The Total Mobile Video Solutions Blog

Rocket Man

From Warehouse Boy to Rocket Scientist in one swift leap: This local boy done good! Christopher Wheeler (summer Safety Visionary and son of Accounting Manager Rose Wheeler) was selected by Jacobs Engineering to participate in a semester-long internship at NASA. A Bio-Medical Engineering student in his senior year at Texas A&M University, Chris is on the NASA Crew Healthcare System Resupply team. This group evaluates and tests the exercise equipment used by the shuttle crew while in space to determine what needs to be changed or repaired before the next flight.

Chris escorted Safety Vision President Bruce Smith into NASA Mission Control on Monday (Smitty said, "If anything happens to the shuttle, I didn't push that button!"), and Sunday took a few family members. Mom Rose said, "It's awesome to watch the Mission Control people actually talking to the astronauts in space. They were discussing which types of equipment they were bringing back and what was staying on the space station. When they were through packing up the space suits, they went to work out before they went to sleep. Chris's team will be analyzing the exercise equipment they used." Fun stuff!

Funner still: Early this morning Christopher escorted the Rex Colorado (nee Mark Sahinen) family to the Mission Control screening auditorium, where they watched the shuttle Atlantis make its safe return to Earth. And a local news team interviewed Rex and his family of past, present, and future Visionaries (wife Kay met Rex working at Safety Vision and, says Rex, kids Kalysta and Lucas are Visionaries in the making!). Check out the newscast, here: http://www.click2houston.com/video/9900719/index.html.

Rex mused, "I thought life brought everyone 15 minutes of fame? We got shorted about 14 minutes and 45 seconds. And unfortunately, they cut my plug for the new RoadRecorder 6000 PRO mobile DVR and its suitability for both low orbit and deep space digital video recording. But it was worth it: A proud moment entering NASA with the credentialed Chris Wheeler!"

You think Rex was kidding about plugging the RoadRecorder PRO for the intergalactic mobile environment? If you knew Rex like I know Rex, you'd wonder. I can just see him at the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars, selling warp-speed-rated cameras and the AstralRecorder 9000 PRO to the aliens.

Space: the final frontier....

- Chris Portillo

Hot diggity dawg!

Last week saw ravenous Visionaries gathered 'round vats of Hebrew Nationals and turkey franks, creating traditional Chicago dogs complete with "sport peppers," chili dogs, kraut dogs, and your garden variety mustard-catsup-relish dogs. What prompted the impromptu feed? Another record sales month: Our August "numbas" were in close range of our previous high, set this past May.

The noontime repast was sponsored by VP of Sales Rex Colorado, who had this to say: "To celebrate your efforts, I'll spring for a hot dog lunch catered by Yours Truly consisting of the best dogs I can purchase, chili, and all the fixins'--even the stuff to build a Chicago dog in honor of the ongoing work by John, Amber, Archie, Becky, Jeff, Petrina, Joe, James, Engineering, and the entire company's efforts supporting mass transit surveillance and other mobile video projects in the Windy City. (It's a little known fact that the nickname 'Windy City' came from the city's trend of producing blow-hard politicians; it has nothing to do with wind coming in off the lake!)" He added, "You might be asking, 'Why hot dogs?' Because I think Y'ALL are hot dogs: the best of the best in the industry."

OK, so Rex tends to the windy, himself (wonder if he's considered a career in politics?). But he was genuinely enthusiastic in his praise of the ever-escalating sales and customer service efforts by Team Visionary:

 

Still hungry? Rex has dangled a spicier carrot, vowing to spring for a catered fajita fiesta when we achieve our next record sales month. Should be any time, now.

Hasta fiesta!

-chris p

Like the Beatles sang: "Hello, Goodbye"

Thought it was time I dropped in to say, Hello!

First off, I'd like to say "Hello, and welcome" to a standout crew of new employees. (You may have seen the press release about these key personnel cross the wire, recently.) Along with several additions to our sales and customer support staff, we welcome new Warehouse Manager, Mike Russell.

In the short time Mike's been with us, I've seen significant improvements in our shipping & receiving operations. He's dealing with a big shop out there--a two-story, four-tier warehouse that's packed to the rafters with product. Day by day, we're receiving an expanding inventory, and we're shipping orders in larger quantities to broader geographies. It's tough to keep up with the pace. But Mike is supported by a top-notch shipping & receiving staff, and I'm confident they're up to the task. What especially pleases me about ongoing warehouse improvements is that the enhanced efficiencies result in streamlined turnaround times and lower costs--benefits that we're able to pass on to our clients.

And I'm always excited about adding new sales support staff. Think about it: The addition of every new Account Executive means that we need to grow our ranks just to keep up with customer demand. Each one of these new professionals brings a unique perspective on the mobile video industry: I'm constantly amazed at how a "fresh set of eyes" sees new and better ways to support our existing customers. The newcomers also envision different applications and clientele for our products, and they help us dream up creative solutions to our clients' ever-evolving needs.

So, please join me in extending a warm welcome to these and all new hands on deck!

