Monitor This!

CSAA Fall Operations Management Seminar

2008-11-14T14:38:00.009-05:00

I had a chance to go to the last day of the CSAA Fall Operations Management Seminar on Nov. 11 at the Boston Marriott Peabody in Peabody, Mass. It was nice to meet so many of you upon whom I report, and to get a chance to learn a little more about the industry and its concerns.

The opening segment on day three, a talk about liability issues and how to avoid sticky situations, was delivered with a little fire and brimstone by Jeffrey Zwirn, president of IDS Research. Pictured above is Zwirn speaking to about 75 attendees at the morning's opening session.

Around midday, attendees were bussed out to Wayne Alarm Security Systems, Inc. in nearby Lynn, Mass., for a tour of the Wayne Alarm facility. Wayne Alarm founder and president Ralph Sevinor was on hand to start the tour off right with a stop by a table laden with fresh fruit, doughnuts, cookies and other pastries, bottled water, coffee, and soda before visiting the station's Antique Corner. Sevinor, showing off his extensive, pristine collection of all things security, obviously has a passion for the security industry.

Of Wayne Alarm, Morgan Hertel of The Command Center, Inc., said "That guy's got the greatest museum in the industry. Nice clean facility. It was a nice tour." Pictured above is Hertel setting up for his talk, the last of the day before the closing Open Forum.

Overall, attendees seemed pleased at what they found at the CSAA's Fall Ops Seminar. Loretta DiVincenzo of Cleveland, Ohio-based Gillmore Security Systems (in the video clip below) was especially impressed with the sense of camaraderie and honesty that seemed to pervade the weekend's sessions, as potential competitors came together to discuss and perhaps help each other solve common problems.

CSAA education committee co-chair Pam Petrow, chief operating officer at Vector Security would have made Phil Donahue proud, roving from one corner of the banquet room to the other to provide her microphone to each and every attendee who desired to speak and contribute.

There was no constricting format, and some of the topics discussed were absent/tardy policies, and the enforcement thereof, as well as creative interviewing/hiring practices, and where to go to find staff when you were starting a new central from scratch. Pictured at the right is Pam Petrow and her microphone facilitating discussion.

A security system that calls you, but has no monthly fee?! Read on...

2008-10-27T12:56:00.008-04:00

I came across this press release on prlog.org this morning, and since I'm the new monitoring maven here at SSN, I had to read on.

The press release advertises a security system that seems to promise the same sort of live protection offered by a system monitored by a central station, but with no monthly fee. Here is an excerpt:

Is It Possible To Have A Home Security System with NO MONTHLY FEE that Calls YOU?

Yes! Instead of a costly monitoring company calling the police, the person receiving the call is notified immediately and can call the police. Practical and highly effective security -- what a novel concept.

Maybe it's just me, but first of all, it's not the fee that calls you... (curses upon the dangling modifier! I will always be an English Major at heart) I would rather have professionals whose job it is to watch my property watching my property and making the distinction of real versus false alarm. That would be better than to have a motion detection/intrusion system call my cell/work phone every time something trips the system. "The person receiving the call is notified immediately and can call the police." What does that mean? Isn't that like saying the system calls the person who is called and then they can call the police?

One of this system's selling points is that instead of professionals monitoring the situation and making the determination of whether or not to notify police (a real, verified intrusion), the proud owner of the system gets to make that determination themselves since "they can listen in to [the] house directly through the Protector Plus Voice Dialer."

So let me understand this... another of the system's selling points is the 85db siren screaming as part of the intrusion alert. I'm supposed to be trained enough to listen in over a control panel based microphone and discern, through 85 decibels of siren, the sounds of a potential criminal in my home? Aren't criminals, by their nature, kind of sneaky and silent. I should certainly think that the 85 decibels of sound coming from my alarm system would mask any ambient sound I might be able to hear that would tell me "Yup, that's a prowler!" as opposed to "Nope, that's just the cat."

