Hackett Security rolls with IP

ST.LOUIS-- The IP monitoring service Hackett Security launched last month started to evolve when the system integrator four years ago started video monitoring. "We wanted to have the immediacy of the alarm when we do verify an alarm with video," said Mike Hackett, president of Hackett Security. The push to incorporate IP into the alarm company's offerings also reflects the shift of customers in the residential market. Many of them no longer use a landline as a form of communication. Hackett noted that in just one St. Louis high-rise apartment building less than 10-percent of the 100 units have telephone lines. However, the landlord and tenants required an alarm system. "We were kind of tied up on those particular elements, but our IP monitoring is a very quick fix for us," Hackett said. "We are finding in just the small group that it started with, when the alarm is triggered, the people are still standing at the keypad, and the sirens haven't started going off yet." With an improved transmittal time, "there is no big delay compared to traditional dial up applications," he added. Currently, Hackett Security, which monitors alarms in 27 states with 7,000 accounts, has more than 100 customers using IP monitoring. Hackett expects that number to burst in the residential market as well as commercial as time goes on. On the commercial side of the market, business owners can receive alarm management information, such as openings and closings, via e-mail. Going through a cable modem or high-speed connection, the Sur-Gard System II transmits customer's information instantly to a screen of a Hackett Security dispatcher, he added. The benefit of this technology is "the speed and the ability for us to monitor anywhere in the world," he added.