IP Video Monitoring
We live in a connected world and video is now an affordable add-on to any alarm system. Remote Video Monitoring allows Dealers & Integrators to offer enhanced services and reap recurring revenue from new and existing subscribers. False alarm prevention will help you and your customers avoid costly fines.
Professional Remote Video Verification Solutions
Our competitors may show you crystal clear images of beautiful babies, children and homes superimposed on the latest high tech cell phones, but their solutions amount to nothing more than glorified Nanny Cams. The requirement for subscribers to log into a web interface or send a text message every time they want to arm or disarm cameras may be a novelty for a month or two, but that will soon wear off and complacency and forgetfulness will take over.
IP Alarms have taken a different approach and aimed the Virtual Monitoring Platform and Verified Response software component squarely at professional Dealers and Monitoring Centers who require seamless integration between IP Cameras and existing alarm panels. If your Customer wants to sit on a beach and use their cell phone to play around with their sprinkler system, then sell them a Nanny Cam. If they want to be free to go about their daily life, safe in the knowledge that images from their cameras will be made available to a highly trained operator within a second of an alarm activation from a professionally installed security system, then our real world video solutions may be much more appropriate.
Low cost IP Camera and gateway bundles are fine for Nanny Cam's, but professional Security Dealers understand that a ten second video clip, or a single model of camera cannot possibly cater for every type of video application they will encounter in their daily business.
The Verified Response & Virtual Monitoring Solutions do not tie Dealers to any particular model of IP Camera nor any model of alarm panel, however, they provide additional features for Sony, Axis, Panasonic and Y-Cam branded cameras. The widespread availability and sub $100 cost of Panasonic IP Cameras make them the most popular choice for residential video applications and Axis are more popular for commercial sites.
IP Alarms have developed complex Video Monitoring software with a focus on Any Panel - Any Camera.
Video Monitoring Options
Video Monitoring is an integral part of the IP Suite of software components for Central Stations. Video capability is provided in one of two ways: Via software applications that are hosted on a managed server or via software that resides on a server within your own infrastructure.
The Virtual Monitoring Platform is our managed solution and is a fully automated alarm and video monitoring platform that provides a web browser interface to subscribers and operators alike.
The Verified Response component runs on your own server and images are stored locally on a hard drive ready for review by a monitoring operator. Here is a more detailed comparison
Video monitoring is most effective when triggered by one of our supported IP or GPRS alarm panel adapters, however, even your existing PSTN & Cellular subscribers can benefit from integration to the Platform - albeit at a disadvantage due to slower alarm signal transmission times. If your I.T staff have the ability to write a signal from your receiver/automation system into a text file or database, or they can put together some code to consume a web service, then they have all the tools they need to interface your analogue systems to the digital world.
A typical event scenario for analogue alarm systems using the Contact ID protocol is for the panel modem to grab the phone line and wait two seconds for it to settle. Then it will dial a 10 or 11 digit number and wait a couple more seconds for the receiver to answer the call. Depending on the handshake order programmed into the receiver, it can be another two to five seconds before it starts to send its signal. Whilst all of this is happening, an intruder could be moving around the protected premises and valuable footage could be lost.
Using an IP Alarms supported IP/GPRS device for alarm transmission overcomes this delay by transmitting a Pre-Alarm message the instant a panel goes into an alarm condition. IP Signalling and Digital Video enable Dealers and Integrators to tie together multiple physical applications such as intruder, fire, medical and access control systems so that they can work together in a more unified manner.
