June 18, 2011
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Dear Ken,
I, like many others in the industry, have been reading your morning email topics for several years and appreciate the various conversations you have enabled. This dialogue has provided many benefits in sound legal advice, awareness of policy changes, introduction to products via your readers and a listening post for the major issues confronting the industry in general.
What compels me to write this is 3 posts dated May 21st – “Police Chiefs Positions on false alarms and fines”, May 23 – “Police now charging alarm co for calls” and May 25 – “Follow up comments on dealer programs”. These issues are in no sense new. We started seeing these issues back in 2003 while in the ADT Authorized Dealer Program. In 2004 we investigated an IP camera business in the belief that the solution to false alarms and customer value was a look in and remote recorded video business. Back then we were a little ahead of the curve as Internet penetrations and camera technology were not really realistic for such a solution. So we began providing an IP camera solution to the restaurant and small retail business segment as a video management system with an emphasis on remote viewing and remote storage of images (today’s catch phrase – the cloud).
The above emails and consistent theme over the years has really confirmed our belief in the need for a solution that every home owner and small business can afford. Live look in verification, 2 way audio with remote video recording is a process we believe is the best solution to the false alarm epidemic our industry has created and, like it or not, is compelled to solve. To not take advantage of this technology could be the eventual death nail to the industry.
Having said this though there are several keys that must be met for the technology to be the solution. Firstly the camera hardware must be very economical (sub $75.00) and must have live look in and 2 way audio (audio-monitoring center only) pan and tilt features. Next it must work with the 35 million plus alarm systems that are currently being monitored without a panel swap. Next, it must be able to be incorporated into every monitoring center by simply using standard computer browsers. Most importantly the system must drive the alarm company’s bottom line and be economical for the system owner.
The ionyours.com camera solution for licensed security companies is designed to do just this. We must face the fact that the draconian legislation is not going to stop. It is our responsibility to deal with false alarm issues as it cuts to the very value of the industry. If there is no timely response or cumbersome license fees to have an alarm where is the value proposition for the customer?
John Hoffe