Posted_JA-Closed_Captioning.pdf

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FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

JUSTIFICATION FOR LIMITED

COMPETITION/SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR

ACQUISITIONS UNDER THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 13.106-1(b)(1), I hereby determine that the Link Electronic ACE2200 Closed Captioning Engine listed on DJF-19-4750-PR-0000997 is available from only one manufacturer (brand name only), and competition is precluded as there are no substitutes available.

1. This acquisition is restricted to the following manufacturer:

Company: Link Electronics

Company Address: 2360 N. High Street Suite 10, Jackson, MO 63755

Company Point of Contact and Phone Number: (573) 334-4433

2. For three (3) ACE 2200 Automated Captioning Engine is estimated to cost $195,900.00 and is required to be delivered by 2/1/2019.

The ACE 2200 Automated Captioning Engine is an automatic captioning – Live and Post

Production Media (ACE-2000 and ACE-2100 in one unit) includes 1 year ACE warranty coverage.

3. Specific characteristics of the ACE 2200 Automated Captioning Engine that limit the availability to a brand name competition is the ACE 2200 Automated Captioning Engine provides both the closed captioning and the transcribing capability. The product offers an on-premise configuration, and their product can be purchased, allowing total ownership. Only this suggested source can furnish the requirements, to the exclusion of other sources, because it is very important that the FBI have total ownership of the automatic closed captioning device. The FBI has a voluminous cache of videos requiring closed captioning and many of the videos contain sensitive and classified content.

Therefore a leased product is unacceptable and it would create security concerns when maintenance or parts replacements are required. Also, when the lease ends, the manufacturer/vendor would want to recover the hardware, which would be a security concern. The Link Electronic’s ACE-2200 Automated Captioning Engine is the only company that had both on-premise option and an option that allows the purchase of its

Version 1.0 Page 2 device. One other manufacturer solution offers an on-premise option, but requires that their product be leased and is therefore unacceptable to the FBI.

4. Check and fill in all that are applicable:

The material or service must be compatible in all aspects (form, fit, and function) with existing systems presently installed. The current equipment is <insert description of current equipment>, and the new item/service must coordinate, connect, or interface with the existing system by <insert description of how the new item/service must coordinate or interface>.

A patent, copyright, proprietary data, or licensing agreement limits competition. The proprietary data are described as follows:

<Insert description>

These are "direct replacement" parts/components for existing equipment.

Other information to support a sole source buy:

The Link Electronic ACE-2200 is a known entity; early 2018 the Communication

Support Unit (CSU) performed comparative test that involved the Link Electronic’s

ACE 2200 Automated Captioning Engine and ENCO’s EnCaption4. In two principle areas Link Electronic’s ACE 2200 Automated Closed Caption Engine outperformed the other manufacturer’s product that was tested. The Link Electronic’s ACE

Automated Closed Caption Engine in the area of transcription accuracy tested ten percent higher than the other manufacturer. And in respect to speed, the time it takes to process an hour and a half of video, the Link Electronic’s ACE 2200

Automated Captioning Engine was 30 minutes fast in performing its task.

Additionally, the Link Electronic’s ACE 2200 Closed Captioning Engine is complete package, it included both the automated captioning engine and the encoder (which performs the transcription)