Voodoo Networks

I’ve had quite a delay between postings here, but I’ve also had a really good month. Lot’s of time at home, a great holiday, some good client work and a nice meal or two.

This is really just a quick post to make sure that everyone knows that we are still going strong. And we have lots of interesting stuff going on right now. From IT process and procedure design to network upgrades to an intimidating new security systems offering, we are cranking along on all cylinders.

Plus we are, like many others, getting into the Holiday spirit.

More to come soon.

While it’s great to have be at the top of the list for managed computer services in two cities, sometimes it feels a bit odd. For instance, this last week I was in Seattle (where my family lives full time) for my twins 6th birthday, and while it was definitely fall, the weather was absolutely perfect.

Cut to yesterday, getting off the plane in Long Beach. Thunderstorms. Rain. Cold.

Seriously. Los Angeles was 113 degrees two weeks ago, now it’s colder than Seattle.

Oh well. Can’t have everything I suppose.

More an annoyance than a post. I’m in one clients office today, and needed to connect to another client to fix a printing issue. At VoodooMSP we use LogMeIn to remotely access our clients computers. However the client that I’m working at blocks outbound LogMeIn access. Annoying. And it makes providing on the go managed computer services, or even computer repair services sort of a pain.

Anyway, I passed the task off to our NOC, so not a big deal. But it would have been nice to have had access to that from where I was sitting.

* Disclaimer: In my prior life as the Network & Security Guy, I was the guy that was responsible for doing just that kind of blocking. So I’m being a touch hypocritical here. But then again, I never said that I wasn’t hypocritical.

I have had several questions in the past few days regarding our new Voodoo Site Services offering, so I thought that I’d take a few minutes to answer those questions here on the blog.

1 ) What areas do you provide event CCTV services in?

Our Voodoo Site Services mobile CCTV units are based in Southern California, in the Los Angeles / Orange basin. But with that said, we can easily move them to where ever our clients need them, as long as they understand there are extra costs associated with doing so. Please contact us to see what we can do for your event.

2 ) We have a festival that is going on tour for several months. Can you help us provide security for the whole tour?

We can indeed, based on our systems availability. We have made units specifically for this type of request, and would do so again if needed. Once again, please contact us to discuss doing long term projects and tours.

3 ) How quickly can you setup and start recording video?

Our event CCTV units can be up and recording with the cameras on the van within minutes. Deploying the additional cameras takes about 15 minutes each, though depending on the layout of your event sometimes it can take more or less time. In general we recommend allowing about an hour and a half for setup and tear down of the full system.

4 ) Are the cameras that you use for event CCTV deployments night vision capable?

No, we don’t deploy night vision cameras, except in unusual circumstances. Night vision cameras have a much higher cost, and except in cases of complete darkness don’t provide a significant benefit over the low light capable cameras that we use. With minimal lighting our cameras work extremely well, and we can provide IR illumination to enhance their clarity in specific areas.

5 ) Will you deploy your mobile CCTV systems for law enforcement if needed?

Of course. We are currently working on our internal plans for doing this, but our goal is to work with local law enforcement. Our current plan is to offer our systems to law enforcement organizations for scheduled events in the same way that we do for our non-law enforcement clients. And for emergencies we will work to provide our units to law enforcement and government agencies if they are available.

6 ) What about other emergency responders?

Just like with our law enforcement options, we’ll provide our units on either a scheduled or as available basis to all government entities. With that said, we do have a very strong community service aspect of our services, and will participate to whatever degree we are able to for disaster response. Whether that is mobile CCTV systems, our production command vehicles, wireless IP access for whatever systems need them or emergency power provided by our solar generators and extra batteries, we’ll make sure that we do what we can to help as many people as possible. It’s all part of being a community, and that is something that we are proud of.

7 ) Are your Production Command vehicles easily identifiable?

We currently have some vans that are plain white, and some that are white with a Voodoo Networks logo on them. We are currently contemplating some kind of specific logo or design for Voodoo Site Services but we aren’t sure yet if we want to do that or maintain our low profile white vehicles. What are your thoughts?

