a network video recorder, a PoE switch, storage, and video management software into one easy-to-use and install appliance got a lot of industry attention,” a Razberi Technologies release said. “By combining these functions into one device, the installer saves a tremendous amount of time selecting and installing an IP-based system. The risk of purchasing a component that can't support the demands of a megapixel environment is eliminated.”

Orders for the new razberi products are currently being accepted. The company will provide help desk support for its new products, as well as the legacy razberi recorders and autoIP cameras sold by GVI.