The problem is that in most communities, due to the... pardon my pun... alarming number of false alarms security systems can send out, police are now requiring verification of alarms before responding. That means that the police probably will not go to your home when you call them and say "I don't know what's going on. My alarm system called me and I listened in for an intruder through my Protector Plus Voice Dialer system... No, I couldn't see anything ... No I couldn't hear anything other than the siren..." So what that means is that rather than a professional company with alarm monitors trained to make the false versus verified determination and contact the authorities, you could be stuck getting a whole lot of 85db siren calls while you're at work. Oh, and if you get sick of answering that blaring call every time the cat knocks something over, the system also has a call list of three other people who are called automatically every time an alarm is triggered. So you can share that love with others like your parents, or your neighbors or your spouse or someone else who will have just as little idea as you as to whether it is a false alarm or a real intrusion.

Don't get me wrong, an alarm system is an alarm system and is better than no system at all. But to market this system as one which calls you, and therefore liken it to a monitored system, is somewhat misleading.

Caveat emptor, I guess.

TLAs and a history of the industry

2008-10-21T15:28:00.015-04:00

Hello to all. I'm the new associate editor here at SSN, taking over the monitoring beat from my predecessor, Leischen Stelter. While I've had lots of experience in journalism, in general, I am fairly new to the security systems industry and have been enjoying the opportunity employment here has given me to learn new things. Like acronyms. You guys have lots and lots of acronyms. I like a good TLA as much as the next guy, but you guys have the CSAA, the NBFAA, the SIA, the NAAA, and the MAMA as well as all kinds of AHJs who frequent the meetings of the IACP, the NACP, the IAFC, and the NASFM. Thank you Celia for your index of security industry acronyms. It has saved me more than a few times!

Recently, while doing some research and making some calls to introduce myself and discover any newsy developments at various central stations, I came across this story about what can only be described as some half-hearted attempts at ecoterrorism in Dawson Creek (no, not Dawson's Creek), British Columbia. Don't get me wrong, when I say "half-hearted," I'm not suggesting that the terrorists in question should try better next time. I'm saying that if you've got a complaint with something going on in your community, go to the town meeting and leave the homemade bombs alone. In my mind, any act of violence that purports to champion a cause only creates from the resulting turmoil many more critics of said cause than there were in the first place.

The story mentioned that Murphy Oil Company, Ltd., "is drilling wells and building a gas plant about 30 kilometers southwest of Dawson Creek." I called Murphy Oil Co.'s vice president of business development Cal Buchanan, who in the story said that Murphy may "hire a security company to monitor the remote areas." Buchanan told me that so far all Murphy Oil was doing was checking with locals to see if anyone could, in an unofficial capacity, be hired to drive by operation areas regularly. Well... wasn't it most likely a local who perpetrated the bombings in the first place? As I said in the first graph above, I'm no expert...

Another interesting thing I came across during my cold calls and emails was this section of Wayne Alarm's site. I called up Wayne Alarm's central station manager Annie Roderick who was nice enough to talk to me a bit about the industry and about Wayne Alarm's Antique Corner, a veritable museum of all things security industry. Wayne Alarm is based in Lynn, Mass. Any city with the tag line "Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin... You never come out the way you went in" has earned the right to be a mecca for industry history buffs, I guess. Wayne Alarm will be hosting CSAA's Fall Operations Management Seminar, taking place in Peabody, Mass. at the Boston Marriot Peabody Nov. 9-11. Annie assured me that anyone in the area for the event wishing to stop by for a tour of the Antique Corner will be more than welcome.

Please feel free to drop me a line any time with any comments or suggestions or exciting goings on in the world of security.

Taking security too far

2008-09-02T11:34:00.003-04:00

Here's a bizarre story that found its way into my inbox over the long holiday weekend. According to this news source, the co-owner of Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Security Solutions is accused of taking security into his own hands by making homemade explosives (or at least purchasing the supplies and equipment to do so) in an effort to blow up some people he didn't like.

Police said he planned to target homes of local gang members he came across in the course of his job. "It appears the motivation was some intimidation by what he perceived as gang members against employees of his company," Smith said. ...

Police said Leyer admitted to talking about making bombs to blow up gang houses, but he said he never intended to actually do it.

Uh huh. I mean who doesn't regularly purchase test tubes, rubber tubing, galvanized pipe, flares and shotgun shells? Police are just so keyed up these days.

Anyway, I did a quick Google search for Wisconsin Security Solutions and only came up with an address listing and brief description. Looks like this company is mostly in the guarding business rather than electronic security, which I imagine is a relief to most of you (the description even says this company rents guard dogs, which is a first for me).

