August 22, 2011
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Comment
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Dear Ken:
Mr. Wahrsager is completely correct in his assessment of video monitoring. [ see original article below ] This is a new road, yet it is full of potholes needing to be filled, not the least of which are accepted definitions for technologies that are evolving, literally on a daily basis.
For example; the industry was slow to embrace remote monitoring of video camera's citing privacy issues. Then technology such as described in his message were developed to take this potential privacy violation out of the central stations hands and allow the client to make those decisions. Next will be the law suit of the teenager against their parents for violation of privacy. This will likely come out of California and be handled by the ACLU.
There are other products that do not allow central station initiated "look in" and require the system to initiate the video signal transmission. There is no doubt there will be as many other variants as there are manufacturers of video equipment and perhaps as many as 3 new ones before I can even finish my reply.
However, there is one danger that comes from video monitoring that we must address or we will be moving backwards. This is the fact that no matter what equipment is installed the number one cause of false alarms, whether it comes from a door contact or a video camera, will continue to be USER ERROR! If we abandon our proven ability to filter dispatches by accepted verification techniques we risk the overall health of our industry. In order to address this the CSAA's Standards Committee recently completed the drafting of a video monitoring standard that will be open for public comment this year. This standard spells out as definitively as possible exactly when a signal from a video source should be dispatched and when they should be verified prior to dispatch. Some definitions are included in this standard and no doubt going forward additional definitions will be made of this moving target called remote video monitoring.
What always amazes me is how little informed our industry is about the standards process. A handful of volunteers come together to develop these necessary standards. The process then requires that the document be open for public comment and further requires that the entity that is promoting the standard must reply to all comments and publish their findings. Yet few people take the time to even read these documents, much less comment.
If you aren't part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Finally, the only common denominator in our industry is monitoring. Central stations, in particular contract central stations, provide the only link to the entirety of the industry. Proactive and responsible companies such as Nationwide Digital Monitoring are the key to educating even the smallest of companies.
SIAC encourages everyone in our industry to engage and become informed. One way to do this is to visit www.siacinc.org where additional information on the ongoing efforts to reduce dispatches and professionalize the industry can be found.
Best regards,
Ron Walters, Director
Security Industry Alarm Coalition
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HERE IS THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
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video monitoring terminology July 21, 2011
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comment
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Ken,
When it comes to "video monitoring" the term is used for a variety of completely different applications. Every alarm dealer hears the words video monitoring and thinks something different. We at Nationwide Digital Monitoring get several calls a week from existing and prospective dealers and the question is always the same two questions: 1) "Can you tell me about video monitoring?" and 2) "How much does video monitoring cost?" My reply to those questions is, "what are we specifically talking about", "what is the application" and "what is the customer's expectations of the system that you are installing."
For residential customers you would probably be talking about an offering like Honeywell's Total Connect Video, which is setup by the alarm dealer in conjunction with the central station but the actual video itself is not tied to the central station in the sense of using it for alarm verification or for monitoring purposes. The system allows the end user to setup alerts and notifications to their own email address when video events occur. It also allows the customer to look in on the video from their smart phone or from the Internet.
The up side to this allows the dealer to up sell the customer on an additional service that can raise the RMR to the dealer (recommended end user add on price of at least $8-$10/mo) and this puts the customer in constant contact with their security system and that means the customer is less likely to cancel the service because they don't use it.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to video. That is why there is no clear cut answer to the most commonly asked questions It is really more of a discussion to get to the bottom of what the expectations are for the desired application.
I think the key to success in any remote video or video monitoring application is to have a good manufacture and central station relationships that can help you through the selection and setup of a system that you need to get the customer the end result they are looking for.
At Nationwide Digital Monitoring (www.nationwidedigital.com) we are constantly expanding the variety of video solutions that we support and have a technical staff that is well versed in the integration of new products into the marketplace.
Thank you,
Nationwide Central Station Monitoring Corp.
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Response
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Thanks for the comment. There is a new Standard Form Contract for the non monitored alarm system called Subscriber Enabled Monitoring Service Contract. This contract is for alarm systems that the subscriber can communicate with remotely over Internet or Radio. The RMR is for access to the server through which the communication flows, owned either by the manufacturer or the alarm dealer.
For commercial video supervision and monitoring use the CCTV Sale or the CCTV Lease. The Remote Video Monitoring Contract is also for the subscriber who wants to view the CCTV at the home on a computer or smart phone, with no central station monitoring.
For central station monitoring of a residential alarm use the Monitoring Contract.