Let's visit: http://lab.ncs4.com/ and see some excerpts
Laboratory FunctionsThe primary mission of this dedicated virtual National Laboratory will be to advance global sports security by serving as the epicenter for the enhancement of technology, training and research.
The National Laboratory will be designed to support the following functions:
* Act as a permanent showcase for cutting-edge physical protection equipment, technology and training at sports venues
* Perform laboratory testing on related products and services
* Measure the conformance of candidate technologies, equipment and operational concepts to standards and best practice
* Certify test performance results
* Provide facilities and capabilities for both benchmarking and on-site evaluation of products and services to inform their continued development, including facilities at Southern Miss and off site (selected providers of specialized capabilities, certified third party test houses, etc.)
* Develop new software tools related to sports security
* Integrate laboratory capabilities into training and exercises
* Provide a simulated emergency operation center
* Perform collaborative and sponsored R&D on subjects related to sports security facilities, equipment, processes and personnel in order to review customer feedback
* Assist in the development of national standards for testing/evaluating relevant products and services
* Support the commercialization of new security products supporting large-scale sports venues
The following process evaluation steps are administered for every laboratory test:
* Candidate System/Solution Screening – Systems and solutions are identified through market research or by vendor proffering as a result of improved or newly available capability that might meet perceived industry requirements. The screening process may not be exhaustive but will be representative of commercial offerings available to the community of interest.
* Establish Vendor Agreement – Represents a formal process of commitment by a solution provider to deliver and support their product components in a trial. This commitment acknowledges this overall evaluation process and its purposes to serve the spectator sports community of interest through a systematic and open evaluation process. It also entails executing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the solution provider to obtain, configure and install the evaluation component suite with required vendor support commitments during the evaluation period. In general, the expectation is that vendors will provide systems and support without charge for the evaluation period.
* Prepare Operational/Technical Requirements – Based on data collection of business and operational priorities further the Lab Engineering Oversight organization defines the specific process flows, functional requirements, and performance requirements for the prospective solution components in a specific area of interest (e.g. access control, person screening). Detailed operational procedural and possible human factors requirements are produced. This should be input to the subsequent peer review step for the LAC and candidate industry evaluators to establish baseline requirements for evaluation.
* Define Evaluation Approach/ Establish Weighted Criteria – Develop evaluation approaches and criteria collaboratively with the Engineering Oversight Team and the Lab Advisory Council. Assign criteria to an overarching set of categories such as cost, capabilities, installation ease, maintainability, and operator usability (these are patterned after the SAVER categories but may be revised for each technology trial instance). Weights will be assigned to each category based on the importance of the category in the solution and published with the results to clarify and bound the evaluation result.
* Acquire Trial Hardware and Software – Complete vendor delivery and scheduling commitments for acquisition and installation into the lab environment or alternative University of Southern Mississippi vendor site for evaluation.
* Peer Review – Complete a technical review of the operational and technical requirements, the evaluation approach, the defined criteria and assigned weights, vendor participation agreements, and finalize the details and/or apply final evaluation process changes as necessary.
* Lab Configure and Install – With appropriate vendor support, whether on-site or remote as agreed upon, complete installation and configuration as required for the evaluation interval. Complete sanity checks and initial readiness tests prior to the execution of evaluation scenarios. Basic setup performed by the Lab Engineering Oversight team and integrated vendor resources.
* Execute Assessment – Execute evaluation test streams, functionality tests, and throughput and performance tests. Integrate industry evaluators into the evaluation process flow to provide further verification and validation of the results.
* Analyze Test Results – Systematically collect all evaluation test results and validate with participants including lab personnel, industry evaluators and vendor participants. Ensure that the analysis follows established objective criteria and weighting. Assemble the results and review with all designated stakeholders.
* Produce Evaluation Report – Documentation and production of the evaluation report. The report will contain the analysis associated with the candidate vendor solutions initially reviewed, the set of criteria and weighting will be documented, requirements and performance checklists will be noted, vendor functionality claims will be verified in accompanying matrices, results correlated to the criteria, and the resulting score quantitatively described and summarized. The resulting document will be routed to all the constituents in the evaluation process for agreement and concurrence. The report will also be issued to selected external agencies for a third-party review. Once past all objective scrutiny, the report will be made available for Web site publication and dissemination through distribution channels.
* Decommission Hardware and Software - At the conclusion of trials or phase evaluation and demonstration events decommission hardware assets and return software keys and licenses in accordance with the MOA terms and conditions.