8 ) Aren’t Mobile CCTV and Event CCTV the same thing?

Well, yes and no. It depends on how you define each one. We like to stick with mobile event CCTV as it really does describe what we do. We don’t just deploy a little box with some cheap cameras and call it an Event CCTV system. We use our (mobile) Production Command vehicles to deploy very high grade systems at your event, then move on to the next event that we are working at, or if you are doing a tour, to move the system right along with you.

I think that covers the basic questions that we’ve received, but if you have any other questions, please contact us at info@voodoonetworks.com and we’ll get back to you right away.

Well, it took long enough, but we’re finally ready to announce our newest project and division.

Voodoo Site Services is now the newest member of the Voodoo Networks family, displacing VoodooMSP as our newest member.

So what exactly is Voodoo Site Services?

Well, to put it simply, Voodoo Site Services provides mobile CCTV systems for festivals, shows, special events, along with video security for tv & movie sets and the ability to provide video and power systems for Emergency Responses.

While many people might think that it’s way outside of what we normally do, if you look back at our history and experience, this is right up our alley. In fact, we can’t think of anyone who could do it better.

We aren’t just taking a $99 RF based security system that we stuck in a pelican case and called a mobile CCTV solution.

We are actually building out the systems that we’ve used for years and providing mobile capabilities to it. We have built our systems with VGA grade 360 Degree view cameras used to provide you with an overview of your coverage area, and combine those with HD quality, 18x optical zoom cameras to give you the ability to zero in on interesting events throughout the area. And once again, these systems are state of the art, professional grade cameras that are deployed worldwide for outdoor and indoor security in civilian and government facilities.

We team these high quality IP based cameras with a leading radio solution that, in most circumstances, provides enough bandwidth to run all the connected cameras at 30 FPS in full resolution. This isn’t your standard home network. This is a fully redundant commercial class network that is capable of streaming video at well over 200Mbps.

These cameras and radios are mounted on emergency services grade tripods and masts, the same ones used and trusted by emergency responders the world over. The top mounting points for our gear are located 12 feet off the ground, providing both the radios and cameras with a clear view of the site they are located on.

To power the remote systems we’ve gone all out to provide a solution that is portable and green. Using military specified solar power systems, we can power our camera / radio tripod systems indefinitely. And if we don’t have the room or ability to deploy our solar systems at the tripods, we use the battery packs from the solar systems to power the units for 24 hours at a time, replacing them with fully charged batteries as needed. If we can use an area outside the event area to deploy our solar systems, we’ll stay green and charge the batteries using the solar panel systems. And if not, we can use either local power or the high efficiency generator in our Production Command vehicles.

Ah – the Production Command vehicles. We know that keeping track of what’s going on in a crowded area requires a quiet workspace, complete with everything you need to not only keep track of the event, but also to plan responses, communicate with your staff and stay out of the weather and commotion that can occur at any outside event. To that end we’ve built our command posts in Sprinter vans. Powered by Mercedes engines, these are some of the most efficient and high tech vehicles on the road. We’ve equipped ours with 2 full operator stations for the CCTV system, Terabytes of video storage space, a top of the line Video Management Solution, OTA TV monitoring, Enterprise grade network management, a dozen Motorola radios for your event staff to stay in touch, multiple scanners for tracking public safety channels in the area, mobile wifi access, VoIP phones connected to our central pbx allowing outbound dialing, 8KW Power Take Off generators and everything else that is needed to setup and operate a 6 location CCTV system.

The production command vehicle comes complete with one of our technicians, who sets up the network, tests all the systems, creates a quick map of the camera locations for the Video Management System and trains your security personnel in it’s use. If needed the tech can provide a second set of eyes in the secondary operator station. We work with your security team, emergency responders or local law enforcement to make sure that everyones needs are met.

