Paving Intelligence into Safety, Security & Mobility

In our second newsletter, I would like to draw your attention to the economy of China. In these troubled economic conditions, everyone interested in China’s economy is wondering how the big giant will handle the situation: protectionism or is a bigger opening to the Chinese market now possible?

Let me draw upon a historically significant event in China’s economy. At the time of the Ming dynasty that ruled China from 1368 to 1644, China was one of the fastest expanding trading countries. Under the 3rd emperor, Yongle, a well known Chinese sailor named Zheng He - as famous today in China as Marco Polo is in Europe - originally developed a large armada for China to explore and trade in the Indian Ocean and in Africa. Zheng He was however stopped by Hongxi, the next emperor during the Ming dynasty, but not for long.  Xuande succeeded Hongxi and agreed with Zheng that the sailor’s ideas were good and so the largest expedition (the 7th) was developed.  However, it was to be the last one. Some say it was because of internal disorder and, as others see it, it might also have been to prevent the bad influence of foreigners.  And so, the 7th expedition was the last one.

Zheng He is said to have met Marco Polo during this period in a few international exhibitions and had business discussions in a tavern-like setting in the harbor of Macau!

Over the past ten years, China has been facing and handling a fast growing economy with the Zheng Hes and Marco Polos of our modern time. Even if some protectionism is possible, it is not evident as China is seemingly entering a stage of quality building, partnerships and greater international stature. It might not be easy but, the switch is “on” and I bet the ventures will not be stopped this time.

For Citilog’s part, we have now established a long history of good partnerships with China. Among them are some of our best partners such as, Shanghai Xianjin and Beijing Navigator.

Best Regards,

Christian Girardeau, CEO, Citilog

Citilog Experiencing Growth in China Deployments
Citilog’s history in China goes back more than 8 years with a first implementation in the Yan’an tunnel in Shanghai. Thanks to the continuous involvement and tremendous support of our local partners Citilog’s position in China has grown consistently.

This has been especially true over the last couple of years in which the number of projects has significantly increased. These projects cover the full range of Citilog’s current products.  For example there have been large MediaTunnel™ deployments and also a very large VisioPaD™ deployment on the highways of the Henan province with more than 230 cameras. Large cities such as Shanghai account for a big portion of the projects in tunnels, ring roads and bridges.  However Citilog’s products are also deployed across most Chinese provinces. This is a testimony to the quality of Citilog’s products and to the strength of our partners and their ability to provide high quality support to our customers.

The very positive end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 show that even in the difficult times the Chinese economy is facing, our partners have managed to maintain and secure a continuous trend of growing business. This is a very positive sign that, combined with the government recovery plan in the infrastructure area, gives us great confidence in future business opportunities in China. 

”China Plan for Economic Growth Meeting in Paris”
On March 26, 2009, the French agency for international business development (UbiFrance) held a discussion on new business opportunities founded in a new economic Chinese plan.  Naturally, many French companies were interested to learn about such developments including some 100 business leaders such as EADS, Total, Citilog and others that attended.  Key participants included the French Minister of Economy, Finance and Employment, Ms. Christine Lagarde, and the Ambassador to the People's Republic of China in France, Mr. Kong Quan.

Ms. Lagarde described the economic relationship between the two countries as vital, productive and harmonious. She noted that her presence was a sign that France is very committed to this relationship.

According to Ambassador Kong, the word "crisis" in Chinese is composed of two characteristics: "danger" and "opportunity."  The Chinese economy is facing serious challenges but also opportunities for development. He mentioned hope that French entrepreneurs would continue their active cooperation with China, and take advantage of opportunities offered by the plan in China and the resumption of a prosperous Chinese economy.

UbiFrance management stressed that French companies have many opportunities to be claimed in the main sectors targeted by the Chinese plan, such as the revival of construction and modernization of infrastructure, development of rural areas, and also health, research, innovation and reconstruction following the Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

The Chinese government announced last November a plan to revive the economy amounting to over 400 billion Euros, which represents over 13% of annual Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) and a main objective to achieve growth in 2009 of GDP by about 8%.

Nanjing & Wuhan Events
A government mission was organized by the French Embassy with the support of the Chinese authorities from March 1-5, 2009.  The focus was to be about the future development of urban transportation systems in China. The conference took place in Nanjing the capital City of the Jiangsu province and in Wuhan the capital City of the Hubei Province. Both cities with populations of more than 6 and 9 million inhabitants respectively, are facing huge challenges in the organization of their urban transport systems.

Citilog participated in the conference and presented its most advanced solutions both for urban and inter-urban traffic management. For both areas, these solutions provide key tools to drastically reduce Green House Gas Emissions (AKA: GES) and to fully comply with the sustainable growth policy as set by the government of China.

