Monitronics offers video monitoring, wireless two-way audio via Alarm.com

LAS VEGAS--Alarm monitoring company Monitronics announced at the ISC West show here it is set to debut the full range of Alarm.com video monitoring services. According to Monitronics vice president of marketing and business development Mitch Clarke, the partnership with Alarm.com gives Monitronics dealers an important edge: the opportunity to offer Internet-enabled--in other words mobile--video monitoring services. Clarke insists Alarm.com is the perfect fit for the on-the-go lifestyle of today's end users.

"The consumer is really interested in not just having a security system, but having a security system that goes with them where they go. IPhones and PDAs really are more sophisticated now," Clarke said. "I think the idea that we can get the applications inexpensively onto a mobile device means that the realm of what a security system can do can change dramatically. Instead of just knowing that it's on, we can arm it, disarm it. We can also look remotely at all the activity that's happening in the household. I think that's a big step forward and I think it will get people to use their security systems more than they are today."

According to Alarm.com senior vice president of corporate development Daniel Ramos, new apps for the iPhone and Blackberry are in the final stages of testing and will be ready for release by May. "What we've done to now make the consumer experience even more streamlined is develop native applications, develop the code and programming for the iPhone and Blackberry," Ramos said. "We've developed the applications that will sit on your phone and will allow you to interact more seamlessly ... then with the single touch of a button, you'll be able to interact and use all the feature sets of the security system."

Another important aspect of the Alarm.com offerings through Monitronics dealers is the premier of wireless two-way audio. Consumers are increasingly abandoning traditional telephone landlines in favor of cell and VOIP phones, and for the first time, Alarm.com allows Monitronics dealers to offer two-way voice response features to alarm customers who lack fixed landlines. The two-way communication model integrates with GE Security's Simon XT control panel and its built-in or external speaker and microphone.

Clarke maintains the most important thing Monitronics can do for its dealers is give them value-added services that integrate into their end users' busy lives. "If it's after 10:30 at night and my front door opens, that's not an event that's normal," Clarke said. "At my household, I've got it set up so that if that does happen, I get a quick message and a clip of video that tells me, 'Hey, someone's coming in that door,' and it could be the babysitter leaving, but it could be something else, and those are just things that help me get more out of my security system, and it's a part of your lifestyle."