When we deploy our 6 camera / radio sets, one of them is mounted on the Production Command vehicle, the rest of them are deployed around your event site. Normally the tripods are placed about 200 Meters apart (any further and there can be RF issues). So in a linear deployment (along a street for a event) you can cover over a kilometer. And the cameras themselves can recognize faces out to 150 Meters.

Once again, this isn’t just a system that anyone would throw together. This is a professional grade system that was designed, tested, built and operated by teams that have been deploying IP based CCTV and Wireless backbones for over 10 years, in locations ranging from shopping malls to airport to government facilities.

I’ll be writing more about the offerings from Voodoo Site Services in the next couple of days, and you can check out the site to find out more, including some manufacture clips of the camera quality and a bit more detail on what setting up an event site entails.

In the meantime, the current systems are already booked through the end of the year, and we are taking dates and deposits for 2011 already. Just let us know when and where you need us, and we’ll be there to watch your back for you.

So the delays on the second new product and service are becoming unnerving to me. But I believe that all is ready and we’ll be going tomorrow. Heck, I’ve even written the blog posting announcing everything. But I’m trying not to jump the gun again.

In the meantime I’ve had a bit of a discussion with various people about what people look for when they are searching for help with their computer systems. I understand that “managed computer services” isn’t really the first thing that pops into someones mind when they need help, but I also don’t think that most business owners look at all the problems they are having and think “computer repair”.

From my point of view, I want to teach people to think of computers not as something you repair, but something you proactively maintain. Which is what VoodooMSP does as a Managed Service Provider.

Does VoodooMSP repair computers? Well, yes and no. We tend not to get into tearing computers apart and putting them back together, but we will. We are certified by Dell and HP to do that with most of their systems. But our real goal is to avoid that by making sure that your computers are cared for in the first place.

Remember our other stated goal – to not make money from your computers being broken. That’s what computer repair gets you. We don’t like being in that place when we have problems with things like cars, plumbing or anything else. And we don’t want to be the kind of company that puts you in that position with your technology. We prefer to come in early, clean up what you have, fix anything that we see may cause a problem, then get your computers and technology systems on preventive maintenance.

Short post today, but I’m off to enjoy the sun. And stress about having everything ready to announce tomorrow. Enjoy the day.

I’ve converted a total non-techie to the joys of home media computers. And it’s a miracle.

OK, it’s not really miracle, but it sure does feel pretty good.

While I no longer have the time (or the inclination to be honest) to sit around and watch a lot of TV, or specifically here, movies, I have five year old twins that love to watch movies when they are playing inside (and living in Seattle, inside is somewhere that you get to know very well). This could involve a ton of kids DVD’s, mixed in with my old 400+ movie collection, which usually ends up with lost or damaged media and the resultant complaining that a movie won’t play or can’t be found. I figure that I have a bunch of DVD’s that are one scratch removal away from disintegrating.

So the solution to this isn’t new, or even special. I ripped all my DVD’s and stuck in the originals in big binders a couple of years ago. I used a combination of tools until I found one that I liked, and spent months really ripping them all. They now reside comfortably on a NAS. I originally ripped them to VOB files, and played them as DVD’s, but have since converted them all the .avi files which tend to play better over the network and take up far less storage space. And I can live with the degradation in quality.

At the end of doing that with all my DVD’s, I did the same to all the kids DVD’s. And then went about explaining to my wife (ok – demonstrating) how to access them.

My setup is pretty simple actually. I had a bunch of Mac Minis sitting around from an old project that never really took off. So I placed one upstairs in the “theater” (actually my home office, guest room, workout room, etc), connected directly to the storage unit (pre-NAS) and place shortcuts into the local user Movies folder for Kids Movies, A-L and M-Z movies. And then I shared those directories. I hooked the mini up via a DVI to HDMI connector, fed the audio out to the audio inputs on the display, and setup the Mini to launch into Front Row at boot (along with all the other stuff like iTunes, reboot on power outages, no automatic updates, etc). And voila! A system that my wife not only uses, but prefers to use over the DVD player.