I'd say that if this situation were an episode of Little House on the Prairie and there needed to be a moral lesson learned, Half Pint (that's Laura's nickname, for those of you who weren't adolescent girls in the 80s) would need to be reminded that there are just some things you shouldn't take into your own hands (even if security is your business). It also goes to show that every industry has its crazies.

Newest Atlanta celebrity

2008-08-26T13:49:00.006-04:00

So in a few weeks I'll be heading down to Atlanta to attend ASIS International. I had a great time in Atlanta when I went for a preview visit in February (partially because there wasn't four feet of snow on the ground like there was here in Maine). One of the highlights was the Georgia Aquarium, which is an awesome venue (minus the hoards of children) with its three beluga whales, massive whale sharks and many intriguing exhibits.

I read an article today from CNN about the latest addition to the Georgia Aquarium in the form of a 450-pound manta ray named Nandi. She has a nine-foot wingspan and made her debut in the acquarium just yesterday. I hope that someone out there is having some sort of event in the aquarium (it has an awesome conference room that has a window into the beluga whale tank) and, more importantly, will send along an invite to yours truly. If not, Nandi sounds like a great reason to get off the show floor.

The weight of responsibility

2008-08-20T15:25:00.002-04:00

This article is a tragic reminder that the security business is often a matter of life and death and that mistakes, even small ones, can have serious consequences. The widow of a firefighter killed in a house fire is suing two security companies, Pinnacle Security of Utah and Security Associates International of Illinois, alleging that the companies mishandled a fire alarm signal that led to the deaths of not only the widow's husband, but another firefighter and the two occupants of the house.

Mistakes by an alarm company representative led to a nearly 10-minute delay from the moment the homeowners' fire alarm alerted her to when the first firefighter was dispatched, according to the lawsuit and a 122-page report by the Contra Costa Fire District, reported the Contra Costa Times.

Here is more from the Contra Costa story:

On the night of the fire, homeowner Grace Moore told a Pinnacle alarm company representative that there was an active fire in the their house over a two-way intercom system.
The alarm representative called the Contra Costa fire nonemergency dispatch line and told an operator there was a fire alarm report instead of relaying that she had spoken to the homeowner and was told a fire was burning.
The wrong terminology and incorrect phone line sent the call plummeting down the priority list.
It's a sad situation all around. From that article it does seem like the operator mishandled the dispatch and highlights a point I made in an earlier blog about the importance of knowing local information as well as having well-trained operators who understand the severity of their job.

I will be curious to see how this plays out in court and there could be a potential precedent set determining exactly how liable security companies are for their actions (or mis-actions, I guess).

Stealing blues

2008-08-18T16:23:00.005-04:00

You hear more and more about metal thefts due to the increasing price of scrap, but what about the increasing cost of food leading to more crop thefts? Here in Maine blueberry season is at its peak and according to this local article, blueberry-thieving is too. I'm guessing most of you are unaware how blueberries are harvested, but it involves using this short-handled upside-down rake tool that scoops up the berries. In short, it's back-breaking work, but apparently well worth the effort (from the farmer's perspective maybe not from the laborers). Blueberries are yielding about $1 per pound so we're talking pretty big money for farmers, according to this article.

David Bell, executive director of the Wild Blueberry Commission of Maine, said blueberry thefts total an estimated $100,000 annually. “It’s definitely a six-figure problem,” he said. “Any pound of berries that is stolen is pure profit to the person who stole them, so it’s a very serious concern to growers.” ... “It’s hard to catch someone blue-handed, so to speak, but with berries moving in transit that’s another opportunity to catch the thieves,” said Bell of the blueberry commission.

First of all, I love that there is a Wild Blueberry Commission at all and secondly, it's priceless that he used the phrase "blue handed." Who couldn't love Maine?

Anyway, to counter thefts, farmers have begun hiring security guards to patrol their fields, some of which are really out in the middle of Nowheresville, Maine. Apparently the thieves are coming in on four-wheelers and illegally harvesting the crop. Local police have also ramped up efforts to monitor vehicles transporting the precious fruit (you're only allowed to have 25 pounds without a permit) and are also targeting buyers of illegal blues. But, with all the tourist traffic here in Maine, apparently police can't dedicate the manpower needed to protect one of Maine's precious commodities. I guess nothing is safe in this economy.

