KORE teams with Videofied for cheaper cell service

RESTON, Va. and MINNEAPOLIS--KORE Telematics, a provider of digital wireless services, announced April 1 it has teamed with RSI Video Technologies to offer wireless support for RSI's Videofied solution, a motion-activated wireless video camera. With KORE, the Videofied camera now comes with cell service out of the box, which is less expensive than the cell service dealers would otherwise have to arrange on their own.

KORE and RSI both displayed the new Videofied solution at their booths at ISC West at the beginning of the month.

According to RSI president Keith Jentoft, there is a growing need to protect assets in locations such as construction sites or vacant buildings that lack wired connectivity. In these cases, live alarm transmission has been traditionally impossible, forcing law enforcement officials to watch DVR'd robberies hours after they have taken place. The Videofied wireless video system solves this problem by instantly reporting video alarms over the KORE digital wireless network.

"Our panel delivers video alarms over the cell network," Jentoft said. "The technology is wireless, but our panel is also self-powered. So, since it's autonomous, now that you deliver video alarms over KORE's cell network, you could have an empty shack someplace or a trailer out in your parking lot and you can go and put our system in it and it just works," Jentoft said. "Having a cost-effective cell solution is important. Because if the cell costs a fortune but our stuff didn't, it wouldn't matter much, because you need the cell service, too. KORE has a cost-effective cell network that makes our business model viable."

KORE director of security and video market business development Henry Laik believes KORE offers RSI dealers an important edge in the form of immediate functionality. "Since KORE is a provider of wireless data networks, and the security industry is moving in that general direction of replacing wireline communications pathways with wireless communication pathways, many manufacturers are finding themselves in a situation where they have a product that they want to sell to their customer, but the customer doesn't want to buy just the product if it doesn't function off the shelf," said Laik. "They need to be able to flip a switch and make their solution work ... the customer is saying, 'I want to be able to buy the panel with the cell communicator and then have service I can activate.' That's where we come in ... the dealer base has someone to come to for cellular service."

Jentoft also promised some big announcements at ESX in Baltimore in June. "We're announcing some stuff at ESX that's going to make this all even more important," Jentoft said. "We didn't announce anything at ISC West this year. We chose to hold it till ESX. We have a very important cell product we'll be announcing at ESX."