Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show Used Advanced Security Technology
Background
The Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS), held from October 30 to November 3, 2018 at six marinas and the Convention Center, featured over 1,200 exhibitors showing watercraft, ranging from superyachts to sport fishers and from catamarans to canoes. More than 110,000 aficionados from around the globe— including the world’s most affluent yacht owners (that attend to find their next purchase)—checked out the 1,500 yachts and boats exhibited over three million square feet, including six miles of floating docks. This created a unique security challenge.
To meet that security challenge, a firm with an international security reputation, Muller Group International (MGI), was selected to provide security at the FLIBS Command Center. MGI chose to partner with VSBLTY Group Technologies Corp. because of its state-of-the-art software that provides facial recognition and weapon detection. Both firms most recently provided perimeter security for a Fortune 500 company at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Muller Group International
MGI was founded by Jeffrey S. Muller, a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent who serves as the firm’s president and CEO. Based in Washington, DC, MGI operates in 25 countries and utilizes innovative technologies to safeguard governments and corporations from cyber threats and weaponized alternative attacks.
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VSBLTY Vector™, which can be used alone or in combination with any form of digital signage, was used to provide perimeter security by “looking for persons of interest” or individuals carrying weapons with the intent to cause harm.
Key Learnings
“VSBLTY’S state-of-the-art software that provides facial recognition and weapon detection was utilized to provide perimeter security over the five-day show,” Muller said. Six perimeter outdoor informational screens were deployed at entry points and in key high traffic areas as part of a turnkey security solution. “Known” persons of interest, who represented an active threat to the show and exhibiters, were loaded into the VSBLTY database. Confidence-rated instant alerts were sent to the FLIBS Command Center that enabled the security team to do a visual comparison with database photos to determine if the individual was an active threat.
FLIBS management also received information that provided significant marketing intelligence. The number of persons visiting the exhibits, including gender and age range, was reported, as was traffic by hour and day, including where crowds gathered.
Because more and more so-called soft targets are being attacked around the world, heightened security is needed virtually everywhere. VSBLTY’s face-on cameras, and attention-getting motion graphics, produce better facial recognition results than overhead CCTV cameras and enable instant professional security responses to threats. VSBLTY’s partnership with MGI at FLIBS was another demonstration of the value of the merger of marketing and security.