Archive: January 2009
EMERgency24 donates $1,000 to volunteer FD
January 31, 2009Daniel Gelinas
EMERgency24, a central-station alarm monitoring company based in Chicago, announced on Jan. 30 that it had donated $1,000 through its Responder Reward program to the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, Cabin John Park Volunteer Fire Department, Company 10, in Bethesda, Md., on behalf of Splaine Security Systems of Kensington, Md.
This Responder Reward donation was made to acknowledge the fast response by the Cabin John Park Volunteer Fire Department (CJPVFD) to Patti and Michael Hellyer’s...
Pelco to exit access control biz
January 30, 2009Martha Entwistle
I don't think this is entirely surprising, but Pelco has announced it's exiting the access control business. Maybe it's just coincidence, but it's PR gospel that Friday afternoon is the best time to announce bad news...
Not that this is necessarily bad news. A number of people have commented to me that access is not Pelco's core competency and they wouldn't be surprised to see it annexed. I think Pelco has always had a great focus on their strategy and not deviating from it, and this may be good...
This Blog's on Fire (And Other Stuff)
Security and the Stimulus package
January 30, 2009Tess Nacelewicz
President Obama's stimulus plan, which passed the House of Representatives yesterday lacked bipartisan support, (It passed 244-188 along party lines. Not one Republican voted for the plan. Trying to make a point, they knew it would pass) but it did have vocal support of some business leaders.
Prior to the vote, Obama held a meeting where he wooed a group of 11 execs of major corporations. Of interest to the security industry may be the presence of David Cote, Honeywell CEO (parent company of Honeywell...
Monitronics launches new Site
January 29, 2009Daniel Gelinas
Monitronics announced on Jan. 28 the launch of its new customer-account interface, MyMonitronics, aimed at bolstering the company’s online service offerings. The move follows on the heels of the sweeping overhaul of the company’s main website, www.monitronics.com.
According to the press release, MyMonitronics was built in direct response to customer feedback.
MyMonitronics lets users pay bills, download product user manuals, enroll in direct debit payment programs, and take advantage of business-referral...
Stanley releases 4Q results: Not too shabby
January 29, 2009Martha Entwistle
Here are the highlights from Stanley's 4Q numbers, released yesterday:
Their "Security" segment did $410m, with $75m of that profit. Nice margin of 18.4 percent. When you consider Stanley paid $545m to acquire HSM, and, conservatively, half of that profit is directly attributable to the HSM platform, it seems more and more like a good buy.
In 2007 and 2008, since the buy, the security business has delivered $239.9m and $268.7m in profit, respectively, on sales of $1.4b and $1.49b (note the "b"s).
In...
"Miracle on the Hudson," by Bosch
January 29, 2009Martha Entwistle
CNN has grabbed footage of the now-world-famous (and rightly so) landing of US 1549 on the Hudson River from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal surveillance cameras, which I've been informed were Bosch. The footage isn't the best, but you'll see the zoom in isn't half-bad resolution-wise.
Embedded video from CNN Video
This is really just a chance for me to post footage of what I consider to be the feel-good story of the decade. Can you imagine being on that plane? I fly through NYC about 10 times a...
Hate to say I told you so...
January 27, 2009Martha Entwistle
Well, it turns out that having people at home monitor border cameras, looking for illegal border crossings, doesn't really work. Shocker.
I first saw a program like this about nine months ago. At the time, I speculated:
So, for each camera, the group needs, say, 12 rotating volunteers? Or as many as 48 if each person agrees to only take one shift a day? And each of those volunteers needs to commit to 365 days of vigilance? That adds up to a lot of people in a hurry if you’re trying to cover any...
Like Madoff-lite
January 27, 2009Martha Entwistle
A curious story came across my desk because of it's relationship to Mace: The company lost $2.2 million to a 76-year-old hedge fund manager who lost $350 million and then faked his own suicide before being caught today by the FBI.
Here's the initial story. The paper got a hold of the suicide note:
Nadel's note stated "there are those that would like to kill him, but that he will do it himself."
Well, I don't think Dennis Raefield rolls that way, but he's not happy about getting fleeced.
In another...
Computer-aided dispatch standard established
January 26, 2009Daniel Gelinas
Following up on a Security Systems News story I wrote back in November, The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International announced today (Jan. 26) the approval of an American National Standard to provide a standard data exchange for the electronic transmission of information between alarm monitoring companies and public safety answering points.
Called the External Alarm Interface Information Exchange program, the new ANS was approved on Jan. 15 and is now an accepted standard...
This Blog's on Fire (And Other Stuff)
Another profile of Lou
January 26, 2009Tess Nacelewicz
So I'm looking for news for my residential section and what do I come across but a a nice little profile of InGrid's Lou Stilp? Lou is, hands-down, the master of getting nice little profiles.
This one's a Q&A in the Philadelphia Inquirer. There's some background on Lou and an interesting quote about how InGrid piggybacks on advertising done by the big guys like Brink's and ADT.
And what we do is take advantage of the fact that ADT and Brinks run ads on TV and that people go on the Web and they...