The local authorities showed particular interest in Citilog’s solutions as they address traffic issues from a very cost effective angle. At the moment both the central and the local governments in China are heavily investing in infrastructure projects for urban transportation such as metro networks for instance, which are currently being developed in both cities. The Citilog proposal to efficiently manage the flow of increasing urban traffic has been seen as a cost effective and very necessary solution for both cities.  With existing references in both Nanjing and Wuhan and following this high level government sponsored event, Citilog is looking forward to collaborating further with its local partners to bring solutions to the Chinese urban traffic management authorities.

Advanced IP Camera Features Boost Intelligent Video Streaming Capabilities
Citilog’s software-based systems now natively handle the most popular digital video streams. The IP video streams are directly decoded and analyzed on Citilog analyzers, thus requiring no additional hardware or infrastructure additions. Citilog’s flexible solution is very cost-effective, reliable and easily scalable, while maintaining the high performance built into Citilog’s algorithm.

Citilog’s solutions now take advantage of dual-stream hardware: many IP cameras or coders have the capability to provide two streams, one low frame rate stream and another in full quality (25-30fps, in D1 format or more). The low frame rate stream is fed into the algorithm, while the high-quality stream is used for display or recording. Simplicity, versatility, and cost-effectiveness are the key to design such customer-oriented solutions. Thanks to Citilog software, it is possible to take advantage of dual-streaming to manage the bandwidth of the network in centralized or distributed architectures, while ensuring a faster ROI of the global video infrastructure.

Please contact Citilog for details on how to design the best digital architecture to suit your needs and infrastructure capabilities.  Read more about Citilog’s updated IP video and incident detection software.

Hard Shoulder Monitoring and Managed Lanes: a Cost Effective Solution to Tackle Congestion
The world’s largest cities are experiencing ever-growing traffic and congestion problems as more and more vehicles appear on the road. Limited land availability, scarce funds, and social and environmental concerns may prevent adding new freeway lanes. The combination of these factors is forcing transportation planners and engineers to explore new ways to more effectively operate the existing transportation network.
Managed lane facilities are another way to address the growing problem of traffic congestion by increasing freeway efficiency. They use various ITS equipment including Automatic Incident Detection (AID) systems.
The Eastern Ile-de-France region around Paris is one such area that experiences recurrent and heavy traffic jams. The idea was to open the hard shoulder to allow vehicles to use it when traffic was congested as long as no breakdown or accident required reinstating the shoulder. Citilog’s AID system was key to the implementation of the system as it allows a safe operation of the shoulder, enabling detection of stranded vehicles or accidents requiring that the shoulder be closed to traffic.
The total cost of the Intelligent Shoulder project was 40 times less expensive than the alternative projects involving actual road construction. The return on investment was less than 2 years. In addition, because of the on-going use of an AID system, the return on investment will continue to blossom as future incidents and congestion are now more efficiently monitored and managed. Read an article or definition for more details.

Shanghai Xianjin
Shanghai Xianjin was Citilog’s first VAR in the Asia Pacific Region. Shanghai Xianjin’s strategy was to first focus on Shanghai tunnel projects, creating an outstanding reference platform in China for Citilog’s products. Today, more than 800 cameras are running under Citilog’s solutions in the Shanghai area. In the last couple of years, Shanghai Xianjin has successfully expended its influence to some of the fast developing cities around Shanghai and along the Yangtze River.  This includes cities like Wuxi, Nanjing and Wuhan. One of the cornerstones of this achievement is the quality and dedication of the sales and technical staff which has really developed an in-depth understanding of Citilog products and technology.
To learn more about Shanghai Xianjin, please visit http://www.sh-xianjin.cn/.

Beijing Navigator Technology
Another Citilog VAR in China, Beijing Navigator Technology, has also developed a complete knowhow of Citilog solutions. Based in Beijing, the company specializes in providing ITS and traffic related equipment to large system integrators and final customers all across China.  Over the years Beijing Navigator has built very consistent and dedicated sales and technical support teams. Through this organization Beijing Navigator addresses customer’s issues in a lot of different provinces in China and has already implemented the full range of Citilog’s solutions in many different locations. This includes VisioPaD on the Beijing ring roads and large MediaTunnel system installations in Chongqing, the powerhouse of Northwestern China, among others. To learn more about Beijing Navigator Technology, please visit http://www.828.com/.

Together, these Shanghai Xianjin and Beijing Navigator Technology account for more than 55 Citilog reference sites in China.

"You are receiving this email as a valued customer, partner and/or industry collaborator. We appreciate your continued support and want to keep you up to date with the latest developments concerning Citilog. If you would like to refer a colleague or opt out, please email citilog@citilog.com. Please note references to company and/or product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owner. Thank you."

Suscribe
Unsuscribe