KZO’s Interactive Video Platform Provides UICDS Homeland Security Initiative with Unified Communications and Collaboration Environment

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--KZO Innovations is supporting the Department of Homeland Security’s Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) initiative with their recently released version 2.0 SaaS implementation of the KZO Platform.

“We are pleased to be part of the group of member companies supporting the design, development and implementation of the UICDS Program. Our KZO Platform is well-suited to provide this distributed and rapidly expanding group of companies with a highly flexible communications environment.”

KZO’s technology provides UICDS member companies with a shared central repository for live, re-play or pre-produced streaming video materials supporting the overarching mission, as well as the current middleware development phase of the UICDS Program. Capable of synchronous as well as anytime, anywhere asynchronous delivery, KZO’s web 2.0 platform integrates streaming video, synchronized presentations, real-time who’s on-line and chat functions.

KZO’s deep-tagging technology for streaming video provides browser-based viewers with the ability to initiate and participate in on-going Q & A and threaded micro-blog discussions associated with specific moments in time in the videos, as well as to identify and insert links to additional information, documents, video segments and other external materials. The content of these tags is actively indexed and fully searchable across the platform, providing rapid access to this dynamic universe of material for the expanding community of UICDS participants.

The KZO Platform provides UICDS member companies with the benefit of single point access to a wide assortment of materials ranging from historical UICDS program presentations and meeting archives, to design specifications, libraries of emergency management videos, and more.

Wes Cruver, KZO President & CEO, said, “We are pleased to be part of the group of member companies supporting the design, development and implementation of the UICDS Program. Our KZO Platform is well-suited to provide this distributed and rapidly expanding group of companies with a highly flexible communications environment.”

UICDS is sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Science and Technology, and is being executed through a contract with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). Chip Mahoney, SAIC’s UICDS project manager, explains that the Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) “is the middleware foundation that enables commercial and government incident management technologies to share information and support decisions for the National Response Framework and National Incident Management to prevent, protect, respond, and recover from natural, technological, and terrorist events.”

James W. Morentz, Ph.D., SAIC’s director of UICDS Outreach, says, “KZO has done a great job of providing a video platform for sharing UICDS information among the 200 or so Technology Providers interested in UICDS. Bringing the message of UICDS and all the technical details on how best to interface applications to UICDS is a difficult task with the rapid pace of technology innovation and business today. The KZO asynchronous video tools let UICDS Technology Providers learn about UICDS at their own pace. And since Technology Providers will continue to emerge as they discover the value of UICDS, the late-comers can quickly get caught up on the value, message, and opportunity of UICDS through video and documents that KZO is organizing for UICDS.”

SAIC is a FORTUNE 500® scientific, engineering, and technology applications company that uses its deep domain knowledge to solve problems of vital importance to the nation and the world, in national security, energy and the environment, critical infrastructure, and health. For more information, visit www.saic.com. SAIC: From Science to Solutions®

KZO is an R&D and software development company pioneering and delivering innovative streaming video solutions. KZO's fusion of digital video expertise, advanced technology development and business process management enables the company to provide customers with unprecedented innovation and ROI-based effectiveness in the rapidly evolving global market for technology enabled knowledge, training, education and communications. For more information visit www.kzoinnovations.com