Amnis Streams for the Government

Although this week was heavy with news about consumer electronics at the CES show in Las Vegas, a few enterprise companies managed to announce new customers. Amnis Systems (www.amnisinc.com), formerly Optivision, announced on Monday that it completed its financing agreement for up to $2.5M of financing. The investment is being made by Bristol Investment Fund Ltd.

"We are excited by the long term opportunity of Amnis in the network video market for surveillance and distance learning applications," said Paul Kessler, principal of Bristol DLP LLC, the investment manager to Bristol Investment Fund. "Bristol is committed to providing Amnis with growth capital in implementation of its long term strategy."

Amnis said that it’s seeing an increased market opportunity for video surveillance applications using its products. Government agencies and defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Maritime Applied Physics, Boeing, General Dynamics and SAIC are working with Amnis Systems.

One such application was the implementation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Employee Education System, which has just begun using Amnis' solutions for its distance learning initiatives.

Amnis said that employees will receive training for locations outside the Washington D.C. area using Amnis' VS-ProT live streaming video system connected to pairs of T1's, linking to its Washington D.C. studios to the digital satellite uplink site in St. Louis, Mo. The program is then uplinked to over 300 VA locations, including Alaska and Hawaii. The system has been so successful that the Veterans Administration is planning to implement a new link directly from a studio at the VA Central Office in downtown Washington D.C. to the Uplink Center in St. Louis.

"The VA knows the value of distance learning and in the last year upgraded and expanded the VA's capability to bring training and information to the employee. We are in the process of expanding the capability of the VA Knowledge Network, which will bring live and on-demand programs to the employee's desktop. Time away from the work place, travel concerns and smaller budgets have made this communication network more valuable than ever. The link between Washington D.C. and the VA Satellite Uplink Center is vital for that success," said Don Saunders, Sr. Engineer, Employee Education System of Veterans Affairs, in a statement. "The Amnis high quality MPEG based streaming video system offered a solution providing the quality signal we wanted with an affordable T1 connection."

"The Veterans Administration distance training project is a great example of how high quality, networked video can improve employee productivity and lower costs," said Rich Falcone, Vice President of WorldWide Sales and Marketing of Amnis Systems, in a statement. "We look forward to supporting the future expansion of this networked video training application and have already received additional orders."

In other e-learning news, the National Science Foundation (www.nsf.gov) said it was using Sorceron's streaming solution for creating and hosting rich media content. Sorceron offers its Cauldron software solution, which provides customers with various ways of creating and personalizing content.

"Our participation in this program is so meaningful to us because it allows us to develop our technology specifically to enhance the teaching and learning process," said Jonathan Prince, CEO of Sorceron (www.sorceron.com), in a statement. "The opportunity to apply Cauldron software's streaming media capabilities to education on demand will facilitate highly interactive, personalized and relevant learning experiences perfectly suited to the Internet."