All of us at ASSIST-U.S. wish all of you a healthy and prosperous New Year in 2011.  We are looking forward to 2011 with great expectations based on the strong business foundation we worked to build in 2010. 
 

At the outset, we knew that building a market for our full motion video services would take the greatest effort, since our initial investigations had indicated that few companies offered this service in the continental US.  Even though airborne photography goes back 150 years (to the Civil War), most of today's work is for geophysical mapping. Except for helicopter traffic reporting, our market research has found few companies offering full motion video using the latest technologies with the cost effectiveness of employing fixed-wing aircraft.Add real-time streaming and analysis, and you might say that today we are on the leading edge of this evolution with the sophisticated systems we employ.
 

As I write this, we are just cleaning up after the first major snowstorm of 2011.This week, our team went airborne for some footage on the results of that storm and to assist, wherever we can, those who may need information we can capture with our sensors regarding problem areas around the state of New Hampshire.
 

ACCOMPLISHMENTS
 

Since our December 2010 newsletter, we have completed or performed the following activities:

• Initiated teaming relationships with three seasoned and established companies whose offerings complement ours and with whom we are collaborating to capture new business. 
• Completed the work on the Forestry Service contract mentioned in the last newsletter
• Hosted an "Emerging Technologies for Real-time Emergency Management" forum at the Grappone Center in Concord on January 18^th. Along with two of our technology partners - Global Relief Technologies and Saratoga Data Systems - we presented our system capabilities and demonstrated our ability to stream live, full motion video and infrared data from our aircraft. This event was geared toward first responders from around the state and representatives from state agencies involved in emergency response.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Our first major trade show participation will be at the IDGA Disaster Management and Showcase Conference on January 24-26 in Vienna, VA, where we have a booth.  At this conference, we will again demonstrate our ability to stream live, full motion video and infrared data over the Internet to a team member's laptop and/or PDA in Virginia from our aircraft in New Hampshire.
• On January 24^th, we are hosting our Senior Advisory Board in Concord, NH. This group of experienced professionals is part of our management team and has provided valuable guidance and advice throughout the past eight months, helping us deal with technical and business issues as they arise.

Technology Update

The process of building the operational arm of ASSIST-U.S. has been challenging, rewarding, and above all, educational.  I must admit that more than one of my preconceived ideas has been tossed out along the way.

Many of the systems and technologies we use at ASSIST-U.S. are entirely new or are existing technology being applied in new ways. To some extent, we are fine-tuning our product, adding new layers of capability, and generally getting better every day at what we do.  I am very fortunate to have a dedicated staff that has been willing to work far outside the lines of their job descriptions to smooth the path of development.

For the most part, the primary mission of Aviation Operations remains unchanged. However, we are continually looking at ways to better achieve that mission. For example, this month we are testing a High Definition video camera, improving on our datalink capability, and using new software for video processing and analysis. While this is an ambitious list of testing and systems development, the results will allow us to offer a comprehensive menu of services that our customers can rely on.

Operations Center

In the last few weeks we have endeavored to build a fully-integrated operations center from scratch. I am very pleased with the results, and we now have a space dedicated entirely to operations planning, dispatching, monitoring, and post-flight processing.

New Team Member

We are very happy to have Anthony Mayo on the team as our Aviation Project Manager. Anthony supports all aspects of our Aviation Department. In addition, he will be very involved in video processing and production work. Anthony's extensive aviation background and his technical skill in computing and software make him a perfect fit for this role.

Looking Ahead