From Gridiron to War Room

IRIS Technologies changing way info is gathered

By Craig S. Shearer, Bulletin Staff Writer

At a recent award ceremony in downtown Pittsburgh, Jerry Salandro, founder and CEO of IRIS Technologies in Greensburg, addressed a number of his business peers.

Accepting the 2003 American Business Ethics Award in the small-business category on behalf of his company, an award honoring companies that demonstrate ethical business practices, Salandro spoke of the one underlying concept that fuels his company's success.

"You must understand one rule, the golden rule," said Salandro at the May 30 ceremony. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

"Could you imagine if you thought that way and I thought that way? We owe it to lead our companies with integrity and provide an environment where people will love coming to work. Because that's the American Dream."

Located near the entrance of the Greensburg Industrial Park along Georges Station Road in Hempfield Township, IRIS Technologies has become a $10-million, cutting-edge company on the very premise of ethical business practices.

"You hear so many people referring to the companies they work for as 'they' or 'them,' as if the company were not human. But companies are human, in fact it is the energy created in employees that becomes the force which drives the company," said Salandro. "Integrity is all any of us ever really have; if you treat employees with integrity they will respond and it will be reflected in their attitude and in their work."

Named after the Greek messenger of the gods whose job was to make communicating easy, IRIS Technologies develops, produces, sells, services and supports PC-based control hardware and Windows-based software for the communications market. Founded in 1987 by Salandro, a Latrobe resident, IRIS burst onto the technology scene with the release of the company's combination software and hardware flagship product, Video Commander, in 1988.

The revolutionary system allowed signals to be routed between equipment with just the touch of on-screen buttons representing devices. The entire system was ahead of its time, predating the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows programs that popularized the idea of on-screen buttons.

Over the years, IRIS has expanded the Video Commander system to handle large computer systems, control the signals between various multimedia devices and provide control over equipment directly from the PC screen. VCRs, DVD player/recorders, cameras, CD and laser disc players, audio cassette recorders, satellite receivers, modulators, electronic test equipment and numerous other devices can all be managed by the company's patented system.

Providing such technology has allowed IRIS Technologies to develop a number of prominent customers. ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Comcast, Time Life, Motorola, NASA as well as colleges and universities across the nation are all among the company's clientele.

And IRIS continues to grow.

Along with the continued success of the Video Commander system, the 50-employee company now is gaining recognition in both the sports industry and in the nation's capital thanks to its state-of-the-art program, Landro.

The Landro system turns the video tapes used to film football games into digital video programs, allowing any play to be accessed in less than one second. The program can access every play without ever having to rewind, fast-forward or search endlessly.

The world's first play analyzer, Landro is a pure labor of love for Salandro. A former coach himself, Salandro spent 15 years developing a tool for video play analysis that would save coaches time. "Coaches spend hours reviewing various game footage," said Salandro. "What Landro does is allow for information to be gathered more easily."

IRIS has tested the program with local high school football teams and Salandro noted that 70 percent of the local teams are now taking advantage of the technology. "Landro has worked extremely well for high school football teams such as Greater Latrobe," said Salandro. "We eventually expect colleges and NFL teams to adopt the program."

Salandro explained that Landro is also being developed for other sports to help coaches analyze gameplay, critique form and scout competition. Similar to sports teams, military strategists also need to access and analyze information. And recently, that is exactly what IRIS Technologies has been helping the United States government do.

Landro has become a useful tool for the Pentagon's TV News Acquisition Team. The team uses Landro to record news programs on various channels, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The program allows the Pentagon team to electronically mark video news segments for review by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs in the National Military Command Center.

"Play analyzer technology has been a great fit for the Pentagon," said Salandro. "Important video news segments being sent to the Pentagon Command Center can be electronically marked and classified. Once this is done, any one of a thousand of these war or news segments can be accessed in under a second."

During the recent conflict with Iraq, the Pentagon was able to record news broadcasts, then electronically clip and save critical segments such as when Baghdad fell, when allied troops took control of the airport or when the United States captured the palace.

Before the News Acquistion Team adopted Landro, this process required four or five individuals constantly monitoring a room full of VCRs, inserting, ejecting, swapping out and labeling video tapes. The entire procedure is now done by only one person.

For 15 years IRIS Technologies has been developing cutting-edge ideas, creating successful hardware and software and working with some of America's most important companies. But according to Salandro, all of the success of IRIS comes down to the company being firmly rooted in business ethics.

"Work is a large piece of anyone's life and the workplace should be an environment where people want to be," said Salandro. "Oure employees want to be here, and they make the company."