Gotta know local laws

2008-08-04T10:36:00.005-04:00

Here's another article highlighting the dangers of non-response policies. In this case, police did not respond to an alarm because the user had not registered the system or paid the $10 fee. The owner ended up responding himself, discovering the thief still inside the building and foolishly locking himself and the thief inside the building until police arrived after he managed to call 911. The owner was a little banged up, but lucky for him, the intruder didn't have a weapon and he was able to out-muscle him.

The whole situation is just ridiculous, but brings up an important point for security owners. It's vital that security companies know about local registration policies and inform their customers about them (or heck, even provide the forms to avoid liability). If I was this guy, I would be pretty annoyed at my security company (which the article doesn't mention by name, by the way, which seems like an important fact for the article, but mainstream media prefers the generic term "security company"). After all, the registration policy directly effects the systems that security companies are selling and, frankly, with my end-user hat on, I expect them to know about it. I realize it's probably a huge task to be up-to-date on all these policies, especially for a truly national company, but, honestly, I don't have a lot sympathy, it's just part of doing business in this industry. In today's competitive market there are plenty of other security companies that would gladly take on your disgruntled customers.

A costly lesson in double checking

2008-07-30T10:50:00.002-04:00

Here's an article that emphasizes how important it is for security and monitoring companies to have good data entry people as well as systems designed to double check information. A woman who had been a loyal ADT customer for four years received a message on her answering machine that her alarm had been activated and police had been dispatched. The only problem? Police never showed up. ADT had the wrong physical address for this woman. But, as the article points out:

The company may not have known where to send first responders, but it did know where to send the bills. "I received all my bills here. I had all my contracts that stated 307 [her correct address]. As far as I'm concerned, they had the right contract," she said.

I can see her point. If she was receiving bills at the correct address why would she even question that the company had the wrong address listed in their system? I wouldn't.

I know managing all this customer information is a major undertaking and ADT is obviously a huge company with hundreds of thousands of customers, but doesn't that mean they would have software or something in place to double check information in their system? Don't most central stations have some sort of means of verifying information like periodic calls, form letters or something? Perhaps I'm being too lofty with my assumptions.

I think this article points out how important it is for monitoring companies, big or small, not to lose sight of the business they're in. Because ADT wasn't really protecting this woman's home, they refunded her four years worth of monitoring costs. That's $1,400 of lost revenue and may be pennies for ADT, but could be big bucks for you.

Hardships of PERS monitoring

2008-07-28T11:01:00.006-04:00

When monitoring companies are mentioned in mainstream media reports, it's almost always bad news. This article is no different. This report is about a man who died in a house fire after activating his medical alert pendant. According to the article, an operator from Philips Lifeline, a medical monitoring company (one of the biggest, I believe), spent about 15 minutes trying to reach the man's daughter (who I assume was listed as the primary contact). The operator never contacted 911.

I don't have all the details, but it doesn't sound like it was a two-way audio system because if an operator knew the man was contacting her because of a fire, it seems like company policy would be to contact 911. But, with just a pendant alert, the operator likely had no way of knowing the severity of the situation. The daughter, who is obviously distraught about the loss of her father, acknowledges that she doesn't know the specifics of the plan either, but obviously feels Philips should have called 911 when they couldn't reach her.

Situations like this put Philips and other monitoring companies in a tough place. I'm sure those medical alert pendants cause a lot of false alarms and company policy likely specifies operators must attempt to contact the person first and then the primary contact. That alone probably takes several minutes. How long until medical authorities are contacted? If there was two-way audio and the person couldn't be reached, I would assume that would be cause for immediate dispatch. It's an unfortunate situation for all parties involved and hopefully it highlights the need for very specific communication between customers and their monitoring companies so everyone is in the know.

On the Fence

2008-07-16T16:04:00.007-04:00

Here's a profile article by CE Pro Magazine about Wayne Alarm Systems in Lynn, Mass. The owner, who if you're at all keyed into the monitoring industry, will know as Ralph Sevinor posing in his well-known alarm museum. Even a relative newbie to the industry like me knows Ralph (but I always want to call him "Wayne"- Does anyone else have that problem?).

