Securenets hosting self-contained, mobile, DIY surveillance through Videofied

MARION, Ark.—Securenets, a provider of hosted surveillance solutions based here, has announced it now offers SouthVault for Videofied, a hosted service for end users to monitor their own security surveillance network. SouthVault is an alternate monitoring and notification service accessed through an online portal. SouthVault receives the alarm transmission from the panel and hosts it on a web site while sending email notifications and phone calls to up to 20 designated end users. Securenets VP of marketing Johnnie Walker said it was all about “moving in the direction people want to move in … They want it easy, they want it portable, and they want it now.”

According to Securenets president Fran Glasco, the service fills a void where the deployment did not necessarily warrant 24/7/365 live monitoring by a central station, nor law enforcement notification and dispatch. “I discovered that oil wells needed to know what was going on out at the wells, but they didn't need police response,” Glasco said. “They said, 'I need to know if my pumper is showing up every day.' I actually have something that lets them log in every day and see exactly what's going on.”

The real question is whether such services as SouthVault and similar, end-user monitored systems from companies like Alarm.com, will eventually render the monitoring station unnecessary. According to Walker centrals need not worry. “The big thing is this: Central monitoring will always be around. But what we found was that a lot of people want to know what's going on at their facility without a monitoring center and without police response,” Walker said. “Instead of it going through central monitoring, it's going through our facility over cellular to the end user.”

Added Glasco, “We've also been approached by central monitoring stations to offer our service to their customers, and we're setting up a dealer program for Videofied dealers.”

According to Alison Slavin VP product management for Alarm.com, today's end users are becoming savvier and are demanding greater control of every aspect of their lives, including their security. She stresses, however, there is still a need for the central station. “Alarm.com … dealers package Alarm.com services with central station monitoring in 99 percent of installs, so the customer gets both [self-monitored and central station monitored services],” Slavin said in an email. “Alarm.com services can help consumers stay aware of the everyday events that don't require emergency response, without placing a burden on the central station's resources.”

Features of SouthVault service include: the ability to list as many panels as needed on one login account; the ability to list as many notification email addresses as needed; the ability to download video clips on demand; the ability to store up to three months of video footage before the need to archive; the ability to quickly and easily see time stamp info for every video clip; Alert-Engine, which calls up to 20 numbers with a customized WAV file that includes any information the customer requires.