Now downstairs in the family room I hooked up another Mac Mini, connected it to the TV there, connected it to the shares on the upstairs Mini, and set it up like the one upstairs with the same shortcuts, apps on launch, etc. And it gets used more than the one upstairs, and once again, my wife actually likes using it. A quick change of input selection on the TV, and it’s movie time.

I have to admit that there are some issues that I have to deal with on occasion, usually disconnects of the shared drives, but they are minimal and easy to fix no matter where I happen to be in the world.

With the launch of the new Apple TV, I’m starting to think about reclaiming one of the Mac Mini’s for other uses, and using iTunes to index the movies on the upstairs mini. We’ll have to see about that. I like the setup I have, but having the AppleTV in place would probably remove the few issues that I have with share disconnects.

At this point all the movies that come into the house are ripped and added to the directory structure. And that is working great too. One side benefit of using this system in the house is that all the kids DVD’s are easily kept in little cases that allow them to be taken out to the car whenever a long trip takes place, and we don’t have to scramble to find stuff.

Another cool add on to the system that I just did was install AirVideo server on the computer upstairs and point it at the shares. It works great for me when I’m away, as it allows me to occasionally watch a show on my iPhone (and soon on my iPad). I actually can’t believe how well it works.

The one major problem that I currently have with my home media setup has nothing to do with the Mac Mini movie setup. It’s actually a Tivo issue. Or Comcast. We recently switched to Comcast, and guess what? Their set top boxes don’t actually work with the Tivos that we have. I could be using the IR transmitters, except for two things. One, they don’t seem to work with the little convertor box, and two, I only can find one set. Well, actually the real issue is that using the IR transceivers sucks. Since Comcast is using a box that doesn’t have a working serial control connection, and their IR in socket is completely different voltages than the Tivo one, I’ve had to order custom cables to connect them. They just arrived, so we’ll have to see if they work.

Sorry for the non-MSP or Networking post, but that’s how it goes. Sometimes you get tech info, sometimes you don’t.

Anyway, just something that was on my mind this week. Have a good weekend. And stay tuned to the blog, and to Voodoo Networks for the Monday announcement and update.

Quick update on the second half of the new business segment. Everything looks good for announcing to the world on Monday.

Can’t wait. We’ll have the new Voodoo Networks website up and running too.

Come and visit us then.

Had a laugh today, and thought I’d share it.

If you don’t know what the title refers to, try doing a search for “what’s in your bag?”. It’s apparently fairly common for people to spread out the contents of their daily bags, take a picture of the contents, and upload it to flickr or some other site, complete with descriptions. Who knew?

Anyway, back to today (and this is fairly common for me), I showed up at a client site that I’ve done a lot of work at in the past, including setting up network monitoring systems. I was asked back in to show the network team how to update the network weathermaps, so I showed up today to do just that. (Funny thing there too – I’m doing the same thing again at a different client on Thursday.)

So I get there, and put my messenger bag (a custom, medium size Timbuktu that I’ve been toting around for 4 years and it’s still going strong) on the desk that I used to work at, then walked over to say hi to a couple of people in the NOC and let them know that I was going to be making some changes. They came back out with me, and one of them tried to move my bag. Realizing how heavy it was, the other NOC admin tried too. By this point I had a few other people pop out of cubes to see what the NOC team was laughing about. I couldn’t help but laugh at the expressions on their faces as I unloaded the bag.

So they asked me to open it and show them the contents. Which garnered a lot of comments, and a comparison to Mary Poppin’s carpet bag. I was asked if that was normal for me to carry.

And it is pretty normal. Except for 4 things, it’s pretty much my daily carry bag, and doesn’t change much even going overseas.