These represent a high-level view of the execution steps of the evaluation process and the roles and responsibilities of the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security Advisory Board, the Lab Advisory Council, the Lab Engineering Oversight organization and the vendor community. The agreed-upon processes will also be incorporated into the Technology and Process Evaluation Plan which will be a living document subject to periodic changes as dictated by the end-user community.
Overall Planning ActivitiesAs prerequisites to the evaluation execution process the following steps are noted above. Below are the overall planning activities.
* Periodic Collection of Industry Needs (Survey) – Previously described were the roles and responsibilities of the NCS4 National Advisory Board, the Laboratory Advisory Council and the Lab Engineering Oversight organization in terms of the periodic collection of business and operational needs through the community of interest participants. This initial activity produces the priorities in the Technology and Process Evaluation Plan (TPEE). It is anticipated that this priority gathering process will be renewed annually and will drive revisions to the Technology and Process Evaluation Plan subject to the review of the NCS4 LAC and the Lab Engineering Oversight organization.
* Development of the Technology and Process Evaluation Plan – This is an iterative development process that will produce plan revisions based on the annual collection and recalibration of needs. Plan contents subject to revision have been described in the previous section.
* Establishment of the Lab Engineering Oversight Organization – This activity will produce the initial operating oversight organization. Organizational changes will be administered as a result of process and efficiency improvements derived from lessons learned and ongoing operational experience.
* Preparation of the Lab Infrastructure – This is a recurring activity that defines and implements the required hardware, power, space and physical facility modifications to the testing environment to support evaluations and trials of the prioritized technologies. The sports venues at The University of Southern Mississippi site may be actual laboratory facilities or related venue facilities outfitted for operational deployment trials and evaluations. This will need to be revisited periodically to accommodate the next set of evaluation technologies and the decommissioning of those already evaluated.
READ THESE TECHNICAL REPORTS:http://lab.ncs4.com/reports/AssessmentreportAvigilon.pdfhttp://lab.ncs4.com/reports/AssessmentreportPixel.pdfhttp://lab.ncs4.com/reports/ISSsnapshot.pdf
NSSL National Advisory CouncilThe National Sports Security Laboratory will base its priorities on the periodic review of operational and business needs of the industry. These scenarios and requirements will be solicited from the venue operators and the responsible security personnel forming a spectator sports community of interest.
It is anticipated that the NCS4 National Advisory Board will represent those constituencies and interests and provide a forum for the annual evaluation of priorities and any accompanying recommendations for process improvements.
Currently the NCS4 National Advisory Board includes security and operations principals from professional sports leagues (NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, NASCAR, INDY Racing League, USTA, PGA, LPGA, SMA); collegiate and amateur associations (NCAA, NACDA, USOC); and affiliations with DHS, law firms and private industry.
Role of Laboratory Advisory Council (LAC)
In order to provide direct laboratory planning support an operational NCS4 Lab Advisory Council (LAC) has also been formed with the following high-level objectives:
* Provide strategic guidance based on security priorities and goals for sports venues based on evolving missions, user needs and resource use priorities.
* Provide tactical reviews of the lab Technology and Process Evaluation Plan (TPEE), support the definition of evaluation approaches and criteria for each technology evaluation, and support peer reviews of specific technology assessment projects.
* Provide oversight for the laboratory to ensure that program activities are clearly aligned and traceable to sports venue operational and business needs.
Lab Advisory Council (LAC)
Milt Ahlerich, National Football League
Darren Blankenship, Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies
Gary Gardner Consultant
TJ Kennedy SAIC
Lou Marciani, - The University of Southern Mississippi
Bill Squires Consultant
Jerry Surak SAIC
Role of Laboratory Engineering Oversight Organization in concert with Lab Advisory Council (LAC)
This plan has been developed by the NCS4 Lab Engineering Oversight Organization in concert with Lab Advisory Council guidance. The plan will:
* Identify and describe key technology areas of interest to spectator sports venue operators as determined from periodic industry data collection and surveys;
* Define priorities for security products and solution areas in a one to three year schedule of evaluation events;
* Maintain the description of agnostic processes for the criteria, testing approach, evaluation and results reporting of sports security solutions evaluations;
* Define procedures for managing and operating industry days in the future;
* Describe laboratory infrastructure, network and computing requirements; and
* Describe other technology evaluation resources that can support lab evaluation objectives.
Lab Engineering Oversight Organization
As noted in the above diagram, the NCS4 Lab Engineering Oversight Organization has been established to manage and execute the daily operational functions of the laboratory.
They will plan and schedule evaluations or industry day events, screen candidate systems and solutions, document criteria and approaches, execute evaluation processes with industry evaluator support, and produce results documentation.
