It’s a rare find when you see a female CEO running a male-founded tech company, but that’s exactly what we found at Skyline Technology Solutions.
Mia Millette serves as Chief Executive Officer where she leads the execution of the company’s overall mission and vision. Mia was appointed CEO in 2021 after serving as Skyline’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) beginning in 2018. In this role she leverages more than two decades of technology and business experience to advance Skyline’s strategic initiatives, with keen focus on enriching the lives of those served by the company.
M.R. Rangaswami: Can you tell us about what products or services Skyline offers that are unique in the market?
Mia Millette: We do a lot of work in the transportation space. From the fiber in the ground to the design, implementation, and monitoring and management of the networks and devices that are utilized by transportation agencies – we do the full stack. About 12 years ago, we noticed a pain that was being experienced by our customers; they were struggling with how to share their traffic and other closed-circuit TV (CCTV) camera data with other organizations and jurisdictions. As you can imagine, every stretch of road has multiple jurisdictions that own and support devices and, if there is an accident, or a planned event, or an unplanned security, safety, or weather event, these jurisdictions need to be able to communicate and share the video immediately and securely regardless of video management system or jurisdiction.
This is where Skyline developed a solution.
Our Claris video interoperability solution allows video data from various CCTV systems, that have different video formats and are not inherently interoperable, to be ingested and normalized for sharing. It then aggregates and distributes this video to a presentation layer where it can be viewed by almost any application used by other jurisdictions and without any proprietary software. Our native mobile video viewing application uses the presentation layer to provide video to any device that has a browser; think Traffic Management Centers (TMC) and Network Operation Centers (NOC) workstation, mobile laptop, a police Toughbook in a patrol car, tablet or smartphone, and other devices. The video sharing architecture allows one agency to see another agency’s video in their native viewing application without the need to purchase new CCTV software or systems.
M.R.: If video isn’t inherently sharable- what other use cases do you see for your solution?
Mia: It’s actually pretty amazing. When we walk into a traffic management center regardless of state and talk to them about our Claris solution, they immediately say that they didn’t realize that so many of their problems have already been solved. So, while the transportation space is a nice sweet-spot for us for traffic cameras and the sharing of that video cross-jurisdiction, we also love serving the Public Safety market. Our video solution uses HTML5 compatible CLSP, which is low latency video sharing. This means that jurisdictions who utilize our solution will be able to share in near real-time, which is a game changer in a 911 situation where a local business, organization, or school system needs to communicate with a 911 operator or the police and can provide near real-time video situational awareness
M.R.: It sounds like the solution has great growth potential, where is Skyline Technology Solutions headed?
Mia: We think it’s very important to understand your market and to provide the best cohesive solutions that complement each other. That is why we have initially focused on Transportation, State and Local Government, Public Safety, and Education. We feel a special obligation to these markets, the first responders, and to all the people that they serve. These workers are responsible for the safety and security of their citizens, and all of these markets require innovative connected solutions to deliver that security. Ultimately, we are focused on providing solutions to enhance the resiliency and reliability that these important markets need to support their initiatives.
In terms of where we’re headed, we are most excited that we’ve only just scratched the surface of Claris’ growth potential. We often say our solution is agnostic; it doesn’t care where the cameras are pointing. We are breaking into multiple new markets including commercial and high density residential real estate, large volume retail, and even large-scale events. Any organization that has a high volume of cameras that they need to integrate, share, and analyze to improve their safety, security, or operational effectiveness.
By providing end-to-end complementary solutions and services, we are uniquely qualified to understand the complexity that our customers need to deliver the customer experience they desire for the future. With that focus and detailed understanding, we are excited for the future and look to expand our platform to serve the broader community of interoperability needs.
M.R. Rangaswami is the Co-Founder of Sandhill.com