The premise of the article is exactly the topic we here at SSN continually tout: How can security companies increase their RMR by entering the home automation space? I think this paragraph makes a good point about some of the insecurities felt within the industry:
A company like Wayne Alarm Systems can't snap its fingers and start offering control, according to Sevinor. "It's a philosophical change," he says.
"When somebody looks at a home automation system or a TV, they're looking at a life expectancy of two or three years. When somebody is looking at a security system, they're looking at 20 years."

According to the article, Sevinor has tasked an employee (the other guy in the photo) to investigate the profitability of entering the "control" space, as CE Pro refers to it. This is probably a decent and smart business strategy and I hope the next article about Wayne Alarms (perhaps done by yours truly) will be about its entrance into the space. It would be a good, reassuring example for the rest of the industry, many of who are also on the fence about all this ding dang new technology, and proof that, yes, it can be done. Show us the way Ralph, I mean Wayne, I mean Ralph.

Fireworks and false alarms

2008-07-09T10:43:00.004-04:00

Hard to believe the 4th of July has come and gone. I took a nice little trip to Ohio to visit the grandparents and ended up driving 16 hours straight back to the East Coast by myself. I was certainly cracked out on caffeine and loud music by the time I rolled in around 2AM. Certainly not a traveling strategy I would recommend.

But, it's always nice to have a little time off work, which, by the massive amount of "out of office" replies I've received lately, I'm guessing many of you continue to enjoy. That's summer for you.

I hope you got to enjoy 4th celebrations. I didn't get to see any fireworks this year, which I was sadly disappointed about. And, based on this news report out of Denver, others missed out on the show too. This guy had obviously spent a lot of money to buy his own holiday entertainment (or perhaps supplement his income since his entire garage was chock-a-block full of illegal fireworks). His burglar alarm went off, police showed up, discovered his stash and arrested him and ruined more than his weekend. Of course, no one was trying to steal his stash, just another case of a false alarm leading police to other violations. I sure bet he wished Denver had a stricter verification policy. Funny they don't include any statistics about how many unrelated arrests are made on the coattails of false alarm responses. I think someone oughta keep track.

ESX on target

2008-06-30T15:41:00.002-04:00

So, I'm back from the ESX show in Nashville, and I must say, I had a blast. To start off the show they let me play with guns (for security guys, they really have no sense), but I felt surprisingly confident firing live ammunition at small flying discs during the TBFAA's skeet shooting event. A shout out to Andrew Stadler of Security Partners for his fine videography skills.

During the first two days of the show I attended several great educational sessions, my favorite being the Gen-Y session. Maybe I was just particularly engaged because I'm just on the cusp of being a Gen-Y-er myself (missed it by a year), but I thought it was interesting to hear how the security industry, specifically central stations, are dealing with us youngin's.

Sophie Gravel, the director at Monitoring Station for Reliance Protectron did a great job presenting this topic. She was informative and engaging, and not presumptuous or assuming. The message I took away was about the importance of keeping Gen-Y engaged, continuing to offer education options, allowing flexible work schedules, that kind of thing. Very reasonable, I thought, and something all companies should be offering their employees, but that must be my youth coming through.

One question I thought was interesting was: "What if you just don't like these kids?" Hmm...that could pose a problem. The premise of the question was why should management have to coddle and pay more attention to these newbies who will likely only stay for a year or two than the 15-year veterans who do their jobs without question? Gravel's answer: Because we have no choice. This is the next generation of workers. "This generation is just starting to impact the workforce in profound ways, changes need to happen in our culture and management style," she said. "This generation doesn’t expect, accept or understand the same rules as their predecessors ...They're looking for relationships with coworkers, looking for a fun environment. They like structure but don’t like to be in a box."

I also got to sit down with Pam Petrow, the new COO of Vector Security. I really enjoyed our conversation and I think it was one of the most enjoyable and engaging interviews I've had in a long time. Plus, I really appreciate talking to high up women execs. They inspire me and Pam is at the top of my list.

