VIDEO monitoring of secure premises by third party monitoring stations is not new in Australia but while it has been employed overseas with huge success, such services have never gained the traction they’ve deserved locally.

Now Melbourne-based VideoControlRoom believes it has come up with the perfect formula for video monitoring of alarm events. That system is a combination of hardware installed at a customer’s site that’s linked to a remote monitoring station, with alarm events driven by a combination of VMD and/or alarm sensor activation.

You’d expect a company that’s prepared to devote a significant amount of time and money to developing a boutique service like this to have some serious self belief. VideoControlRoom’s Michael Brown has that self belief and he’s bold enough to annunciate some of the questions every thinking security person has considered in relation to the response end of the Australian alarm monitoring model.

“You can have triple-path, military-spec, millisecond-polled alarm coms, but if all the system does is send some text, then you still have to wait half an hour for someone to buzz past in his car with a flashlight then what was it all for?” asks Brown. “It’s like building a Ferrari then forgetting to put the wheels on.

“Many of our customers in the past have had a grade A1/Securitel service and insurance costs that, following multiple breaks ins, just kept pace with their real risk,” he says.

“These customers all realized our market’s inconvenient truth. The security industry has spent years perfecting and enshrining something that (thanks to slow patrol response) doesn’t actually stop a break-in.”

Part of the problem, according to Brown, is the telco rebate. He believes this has a negative impact on the development of new technologies. Importantly, VideoControlRoom services don’t qualify for a rebate and instead the service is sold on its undeniable merits.

“The telco rebate certainly has been the gilded cage for the monitoring industry,” Brown says. “With that much income from PSTN lines it’s understandable many don’t want to rush headlong into IP. Trouble is, if you’re not getting into IP in a big way then video is going to prove one mighty challenge. Luckily at VideoControlRoom we started from scratch so we are not invested in this artificial income stream.”

Brown explains VideoControlRoom is part of a business model in which a group of tightly integrated companies exist for the express purpose of delivery video monitoring solutions to the end user market. These companies include a monitoring centre, VideoControlRoom, an installer, Australian Security Rentals, and a network specialist SoIP Networks. This latter provides broadband network services tailored for the challenges of shifting video over public and private networks.

The VideoControlRoom solution

So, just what is the service provided by VideoControlRoom? Brown explains that in the event of an alarm activation being received by operators, the event is confirmed using video surveillance and an urgent response then organized. This includes dispatching security patrols, calling after-hours client contacts and most importantly, police.

Brown says VideoControlRoom confirms with after-hours contacts that no staff are onsite to avoid sending the police to a false break-in but once confirmation is received response is no longer limited to security patrols. 

“Police do respond,” says Brown. “Regulation aside, it’s hard not to respond when someone has visual verification of intruders onsite. It’s the same as sending a guard onsite to figure out whether there are intruders before then calling police, only this is much, much quicker.

“In our experience, police love catching the bad guys in the act,” he explains. “We have had that many arrests its hard not to see that this is clearly the future. We are actually stopping breaks-ins at the rate of one a week.

“I can’t disclose specific incidences but what we do really works,” Brown says. “It’s a really exciting development that’s innovative and delivers great value for money.”

According to Brown, the company’s monitoring solution is based on hardware and software developed inhouse and with OEM partners.

“After using a number of off-the-shelf solutions it was clear that what was needed to crack the Australian video monitoring market simply didn’t exist,” Brown explains. “In the end we developed our own DVR with an OEM partner in Asia, and we then developed our own control room monitoring software suite in-house in Melbourne.” 

According to Brown, VideoControlRoom uses both VMD (smart video) and conventional motion detection depending upon the install environment and budget.

“We integrate conventional alarm detectors as the alarm trigger,” Brown says. “And currently we are running a global detector challenge to find the world’s best outdoor detector. Video is very transparent so clients are demanding the best and we intend to deploy it.”

Importantly, Brown says the system is capable of operating both fixed and PTZ cameras, with domes being especially useful for alarm verification in real time.

“PTZ’s are great because they have that ability to search during and after an alarm event and they can also be used for conducting remote video patrols. We have managed to make PTZs very affordable by importing directly.”

Brown says as part of the service, VideoControlRoom installs an integrated alarm and camera system to handle management and remote video monitoring.

“We try and leverage as much value out of the technology as possible to make it affordable,” Brown says. “And the systems we install meet the AS 2201.5 standard for alarm transmissions. We can use any camera in the system, but prefer to fit our own new units for the job of video alarm verification.”

A key element of any monitoring service is price. Typically, alarm systems are monitored for $1 dollar a day. The VideoControlRoom service’s costs vary depending on whether they involve simple alarm verification or more complicated services incorporating regular remote video guard tours.

“Our solutions range from a few dollars a week to several hundred,” says Brown. “We haven't looked to limit our market within a particular price bracket. Instead we have a suite of service plans that suit every budget. We offer both a graded and non-graded service with a price point to match.”

According to Brown, the VideoControlRoom service uses a combination of reporting technologies.

“These customers all realized our market’s inconvenient truth. The security industry has spent years perfecting and enshrining something that (thanks to slow patrol response) doesn’t actually stop a break-in.”

“We use multiple communications technologies,” he explains. “This is important as Australia is not covered by one national coms solution that fits all sites, budgets and applications.

“We have developed our own telecommunications business called SoIP Networks to sell broadband solutions for IP as most off-the-shelf products from telcos don’t suit the security-over-IP space – particularly in relation to remote monitoring of video surveillance.”

The comms plants used to get video signals moved around vary depending on the install environment.

“We use LAN and coax cable runs depending on the local install environment,” Brown says. “We don’t want to restrict someone to LAN cabling because they might have spent a fortune already installing perfectly good RG6.”

It terms of meeting relevant standards, Brown says there is an Australian standard for video monitoring.

“That standard is founded on the British Standard BS8418,” he explains. “It refers to conventional alarm monitoring standards. We set out to conform to this about 5 years ago, as it represents world’s best practice. This has geared us perfectly for the Australian Standard.

Brown says the market has responded very positively to the release of the VideoControlRoom service.

“People have responded amazingly well,” he says. “We have an impressive national customer base, and have well and truly broken even. Our archive of foiled break- ins speaks for itself.”

Brown believes that it is possible for a service like this to feed off the success of video verified alarm events in the UK. There, police respond to all video verified alarm events.

“Based on our growing success it is more than possible for video verification of alarm events to be as big in Australia as it is in the UK,” Brown says. “We hope to see video monitoring take a large chunk of the market from conventional text-based monitoring.”

Brown thinks there’s no point comparing the VideoControlRoom system to past solutions like the pioneering Zone system of the 1980s or more recently, E-pic. Brown says what makes VideoControlRoom’s solution different is the research the company has put into uncovering what the market wants.  

“We asked the market what they wanted out of a video monitoring service we have not pre-supposed it,” Brown says. “We are responding to a clear market need for video verified alarm events.”

“In our experience, police love catching the bad guys in the act. We have had that many arrests its hard not to see that this is clearly the future. We are actually stopping breaks-ins at the rate of one a week”