By Rich Johnson, WTOP News
McLEAN, Va. — A McLean company is playing a huge part in keeping the Super Bowl safe.
Haystax Technology authored the software that organizes the avalanche of data generated by police, fire, paramedics and pretty much every agency involved in security this weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“To me, the Super Bowl is not just about fan safety,” says Haystax Chief Operating Officer Bryan Ware. “This is as American as it gets. I think we all want to know that everything that can be done is being done to protect that event.”
At Haystax’s offices near Tysons Corner, Ware gave reporters a tour of a replica of the company’s operations center somewhere in the Bay Area — he wouldn’t say where for security reasons. Inside, analysts and others are monitoring cameras, sensors and feeds from first-responding agencies. They’re also looking at social and mass media feeds that the company’s software has flagged for various reasons.
Using the software, security agencies filter and analyze the information for potential threats, then pass it along to those who need to know.
To be clear, Haystax isn’t part of law enforcement. It’s maintaining the tools that law enforcement is using.
“[As] all those new technologies that we have generate more and more data, what you really need is to see it all in one place … and to get [the information] quickly to the guy who needs to see it. We’re the software part of it.”
Ware and his team are on familiar turf, as Haystax software has been the backbone of Super Bowl security for the past seven years. Also, it has been used by agencies protecting the Indy 500, the Oscars and the U.S. Open.