I'd also like to extend a "Goodbye, and good luck" to a special group of temporary help. Safety Vision has a longstanding policy of nurturing energetic, ambitious youngsters who aren't afraid of hard (and often hot!) work. Typically, these young people are friends and family of Safety Vision employees. We've had some real up-and-comers, lately. The last of the summer warehouse crew to head back to college were Blake McCarver, a UT San Antonio electrical engineering student whose dad Monty is an old college buddy of mine; and Collin Brown, an honors business student at UT Austin whose girlfriend happens to be our Marketing Director's daughter.

These are just a few of the great kids who've joined us for a time. Some may return, in future; some have already moved on. But I hope they all take away valuable lessons about personal accountability, workplace responsibility, and the inherent satisfaction in a hard day's work.

Whoa: Didn't mean to get longwinded! That's not my style. But since this is my first time writing in this medium, I wanted to address the part of my business that is closest to my heart--and that's the people behind this company's success. I count myself lucky to be surrounded by so many hardworking, motivated, and loyal professionals. We may operate at the global level, but we conduct business at the personal level. And we wouldn't have attained the success we enjoy today without the right people. Some may come and some may go: But all the good ones leave their mark.

-Bruce Smith, President & CEO

On time deliveries, secure personnel and property

Don Link, a driver for a major expedited pickup-and-delivery company, visited Safety Vision headquarters this week for his truck's first installation of a collision avoidance camera system. Pictured with him (left to right) are Safety Vision employees Amber Huff, Inside Sales, and Account Executive Tom Clark. Installed in Don's 2001 Kenworth T200 truck are the SV-620 color camera on the right side mirror, the SV-500 black & white camera on the rear, and the SV-LCD70 monitor on the dash.

"We heard about Safety Vision through our company's safety department," says Link, who drives up to 140,000 miles each year in 48 states. According to Don, his company paid for the rear-vision camera; he opted to add the side-view camera at his own expense to enhance visibility while on the roads and to deter crimes such as theft, vandalism, and graffiti. "Although I've not had any driving accidents recently, I could've benefited from collision avoidance cameras in my driving career. And the rear-vision camera is a preventive measure that will help me back up safely."

We look forward to seeing Don again in September, as he plans to add more Safety Vision mobile video cameras for an upcoming truck. On that note, not only will more deliveries get to their destinations right on the dot, but the drivers will be SAFE and sound as well. 

-Katrina Abelita, Marketing/PR Assistant

Happy Birthday, Bruce!

Safety Vision President/CEO Bruce Smith celebrated a "Forty Something" birthday today with Houston HQ employees and some special visitors: Bruce's wife and kids showed up to share cake and ice cream and laugh over a few gag gifts (note the "vision enhancing" reading glasses, at left). Other family members present were Bruce's mom Norma and mother-in-law Vicki--both Safety Vision employees.

Honestly, Bruce, you don't look a DAY over 43...!

--CP

"Support Your Local Sheriff": A case of mutual service!

Safety Vision enjoyed a friendly visit from two law enforcement professionals, today: Pictured are Warrant Deputy Damon Wegner (left) and Patrol Lieutenant Billy Ruemke of the Washington County Sheriff's Department in nearby Brenham, Texas. The visit coincided with the installation of four OPV by Safety Vision in-car patrol video systems in their fleet's latest vehicles: four 2006 Dodge Chargers. Soon, the department plans to retrofit its entire fleet with Safety Vision in-car video equipment.

According to Lt. Ruemke, "We've been using police car video cameras for about 10 years, now. We started back when the technology consisted of camcorders bouncing on the dashboard." Technology has evolved, and mobile-rated police car video systems are considerably more rugged and reliable. Today, the two law officers say they can't imagine patrol duty without onboard video recording.

"The police car cameras are helpful in so many situations, especially as a quick way to solve a complaint," says Ruemke. The officers mentioned the technology's contributions to racial profiling reporting and said the in-car video technology is invaluable in DWI and drug interdiction stops as well as domestic disturbance calls. In fact, says Deputy Wegner, "It's hard to get a DWI conviction without a video."

And the officers say they rely on in-car audio just as much as the video. (Our OPV by Safety Vision features an industry-leading 900 MHz audio unit and a discreet, backseat-mounted microphone.) "You might catch two perps back there trying to get their stories straight, or you might get audiotaped proof of consent to search on a drug interdiction: Later, they can't say they didn't consent." Concludes Wegner, "Nobody likes to get arrested--and sometimes people lie. These in-car video systems catch those lies."

We enjoyed our visit with Officers Ruemke (who drives a Charger on duty) and Wegner (who drives a pickup truck on duty, claiming good naturedly that he does "all the grunt work"). It's our privilege and pleasure to serve these and other public servants. After all, that's what they do for us--every day.

- Christine Portillo, Marketing Director

New Twist on School Bus Cameras

Wow: Safety Vision's side-view cameras have been featured in a short news clip about stop arm violators! Stafford Township schools agreed to install our side-vision cameras on the outside of their buses in order to catch people running the stop arm. Just last month, with the help of our cameras, their local police issued 19 citations at $500 apiece last month to drivers that ran stop arms.

Also, check out additional accounts of the success of our rear- and side-view cameras on our Safety Vision: In The News page.

