IFE Adopts High-Tech System to Monitor More Than 2,300 TV and Radio Stations for Compliance With Election Laws

Volicon Observer(R) Digital Video Logging Systems to Track and Monitor Campaign Advertising in 150 Mexican Cities


BURLINGTON, MA--(Marketwire - December 18, 2009) - Volicon today announced that the Federal Electoral Institute (Instituto Federal Electoral or IFE) has adopted a high-tech approach to enforcing compliance with new political advertising laws to ensure fair and ethical elections. The IFE has installed the Volicon Observer®, a state-of-the-art broadcast monitoring and logging system from Volicon, in IFE offices throughout Mexico. The installation has received an award for "best alignment of technology to the business" from CIO Mexico magazine.

The Volicon Observer is a digital system that continuously records multiple channels of live radio or television broadcasts, and archives the recordings to a server. Since the system runs over an IP network, users can search for and access video clips using their Web browsers and share them with other parties via e-mail. At IFE, the Observer-based installation acts as a media monitoring tool to ensure that political candidates comply with new Mexican election laws.

"We are pleased to provide solutions that help facilitate fairness in the electoral process," said Eli Warsawski, president and CEO of Volicon. "The use of new media monitoring tools and technologies such as the Volicon Observer provide high value for commercial and government concerns worldwide."

"The Observer is well known in the industry for its reliability and technical excellence, and its superior performance in field tests gave our clients at IFE the confidence they needed to proceed with such a large-scale project," said Jorge Castañeda, president at Excelencia en Communicaciones, the Volicon dealer and systems integrator that supplied the solution.

The IFE has deployed Volicon Observer systems in 150 Mexican cities to monitor a total of 2,376 television and radio stations. Candidates for the legislative elections are required to submit a prerecorded audio sample from each of their commercials. Every time the commercial is broadcast, the Observer automatically matches it to a stored audio sample and then issues a "content matched" alert, giving the operator immediate access to the video clip in which the segment occurred. Custom software developed by Excelencia en Communicaciones generates reports that detail when each commercial runs, how often, and on which stations. Operators are able to view the reports, as well as the flagged video clips, from any computer in the network via the Observer's browser interface.

"The IFE's media monitoring project is one of the most ambitious of its type ever undertaken in the Latin American broadcasting community," said Warsawski. "The fact that the Observer won out in an international bidding process, with bids from numerous global organizations, is a huge endorsement of Volicon's ability to meet very complex requirements. We're excited that the Observer will play such an important media monitoring role throughout Mexico."

About IFE

The Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) is an autonomous public agency responsible for organizing federal elections in Mexico; specifically, the election of the President of Mexico and the members of the Lower and Upper Chambers that constitute the Congress of the Union. The IFE was formally established on October 11, 1990, based on a series of constitutional reforms approved in 1989, and the issuing of new electoral legislation in August 1990 (the Federal Code of Electoral Institutions and Procedures, currently in force). For more information, visit www.ife.org.mx.

About Volicon

Volicon is the broadcast and cable industry's most efficient, reliable, and cost-effective automated multichannel video content logging and monitoring system for compliance, media analysis, content repurposing, and quality of service. Its Observer® real-time, digital video monitoring and logging solutions are based on Volicon's patent-pending Video Monitoring Architecture (VMA). VMA is comprised of a multichannel video streaming engine, interactive search, content analytics, and service monitoring and alarming capabilities. Volicon products and services meet the demanding requirements of broadcasters, cable and IPTV service providers, and enterprise and government organizations looking to improve broadcast product quality, enhance video management, and lower costs. More information is available at www.volicon.com.

Photo: www.wallstcom.com/Volicon/Observer.zip

Contact Information: Agency Contact: Susan Warren Wall Street Communications +1 631-261-1013 Volicon Contact: Julius Perl Vice President, Marketing +1 781-221-7400