Affiliated Monitoring Summit Roundup

UNION, N.J.—The big news emanating out of Affiliated Monitoring's Security Summit '13 was (as expected) the rollout of InView, the company's new video monitoring platform. Compatible with a host of DVR and NVR manufacturers, the suite signals Affiliated's entrance into video verified alarms.

In his welcome speech, Affiliated President Stanley Oppenheim told dealers they can expect to provide services in the coming years that they may not even be thinking about now. And, based on Vice President Daniel Oppenheim's keynote, InView may be the platform that tries to bear that philosophy out. The suite is designed to continuously add new functionalities, Oppenheim said, and though he couldn't disclose all that was in the pipeline, it's safe to say he expects the offering to be a powerful generator of RMR.

Befitting the introduction of InView, the morning session consisted of a sales strategy panel with Larry Folsom, president of American Video and Security and CEO of I-View Now, and Deanna Blair of Videofied, who describes herself as a “video verification evangelista.” The panel was moderated by Mike Zydor, managing director at Affiliated.

Folsom talked about the positive correlation between sales and demos with video verified alarms. Demos are a crucial step in selling verification technology, he said, because there's no better way to demonstrate its unique value to subscribers. Both Blair and Folsom stressed the importance of honing in on a specific market, and leading instead of finishing with video verification when pursuing a sale.

After an InView demonstration led by Affiliated's Aaron Salma and Larry Weintraub, Ashley Owens, Affiliated territory manager for the south, led a tour of the central station, a highlight of the summit.

The place is sleek, and it's hard to imagine that just a few years ago the venue was a furniture warehouse. The main space for operators and dealer relations personnel is spacious, with ample room for growth. The interior of the facility underwent a wholesale revision. Jesse Rivest, regional sales manager at Affiliated, said that the mezzanine overlooking much of the central's interior did not even exist when Affiliated bought the facility.

The tour concluded with a look at a room housing two enormous, bright yellow Caterpillar generators. Should the need arise, the generators will allow the facility to run without external power assistance for 24 days straight.

The afternoon sessions featured a pair of panels, the first of which zeroed in on interactive services. Moderated by Rivest, the panelists focused on the “Internet of things,” and the ever-expanding array of RMR opportunities that movement seems to breed. 

The panelists—Ryan Wallace, northeast regional sales at Telguard; Colin Murray, director of global technical account management, Alarm.com; and Gordon Hope, VP of marketing and business development at Honeywell—encouraged listeners to take a forward-thinking, visionary approach to interactive features. They discussed the benefits of cableco and telecom giants entering the space, such as market awareness, and also the drawbacks—more competitors with major resources. Much of the discussion centered on how the security industry can best assert its “ownership” of the home control segment.

The summit concluded with a discussion led by Carl Tannenbaum, an attorney with alarm industry expertise from the Philadelphia-based firm Kleinbard, Bell & Brecker, who fielded a host of contract-related questions.