There was lots other industry things happening at ESX (obviously I was bad about blogging at the actual event), but on another fun note, I had a chance to go to the Grand Ole Opry and see Trace Adkins (he's a big country star, for those of you who don't know). He's also one of the biggest guys I've seen in a long time.

I had a great time in Nashville and am a little disappointed the show is going to Baltimore next year. I bet they won't let you shoot guns in Baltimore and if you do hear gun fire, chances are you need to take cover.

Sleepover security nightmare

2008-06-23T15:41:00.006-04:00

Sometimes it's fun to laugh at other people's security ignorance, especially when no one gets hurt, but in this case we can only chuckle a little because it sounds like this dad just got lucky. This article (which was sent to me by a reader, and yes, I do have readers) is about a father who was awoken at 3 a.m. one morning by two police officers standing in his bedroom. Turns out this dad wasn't so vigilant about security and not only was the front door left ajar, but so was the garage door AND he had left the keys in the ignition of his truck. The police officers were apparently conducting a "public service campaign to remind residents to secure their homes to prevent thefts" and this was likely one of the grossest lack of security these officers had seen (hence it making the local paper).

Oh, the article also notes the TV was left on, but that was probably because this dad was hosting a sleepover and there were four kids under the age of seven sleeping in the living room, so not only was he endangering his own kids, he was also risking someone else's offspring.

The father said he feels violated by the police officer's intrusion, but he's probably just pissed that he got publicly outed as an incompetent parent. Further indication of this guy's character is in the paragraph noting that the kids were too scared to wake him up. Chances are that would be true of a lot of kids (a steadfast childhood rule is that you don't wake dad), but they were likely scared to death when two adults appeared in their living room after they had spent all night watching Freddie Krueger go on a murdering spree or whatever horror movies kids are watching these days.

I bet those kids are catching some flak at school, too, since they'll never host a sleepover again, as no sensible parent would ever let their kid stay the night there. Poor kids, they can't help it if their dad is completely and utterly security-challenged.

Monitoring in the spotlight

2008-06-19T13:56:00.006-04:00

So, for those loyal readers out there who were likely missing my posts last week, I was off partying at Bonnaroo in Tennessee. That's right, I drove from Portland, Maine to Manchester, Tennessee despite current gas prices just so I could hang out with thousands of people under the blazing Tennessee sun. The music was great, the people watching even better. I was seriously 50 yards from Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam under the clear night sky and a nearly full moon. It was an amazing moment.

Funny though, I'll be heading back to Tennessee, this time to Nashville for the ESX show, but for that trip my expenses will be on the company card, so hopefully I won't be sleeping in a tent and paying $10 for a 15-minute cold shower (I mean, really).

Anyway, it's back to work and our August edition is all about central stations and the monitoring industry. So, as the monitoring maven, it's my responsibility to get all you folks to contribute our Source Book listing which will be a resource for dealers and integrators to find providers of contract monitoring services. And, it's free. Yup, that's right. If you're a contract or third-party monitoring station, follow the link to fill out a survey so you can be included:

Central Station Survey link

The deadline is June 26, so no procrastination.

Sex and security systems

2008-06-18T16:23:00.007-04:00

LaserShield's massive marketing campaign hit daytime television audiences recently when it was featured on The View as one of several products promoted by Dr. Gadget (you know, that slightly crazed, high energy product promotion guy). Here's the YouTube link:

Other than the star power of Dr. Gadget, I'm sure the ratings for that particular episode was fairly high as Sarah Jessica Parker was the featured guest and the Sex and the City movie was hot!

So now stay-at-home moms, retired folks and Sarah Jessica Parker fans all over the country will be wanting a LaserShield system. Or that's the hope anyway. And, in typical daytime talk show fashion, everyone in the audience went home with a LaserShield system, too.

LaserShield is all over the place lately. I heard an advertisement on XM Radio a few weeks ago and I'm sure they're using all sorts of other advertising channels, too. You don't typically hear about security in your day-to-day activities, but then again, LaserShield isn't exactly typical.

Survey says: Cellular!

2008-06-05T15:57:00.005-04:00

ABI Research just released a new study reporting that the market for digital cellular transmission of alarm signals to central stations is expected to increase to 7.5 million in 2013. In 2007 digital cellular communication was at fewer than 2.5 million. That's three hundred percent growth in six years. Wow, integrators and manufacturers better be paying attention.

