HPA's new COLD technology delivers individual security

HPA has announced the release of its new-generation Computer Output to Laser Disc (COLD) software featuring special 'Administrator' capabilities. Designed and developed by HPA in Australia, HPA COLD V.2 software facilitates the centralised administration of COLD archives on the customer's own premises and provides a security access system for individual users.

The Administrator can be programmed to assign access rights using a five-tiered hierarchical structure. User access rights are automatically validated upon log-on to ensure that individuals have access levels of information, as permitted by the Administrator.

"HPA was the first company to introduce a system to produce COM and COLD data files in a concurrent process, and with the introduction of COLD V.2, we are the first to provide a COLD system with comprehensive administration capabilities," said HPA's general manager Imaging Services, Gerry Sutton. "Along with all the traditional capabilities of HPA COLD such as instant access to information and multiple indexing, HPA COLD V.2 provides additional benefits not found in other products, like its unique Administrator capabilities," said Mr Sutton. "The Administrator allows organisations to manage their own COLD archives in the manner that best suits them, and provides security access to varying levels of information as validated by the Administrator," he said.

HPA COLD V.2 is capable of serving both as a network and a standalone image management system, and can reside on a variety of Windows-based operating platforms. Its one-step installation and setup also makes COLD V.2 accessible to all levels of users.

The Administrator capabilities can search across reports from different periods, and query results are displayed in a grid for easy viewing. It also has text searching speeds of up to 4000 pages per minute ensuring that indexed data can be located and retrieved within two seconds.

Like the original COLD product, COLD V.2 produces COLD and COM files in one process. As a package, COLD and COM provide a complementary blend of information storage and retrieval. CD-ROM is the fastest medium for immediate and frequent retrieval needs, while COM provides users with the security that information is constantly available should there be a drive or system failure.