TOP MEDIA PLACEMENTS
July 22, 2007
THE BOSS
Going Where Electrons Lead By RICHARD SOLOWAY; As told to PATRICIA R. OLSEN
I WAS always interested in electronics, from my first crystal radio set. There was a storage room next to my bedroom. When I was in grammar school, my father and I added a workbench and shelves and turned it into a workshop. I collected radios that people in the neighborhood threw away. I took them apart and built other equipment, like circuit boards and amplifiers. I bought meters and oscilloscopes, and I wrote to manufacturers and asked for their data sheets for electronic parts. Garage doors were wooden in those days, and heavy. My mother slipped a disk in her back lifting our garage door and had to stay in bed for days. I had seen an electronic garage door opener in some exclusive homes near us, so I asked my father if I could borrow $200 to buy one. I installed it for my mother, and soon the neighbors were asking me to do the same for them. That was my first business. I called it Electric Eye, even though that was a misnomer since it worked by remote control. My father was in advertising and designed a brochure for me. In junior high school, I worked on some of the early transistors and read Popular Electronics. In high school, I was working on integrated circuits. Most kids in my Long Island neighborhood were interested in some facet of engineering, whether it was phones or ham radios or something else. Engineering was a bigger part of society then. I was in high school in the mid-1960s. It was cold installing garage door openers in unheated garages, so I wanted something I could do indoors. When a friend needed new drumsticks I went with him to Gracin’s Music in Freeport, N.Y. After looking at the electronic amplifiers I told the owner I could make a more powerful one that cost less. He told me that if I could do that he’d order 100. I converted the basement so I could manufacture these amplifiers and went to work. I knew where to get components because I had the data sheets. I also shopped in the area known as Radio Row in Manhattan, near the site that would become the World Trade
Center. I ordered the boxes, and my dad did the cosmetic design. We chose Bird’s Nest Blue with black streaks for the casing. I was hanging out on 48th Street in New York City, known as Music Row, at music stores like Manny’s, Sam Ash’s and Jimmy’s. I also went to clubs like Cafe Wha? and the Cheetah Club. You could mingle with the musicians back then. They’d hear I was an engineer and want to talk to me about equipment. Jimi Hendrix was just getting his start. He asked me about coming up with a new sound for him. We went back to his hotel room and fooled with Channel 3 on the TV. I wanted to find something similar to the static sound of the snow on the screen. That gave me the idea for my first fuzz box, a device running from a guitar to an amplifier that provides controlled distortion. I built what’s called a wah-wah pedal along with it. Musicians would attach both devices to their equipment and alternate between them to get different sounds. I started United Musical Industries with these two products and amplifiers and sold them to hundreds of music stores. During this time I helped set up the equipment for the Doors at Fillmore East and other clubs. Eric Clapton also used U.M.I. equipment. I started Napco after I heard that the metal shop making the U.M.I. housings I was using was constantly being been broken into. Thieves wanted the tools and dies. The metal company had a bell on the door wired to the doors and windows, but no one in the neighborhood was able to hear the bell. I configured an amplifier to make a loud siren sound and modified a tape recorder to send a recorded message to the police when there was a burglary in progress. I love trying to decipher the criminal mind. It’s a cat-and-mouse game. I took Napco public in 1972. Many people know us because they have our security systems in their houses or businesses, but Napco equipment is even installed in Air Force One. People who don’t like what they are doing don’t put the time in, so they aren’t as successful as they can be. I try to have as few management layers as possible, so I can be close to the product.
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August 24, 2007 http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/25/news/companies/campus_security/index.htm?section= money_latest
After Virginia Tech, security firms ramp up Mindful of the Virginia Tech tragedy, some companies are boosting their marketing efforts. By Jeff Cox NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In the wake of the massacre at Virginia Tech, security companies are pushing a slew of new products to educational institutions that want new ways to protect their students. Indeed, since the April 16 shooting, security outfits like Omvox Telecom Corp., Send Word Now, NICEVision, Mobile Campus, Ed-Alert, MessageOne and others have issued news releases detailing how their products can stave off or minimize the damage of another Virginia Tech. And the demand is there; Campus emergency text-messaging service Ed-Alert said inquiries regarding its system have risen 90 percent since the shootings. Many schools are only just beginning to discover the world of security technology. Certainly, surveillance cameras are common on campuses these days, and a number of schools have graduated to slightly more sophisticated security measures, like using e-mail and text messages to send alerts to students. The field is jammed with companies touting their prowess in conventional text-messaging, emails and mobile phone alerts. Now campus security outfits are going even more high tech. A slew of contenders Rave Wireless Inc., for example, is touting its Rave Guardian software, a cell phone panic alert that the company says "puts a virtual public safety officer at every student's side when they need it." Students using Rave Guardian software can activate a timer on their mobile phones when they want someone to watch over them, such as when they leave the campus library late at night. Campus security is then notified electronically that the timer has been set. If the user does not deactivate the timer within the specified time period, campus police are notified and can track the student's whereabouts using a global position device. Students using a Rave-enabled device also can alert campus security when they are in trouble, such as during hostage situations, by pushing a panic button. Rave equips campus security offices with plasma screen viewers that display students' pictures and other vital information used to
track their whereabouts. The devices can only be installed on phones that support Rave technology, but company CEO Rodger Desai said that Guardian is otherwise not brand-specific. Desai predicted the campus security field will become considerably more crowded since the Virginia Tech tragedy, requiring companies to be innovative. "We won't be the only ones innovating in this space," he said. "Mobile phones can actually step up and be an important part of keeping the community safe." Rave, which has been praised by Security on Campus, a nationwide organization founded in honor of murdered Pennsylvania college student Jeanne Clery, is used by more than 70 schools nationwide, including Montclair State in New Jersey, the University of North Carolina and Cal State University. The University of South Florida a few days ago said it was stepping up efforts to get its students signed up to MoBull Plus, another Rave emergency message service. The security firm NICE Systems, which has video cameras monitoring 85 percent of public places in New York City, is pushing its NICEVision system, a video surveillance setup that goes beyond merely recording events and instead analyzes action by dissecting the speed, direction and duration of frame-by-frame activity and can set off alarms accordingly. The system already is in more than 100 schools. NAPCO Security Systems (Charts) offers a panic-button device similar to Rave's, that are on keychains or pendants. The NAPCO system, which uses radio waves to find student locations, is in use at dozens of schools including Brigham Young and New York City's Columbia University. Another firm, Mobile Campus, offers a free emergency text-messaging service on campuses where Mobile is already a carrier. More than technology Not everyone is enlisting high-tech security firms in the quest to make their campus safer. Experts at Security on Campus recommend an approach that combines technology and communication improvements. Group spokesman S. Daniel Carter said he has seen a rapid response from schools looking to increase their security since the Virginia Tech tragedy. Security on Campus was responsible for congressional passage of the Clery Act, which requires detailed and timely crime reports from campus law enforcement agencies. The organization closely monitors security issues at colleges and universities and often files complaints against those schools that don't comply. He said establishing a clear communication network is the most important aspect of mobilizing for a crisis. "It's not just a matter of technical aspects," Carter said. "Probably the most important component is having clear communication protocols for internal personnel, security personnel and outside law enforcement."