The report cites the Feb. 18, 2008 AMPS sunset deadline as a significant driving force for the adoption of digital cellular communication (which, if you're reading this you certainly remember as the date that the FCC allowed cellular providers to discontinue the analog portion of their service). I think the adoption of cellular transmission is a given in this day and age, but that's just because I'm of the Millennium Generation and have owned a cell phone for a large part of my adult life. However, I realize there's a lot of hesitation and concern from security providers about the reliability of cellular networks, especially as primary communication methods. There's been more than one occasion when I've received the network-is-currently-busy-or-unavailable message from my cell phone carrier, so I think security providers are rightfully insecure. However, there isn't a lot of doubt in my mind that cellular communication will not only improve but will be largely accepted by the monitoring industry. That said, it's not always the cellular provider that lies the problem. During the whole AMPS scramble, I heard a lot of complaints (off the record, of course) directed toward manufacturers who were not releasing products in time to provide installers with a solution to replace AMPS units. But, I'm sure they're paying attention now.

How Fido can earn his keep

2008-06-02T11:28:00.007-04:00

Those Israeli's, they continue to make interesting contributions to the security world. According to this article, an Israeli company called Bio-Sense has developed a mathematical algorithm that can decipher between a dog's emergency there's-an-intruder-at-the-door bark and the routine let-me-out-I-need-to-go bark. The company is developing a dog collar for the consumer market which, when activated by the emergency bark, will send an alert to the homeowner or security company.

There were no details about alert specifics and I imagine the probability for false alarms would be fairly high since, for example, my neighbor's dog seems to give that emergency warning bark every time someone walks by the building, but, the concept is fairly creative and I like the idea of Rex being more than just a physical threat and actually part of security.

So, you think your little yippy dog can't hold his own as a guard dog? Well, Bio-Sense says it can work with any dog. "No matter a dog's breed, age or size, company executives say, the system can be trained to recognize the unique characteristics of the animal's emergency bark.

So, there you go, finally Fido can earn those expensive doggie treats. But, if you're looking for a "real" guard dog, check out Titan in Martha's blog - Now that's the real deal.

iControl on the iPhone-embrace the little "i"

2008-05-29T09:51:00.005-04:00

So i hear a good amount about remote monitoring in the security industry and i've seen plenty of demonstrations that should make me a believer, yet some doubt remains that the residential market will embrace it. However, yesterday i spoke with Paul Dawes, the CEO of iControl, about being selected as one of only two companies that have been publicly announced (out of a reported 1,700 who submitted applications) to develop an application function for Apple's iPhone. That means people with iPhones can select an icon on their application page to access their iControl functions including arming/disarming their system as well as home automation functions like lighting and entertainment control. You know, the cool fancy stuff.

Back in April, iControl received $15.5 million in funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, the venture capital firm which runs Apple's iFund that's designed to advance functionality and development of the iPhone. Part of the money iControl raised will be used to specifically develop the iPhone application. So not only is iControl part of the "cool" revolution in security, but they also get to do some cool things like attend Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Fran on June 9 (where Apple is rumored to be releasing the next version of the iPhone, OS 2.0). However, Dawes didn't think the company would be demonstrating their new product, but I asked him to say hi to Steve Jobs for me anyway, but I doubt he'll remember.

Video: Bringing us together

2008-05-27T15:57:00.008-04:00

Video just keeps getting cooler. Here's an article about a digital surveillance company called ICOP that just released a product called ICOP LIVE, which pushes live video streams to responder vehicles and/or to any authorized viewer "without special viewing software."

I have a couple calls out and I'm still not sure whether or not this company works with private security companies/monitoring stations, but it seems like a useful technology to incorporate into the security world. I realize that video really isn't all that prevalent in many monitoring stations yet, but the prospect of dispatching an alarm and then sending the responding officer live video of the scene sounds like technology worth checking out. Plus, it might actually help improve the relationship between cops and private security. Maybe.

The security is out again.

2008-05-23T12:03:00.004-04:00

I had a conversation yesterday with Jeff Crews from 4HomeMedia (a software company) who is also a member of the Z-Wave Alliance (members of this Alliance all incorporate Z-Wave wirelessly technology into their products so they can "talk" to each other). Earlier this week, the alliance demonstrated a security solution for major cable providers at The Cable Show in New Orleans as an option for cable companies to offer a security component to their customers.

