Security and imaging expert James Ionson was appointed CEO of Oncam Global Group, a global total-security-solutions company, for which award-winning 360-degree-imaging-technology developer Grandeye is its technology and engineering arm.
Security and imaging expert James Ionson was appointed CEO of Oncam Global Group, a global total-security-solutions company, for which award-winning 360-degree-imaging-technology developer Grandeye is its technology and engineering arm.
Oncam Global Group acts as parent to worldwide subsidiaries and will provide board- and advisory-level strategic direction to its regional subsidiaries. Operationally, Oncam Global Group's current subsidiaries are located in the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
Ionson, who was named Chairman of U.K.-based Grandeye in December 2008, has also been named Chairman and CEO of Oncam Global Group's U.S. subsidiary, Oncam Global, which he has established in North Andover, Mass.
Oncam Global Group and Grandeye
Oncam Global Group has taken joint ownership of Grandeye, and is responsible for all sales, marketing and product-fulfillment operations related to security markets, said Ionson. He was lead scientist behind the creation of President Ronald Reagan's “Star Wars” program, officially called the Strategic Defense Initiative and now the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
"By moving Grandeye's nontechnical functions to Oncam Global Group,” he said, "we have freed Grandeye to dedicate itself to technology innovation that will keep us ahead of the competition in sophisticated 360-degree panoramic imaging.”
Describing Oncam Global Group, Ionson said, “The Group was founded to address a gap perceived in the way the security industry generally approaches the development of solutions in a world in which threats to critical assets are increasing at an alarming rate.”
"Whether one is talking about protecting countries from missile attacks, luxury hotels from terrorist attacks, casinos from fraudsters or residences from home intrusion, the same essential ingredients of an effective total security solution apply,” he said. “These are persistent surveillance, allowing for the early warning of potential threats, followed by acquisition, tracking, interrogation and, most important, verification of these potential threats so that first responders can act in a way that contains collateral damage in terms of cost and, perhaps, human life.”
"Traditional security systems are not always designed to emphasize verification of a threat, typically jumping from surveillance to action, which can be a costly proposition,” Ionson said.
"Without verification, a supposed threat to a nuclear plant, for example, could result in sniper teams being wrongly called in and the plant being shut down, at a cost of millions of dollars. In the case of unverified threats to a residence, the unfortunate outcome could be that after repeated false alarms, police would question the viability of a home-intrusion alert,” he said.
Ionson, who also was a senior officer at Polaroid, in charge of developing its digital imaging business, and a past CEO of 360-degree imaging company RemoteReality, emphasized that Grandeye's imaging technology has the complete ability to acquire a potential threat, and track and interrogate it, allowing a threat's authenticity to be verified — without compromising persistent 360-degree surveillance.
"While we will design total security solutions for customers, utilizing a variety of top security technologies, the solution must start with persistent and total situational awareness. And that means starting with Grandeye's superior imaging technology,” he said.
Hock Leow, Director of Grandeye and President of Grandeye's technology partner ZiiLABS, said, “With Grandeye's patented imaging technology, Oncam Global Group has the cornerstone around which to build the best-in-breed total security solutions for the commercial, critical infrastructure and home-security markets.”
Noting that Ionson has held top-secret and other national security clearances with the Defense Intelligence Agency and has advised the Pentagon and NASA on critical technology issues, Leow added that Ionson's career, including his role in the development of a highly sophisticated national defense system, “gives him unique perspective and insight into the global security markets.”