- Melissa Avellan, Webmaster

It's been an uplifting year for sales!

You might recognize the iconic statuary: This inspirational, larger-than-life figure is one of the more prominent landmarks in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. And the lifesize figures? That's Safety Vision VP of Sales Rex Colorado (left) and Safety Vision President/CEO Bruce Smith (fourth from right; click to enlarge) celebrating with senior Sales staff during the company's annual sales retreat.

Attended only by those Account Executives who achieve a pre-ordained sales quota, the most recent retreat was held February in Rio amid the crush and craziness of Carnival. The celebrants (not all are pictured) had much to be thankful for and plenty of reason to party: primarily, the company's continued and accelerating success, marked by $30 million in sales in 2005. (The partying included a romp aboard Carnival floats for Safety Visionaries decked out in outlandish carnival costumes that make Mardi Gras look tame: Now THOSE are the pictures you want to see...!)

And '06 is turning out to be an inspired year, as well. We are well on track to meet our short-term target of $40 million in '06 sales, with a mid-term sales goal of $100 million by 2010. The early months of the year have witnessed some notably healthy sales activity: e.g., the award of a $1 million-plus purchase order for a major transit authority was soon followed by a $3 million-plus sales month. This week alone, we are looking at closing several additional multimillion-dollars'-worth of business providing transit video cameras and mobile DVRs for other major transit authorities. And continuing the ever-upward trend started with our founding in 1993, we are booking steadily increasing millions with our original mobile video product line: collision avoidance camera systems.

All in all, things are looking up! We are inspired to achieve ever greater results--for the mobile safety and financial benefit of our clients, for the health and wellbeing of our employees, and for the continued vigorous growth of our company. We love what we're doing--can you tell?!

- Christine Portillo, Marketing Director

Safety Vision: In the news!

You've heard the expression: "There's no such thing as bad publicity"? We prefer good publicity, any day! And we've had no trouble garnering our fair share of favorable press. Some recent examples:

• Our new mobile digital video recorder (MDVR) for the police/law enforcement sector--the PatrolRecorder Series--debuts in Law Enforcement Product News (May/June, pg 35).
• Triple whammy: Our SV-LCD70 flat-screen monitor, RouteRecorder 5C MDVR, and SV-SS22 color zoom camera are all featured in Fire Chief magazine's Product Showcase (May, pg 67).
• Double whammy: Concrete Products magazine ran a piece penned by Safety Vision Account Executive Steve Sappol titled "The Rear Vision Camera Revolution" (May, pg 37) and earlier included a Safety Vision rear- and side-vision product release (March, pg 61)
• Account Executive Jeff Taylor was interviewed by Advanced Rescue Technology for a feature discussing the beneficial integration of our SV-CLCD-65-620 rear-vision camera system and our RoadRecorder 6000 PRO MDVR for the fire/rescue industry (April/May, pg 29).
• Our new RouteRecorder 1000 MDVR is featured in both School Bus Fleet (April/May, pg 56) and School Tranpsortation News (April, pg 59).
• Our new side-vision color camera, the SVC-200S, appears in the pages of Waste News (April 24, pg 21).
• In March, Safety Vision sponsored the "Backing safety" article in Beverage Industry, which included a letter from our president, Bruce Smith, explaining the pertinence of both collision avoidance and mobile surveillance systems in the food & beverage distribution sector
• Our sleek new side-vision camera, the SV-250SC, is featured in a "Spotlight on Consumer Electronics" segment in RV Trade Digest, a publication serving the recreational vehicle market (March, pg 29)
• Another double whammy: North American Quarry News ran not-one-but-two very favorable articles featuring our collision avoidance camera systems: "Granite City Ready Mix Reaps Rewards of Rear-Vision Investment" and "Safety Vision Products Raise Industry Standard" (February, pgs 3 and 4)
• Our largest single purchase order to date--the $1 million plus installation for IndyGo, the Indianapolis metro transit system--gets ink in an article titled "Cameras soon will monitor IndyGo riders, drivers" on Indystar.com (January)
• And we wrapped up 2005 with additional good press. Eurotransport ran a sidebar on our onboard security cameras and mobile surveillance systems within a security feature titled "CCTV: crucial role" (pg 58); School Transportation News spotlighted Bruce in a "Presidential Series" interview in November (pg 40); and Account Executive Richard Newcombe was interviewed by Railway Age magazine for its "Transit security: What more can be done?" article (pg 37)

In other industry publication news, we're also appearing in a few industry buyer's guides that are new to us (along with our inclusion in the many other buyer's guides we've traditionally run in): Police & Security News (March/April), Oilheating Journal (April), and Christian School Products (May).

Whew: That IS a lot of good press! Keep your eyes peeled as you turn the pages, and you're likely to stumble on us in future issues of industry pubs. Meanwhile, stay tuned to this spot for ongoing updates on where you can "read up on us," and be sure to check out our Safety Vision: In The News page on our web site...!

- Christine Portillo, Marketing Director

New "Industry-Related News" page

We added a new page on our web site for articles that are directly related to our industry. Check out the Industry-Related News page!

- Melissa Avellan, Webmaster