It made me wonder if cable companies would really consider selling security to their customers, and, more importantly, if homeowners would embrace purchasing security from them. It seems like a similar situation with telco companies, and on the surface, it seems like a natural extension of services. However, I've heard from several security industry folks that the business models are too different. For example, telco companies, like cable companies, don't have the customer service infrastructure to support security (I've always been put on hold when calling the phone company). I suppose there's a solution to that problem, like outsourcing calls to a specialized security division, but that seems expensive and, frankly, isn't that what they already do? Plus, I feel like the cable companies can barely handle what they do and don't exactly have the best track record. For instance, my neighbor had her cable knocked out during an electrical repair and it took the cable company over a month to fix the problem. I mean, really, would people wait a month to have their security system repaired? That doesn't exactly exude a sense of security. But, I definitely think the Alliance's appearance at the show is worth a second thought.

Who's in Control?

2008-05-20T15:47:00.003-04:00

So I was just checking out this company, uControl, who just released a touchscreen control panel that can either works as its own wireless alarm system or with an existing installed alarm system. Frankly, I don't know that much about this company yet (interviews are pending), but I was struck by an eerie similarity to the company, iControl, who is also developing a similar touchscreen alarm system and I guess the similarity in name is fairly obvious.

Despite the uncanny similarities, the touchscreen panels seem pretty cool and innovative. I had a chance to try out iControl's panel at ISC West and it was definitely snazzy, yet intuitive. You could do the typical alarm things like arm/disarm as well as view video cameras from the panel. It also had some "fun" features like rotating pictures, and Internet access for checking sports scores, stock numbers, weather and traffic updates. It also had the home automation element which included controlling lights, temperature and such. And even though the company names may be confusingly similar, these companies are making security cool.

Home decor with a security twist

2008-05-16T09:39:00.006-04:00

So in my search for news this morning, I ran across this "security product." It's called the Safe Bedside Table and converts from a table into, well, duh, a club and shield so you can protect yourself from an intruder. The accompanying text gives some explanation:

While an alarm system will let you know if someone has broken into your home it won’t do much to stop a determined intruder once they’re inside. So instead of sleeping with a gun under the pillow try this Safe Bedside Table instead. When not in use it looks like a normal bedside table with modern design stylings but in the middle of the night if you think there might be an intruder the table turns into a club and shield giving you somewhat of a fighting chance.

"Somewhat" of a fighting chance? I guess that's better than no chance at all. Well, if you were getting all excited about this product, I hate to tell you that the last part of the Web site reveals that it's not actually for sale, but "anyone with a lathe, bandsaw and basic carpentry skills could probably just build their own." Geez, thanks, I'm sure you'll all get right on that. Until then, I guess you'll just have to settle with the gun under the pillow.

Lost in transmission

2008-05-15T15:37:00.004-04:00

I've seen several news reports recently about people who thought their security system was being monitored (and were often paying for monitoring services), but in fact their system was never reporting to a central station. Not a very positive security message. Well, one company, Urban Alarm out of D.C., has recognized this trend too and is marketing its systems by focusing on its testability. This article (actually, it's a press release) urges customers to regularly test their alarm systems to verify transmission and, just so you know, Urban Alarm is willing to help alarm system users out even if they aren't customers. I bet they are. I know this picture doesn't exactly capture the testing procedure, but you get the idea.

In a jamb

2008-05-06T13:48:00.005-04:00

So, I just happened to come across this "security" product (and, you're right, this has nothing to do with monitoring). The product is called Door Jamb Armour and it's advertised as a way to repair broken door jambs following a break-in and also a way to secure your door to prevent future home invasions. Interesting. The company's Web site includes this line:

Intruders know that kicking in the door is the easiest way into your home.

I guess. Breaking a window must be a close second, though. Regardless, this product could certainly be considered a deterrent to a very lazy thief, but I hardly think it warrants the company's logo: "Because you can't afford false security." Frankly, without any kind of security system to detect that, say, someone's trying to kick down your door, I'd say that Door Jamb Armour isn't exactly providing me worry-free nights.