So what’s the list? Here goes:

Main bag:
Timbuktu Medium Custom Messenger
3 year old Apple Macbook & power supply
Apple Mac Mini (old one) & power supply
Dell Mini 10 in neoprene case & power supply
Apple Bluetooth Keyboard and Magic mouse
Maxtor 320GB USB drive
2 Moleskin notebooks
2 large graph paper pads
3 file folders with various papers in them
Targus travel outlets (love this one!)
Surefire 6P flashlight
Minimaglite with LED kit and super switch
First Aid kit
Casio Exilim camera in case
Passport
Business card holder
Key leash with 2 keys and 3 tokens
About a dozen pocket size pictures of the kids
Breathmints
Ipevo universal phone handset
Double ended Sharpie
Ailph Jawbone Prime headset for my MacBook
Assorted pens and mechanical pencils
Various receipts and trash
Extra AA & AAA batteries
3 pads of PostIt notes
mini-tripod
Eagle Creek Pack-It Quarter Cube (contents below)

Pack-It Quarter Cube contents:
USB to Serial cable
Cisco Serial cable (about to be replaced with adapters, as soon as I have time)
6′ flat ethernet cable
Apple iPhone 3G USB charger (the little cube one)
Jawbone Icon USB cable
Jawbone Prime USB cable
Macbook to DVI and VGA adapters
Cheap 11 in 1 card reader
Ziplinc retractable USB 2.0 to mini cable
Kensington Cigarette lighter USB charger
Ethernet Crossover adapter
Female – Female ethernet connector
Retrak retractable USB to Apple 30 pin cable
Duracell DR7000Li rechargable battery
Original WiSpy 2.4 USB spectrum analyzer
6 USB Thumbdrives, ranging in size from 512M to 8GB
Little LED flashlight / keychain thing
About 6 extra 3″ pieces of velcro, same as the ones I use on the cables in the bag

I’m pretty sure that I missed something on that list, but it’s close enough for now.

I realize that a picture would be worth a thousand words, but the battery is dead on the Casio, and I don’t really feel like unpacking that again to take a picture. So words will have to do.

Now the Mac Mini, power supply, keyboard and mouse aren’t usually part of what I carry, but sometimes (when that isn’t in there) I carry an old powerbook around too.

As to the weight of that? Well, without the Mac Mini, and with the powerbook and it’s power supply, plus my noise canceling headset, it usually weighs enough that if it was luggage, I’d be paying extra. It frequently weighs more than my little carry on, and has at least once weighed more than my rolling duffle bag.

Hope they don’t start weighing carryon bags over on this side of the pond anytime soon.

I realize this isn’t really relevant to Voodoo Networks or Voodoo MSP, but it gives you an idea of what an IT consultant can ned up carrying to sites to make sure that they are ready to go, no matter what the problem is that they might walk into.

So the second part of my announcement about Voodoo Networks new services is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.

There are a few reasons – one is that the website is taking longer. Another is that I want to make sure that the main Voodoo Networks website is done too – it’s going to more closely match the Voodoo MSP site and the new services site.

A bigger reason is getting quotes for some of the gear that is going to be used in the second service. It’s actually a service that requires some unique gear, some custom mounts and enclosures as well as customization of a vehicle or two (the prototype is up and working, but the real ones are only planned).

Which leads me to a question: Why is it so hard to get pricing online for some things? I have seen one reasonable response to that on a website that for a product that I’ll be using. They said that due to their increasing international distribution they no longer have pricing on their site. Fair enough I suppose.

But really, everyone knows that products have different costs in different countries. Computers, food, travel, vehicles – you name it, it’s pretty much going to be a different price based upon the flag of the current country that you’re in.

And I have no issues with different pricing for different countries. Granted, some of them seem to be rip offs, but there is without a doubt differences in import tariffs, taxing, manufacture liabilities, patent protection, etc.

But I do have more and more of an issue with pricing that isn’t shown online, or easy to find. I don’t know about you, but I end up doing a lot of modeling and quoting of projects in the middle of the night or on the weekends, and to be frank, I don’t want to wait until a weekday during the day to call a sales guy about pricing for something that could be easily listed online.

Anyway, end of rant. Back to calling sales guys.