Global ePoint Mobile Video Systems Give Police Next-Generation Surveillance and Communication Capabilities
 

CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif.—Jan. 3, 2005--Global ePoint, Inc. (NASDAQ:GEPT), an innovator in homeland and aviation security, law enforcement and advanced digital surveillance and security solutions, has announced that its mobile video-based surveillance and communication systems have performed well in several early test implementations by police departments around the country.  The announcement was made by Toresa Lou, Chief Executive Officer of Global ePoint.

Global ePoint’s digital video-based Sequent Ranger™ systems have been undergoing a range of pilot tests in police departments throughout the U.S. to determine the technology’s capabilities in real-world police environments. The Company’s products have so far received high marks from its evaluating police departments, in a range of tests that have demonstrated the technology’s functionality.

The Sequent™ Ranger product line, from Global ePoint's Digital Technology Division, provides next-generation digital video surveillance capabilities for police and other public safety agencies. The Ranger systems, which can be installed in police cruisers and other vehicles, record and store high-quality and secure digital video recordings of police activities and incidents.

According to former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, a member of Global ePoint’s board of directors and a noted law enforcement expert, the Company’s next-generation technology solutions have the potential to significantly enhance the ability of police to fulfill their missions.

“The federal government has done a great job of improving technology to enable intelligence and military agencies to gather information around the world, but until now there have been only incremental technological advances for local and municipal police,” said Chief Gates. “Global ePoint’s Sequent systems provide a whole new category of methods that will assist officers in their work to protect the public.”

The video files recorded by the Sequent™ systems are uploaded and stored in a computer server system that provides advanced archiving and search capabilities. During emergency response actions, the video images can also be transmitted back to command headquarters in real-time, via cellular communications.

“With the Sequent Ranger digital video systems, that information can be analyzed very effectively by police department commanders and strategists in a way that just wasn’t possible before this technology arrived,” said Chief Gates. “It’s particularly important that the police can analyze the videos either in real-time, or at any time afterwards, by searching through the computer-archived videos files.”

Police in the city of West Covina, Calif., located east of Los Angeles, have been testing the Global ePoint products since September. A San Gabriel Valley Tribune article quoted West Covina Police Chief Frank Wills, who described the technology's value both to enhance the ability of police to protect the public, and to increase trust between citizens and the law enforcement agencies that serve them. Based on the positive results of the pilot tests, Chief Wills is calling upon the city to equip more of the department's patrol cars with the Sequent™ systems.

The full text of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune article can be read at http://www.tril03.com/gept/GEPT_sgvt.pdf.

In addition to the West Covina, Calif., Police Department, Sequent systems are being used in pilot testing programs in Riverside, Calif., as well as police departments in the state of New Jersey. Riverside police equipped 13 patrol cars with Global ePoint's Sequent(TM) systems; law enforcement officials there have described the technology as especially valuable. Police departments in the communities of Brea, Calif., and Santa Ana, Calif., are also testing the Sequent(TM) systems in patrol cars.

The video recording and archiving features of the Sequent(TM) systems are among several critical functions of the products for police and law enforcement organizations. The backend server technology enables greatly improved ease of digital data management, compared with previous generations requiring physical storage of bulky VHS videotapes, crude search and archive functionality and very poor applicability as an evidence tool. The Global ePoint solutions generate video and audio data files that can be easily and powerfully archived by computer. Equally important, the data can be used reliably as evidence, because the chain of custody can be securely established for legal use, both for the prosecution of crime as well as for the resolution of complaints regarding actions of police officers. Many such complaints result in multi-million-dollar lawsuit settlements against police departments, and have become one of the largest costs in local law enforcement budgets.

"The task of providing law enforcement and public safety services for our communities has continued to grow more complex for our police departments.  They require the support of the best technological innovation that we can provide,” said Ms. Lou.

About Global ePoint Digital Technology Division
Global ePoint's Digital division provides a range of next-generation digital video and audio recording solutions for applications in the military, law enforcement and in commercial business. Currently consisting of business units Perpetual Digital and Sequent Technology, the Digital Technology Division's products are making analog tape-based systems obsolete by providing digital technology products to enable the real-time capture, playback, communication, and computer-based archive, search and recall of high-quality digital video. Perpetual Digital develops and provides a family of security and surveillance products, including point-of-sale digital video transaction recording equipment and a range of other commercial security solutions. Sequent Technologies develops and provides proprietary digital video systems for a range of law enforcement, defense, access security and public safety markets. Its products enable the video transmission, indexing and archiving systems from anywhere using existing wireless cellular networks.