My name is Jan Berka...
…and over the last 30 years, I have successfully delivered hundreds of complex physical security projects worth $1 billion. Working on four continents, I have architected, project managed, and been part of teams delivering some of the world’s most complex and critical Physical Security solutions.
And I’m proud of my record because I delivered all projects on time and within budget.
Today, I advise Governments, System Integrators and OEMs how to best to design and deliver their critical physical security projects to achieve their objectives (design validation, crisis management).
When Steve Jobs bankrupted my first business, I started my second. My biggest fault is that I am often ten years too early in a sector. Today, billions of workers use iPads and iPhones, but in 1995 I could see the potential for the Apple Newton as an information tool for business.
So in three years, I had built Europe’s first mobile development business with contracts worth over $30M with US hospitals and Daimler Benz. But when Jobs killed Newton overnight, he killed my first business, and I had been inadvertently pushed to the path leading to Physical Security and system integration.
My Physical Security projects now protect a quarter of a billion people each year.
After I have built Europe’s largest security distribution business and then sold it in 2004, Prague Airport Authority consulted me if it was feasible to upgrade the planned analog Surveillance System to an IP Surveillance System. Requiring over 1,200 cameras at 25 fps
and ~5Gb of network traffic, nothing on this scale had ever been done before. After Prague Airport Authority reviewed the feasibility study they were convinced that I was the only one able to deliver the project and this led to my first award of a mega-project in IP Surveillance.
It took 18 months and required me to redesign the foundational blocks like video codecs and partner with Cisco to fix underlying multicast protocols. And, in August 2005, my first large-scale project was declared a major success.
Over the next five years, I oversaw many airports’ construction projects (Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, … ), and several city-wide Physical Security, Surveillance, and Video Analytics projects (Jakarta, Singapore, and Prague, … ).
And later turn-key Physical Security & IT infrastructure projects including Fully Automated and Integrated Solutions at Oil & Gas Facilities, Prisons, and Borders on four continents and in high-risk zones like Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Over my career, I deeply specialized in various IT and physical security disciplines (servers, storage, backup, network, fiber optics, wireless, application, cameras) but I consider myself as a “generalist”. I always had an aspiration to learn all the details of the trade. Master all intricacies of each discipline, so I can integrate them into the whole. This was my path into the role of Solution Architect, which allowed me to be the opponent and sparring partner to the brightest minds on all project collaborations. Difficult and sometimes crisis projects made me a seasoned Technical Project manager.
Today I consult for Governments, Systems Integrators and Crisis Managers.
Over the past 30 years, I have acquired deep and broad experience as a Physical Security Expert in some of the most challenging and complex environments on the planet.
