PSA partners with Cernium to offer CheckVideo

RESTON, Va.—Video solution developer Cernium on July 27 announced it has entered into a partnership with electronic security systems integrators cooperative PSA Security Network. The partnership brings Cernium's CheckVideo product to PSA integrators for resale, and is part of a larger video monitoring infrastructure that includes a bank partner for financing and G4S' central station for monitoring.

PSA president Bill Bozeman feels the partnership brings a full video package to its members. "Our objective is to provide goods and services and products that help out our systems integrators. That's our whole reason for being. The CheckVideo product caught our attention maybe six months ago … One of our integrators said, 'Cernium's got this product that has the feature set we're looking for and it's very reasonably priced and it's ideal for remote video monitoring.' That piqued our interest," Bozeman said.

Cernium vice president of corporate development Phil Robertson said the CheckVideo solution added value by simplifying and streamlining. "It's a solution set that's comprised of hardware that's at the premises—an appliance—that picks up the camera image and has built in video analytics, storage, intelligence, etcetera … The other part is software in the cloud and we manage all the devices, and it has built-in security so that you don't have devices from a thousand different points coming into a central monitoring center. We have a secure connection and will pass on the alarm information from the CheckVideo point," Robertson said.

"We're also working with SureView since they're integrating CheckVideo into their software package, which makes the whole thing very seamless," said Bozeman. "And we're also working with our brick and mortar central station G4S. So it's really a combined effort of PSA and our technical committee, Cernium and their CheckVideo solution, SureView, who has the best central station product for remote video monitoring, and G4S. It's a big thing."

"This is a very good marriage in a couple of different respects," agreed Robertson. "What we've done is taken advantage of the PSA organization and their strength in training and through that we're delivering better value to the customer … They're not just selling some commodity box. This adds the service component to it, which gives PSA dealers the opportunity for recurring service revenue."

Bozeman said SureView has confirmed the CheckVideo integration should be complete in no more than a couple weeks. Bozeman also said a partnership with Susquehanna Bank and Integrator Support will provide financing for integrators to get started with remote video through the CheckVideo solution.

"It's actually a five legged dog—PSA, the vendor Cernium, SureView, G4S, and Susquehanna," Bozeman said. "It's so wonderful for the integrator because—boom—he can get into managed services, collect his money when the job's complete like he usually does, but instead of just walking away he continues to collect that recurring revenue. It's really a cool program."