Real-time video to the smartphone for $49.95 a month?

DETROIT--MIST Innovations, a developer of network monitoring devices and security products, has released MISTonDemand II (MoD II), its latest security solution, and what it's calling "another revenue opportunity for integrators." According to the announcement, the system allows security firms to provide businesses with complete, convenient, secure and vendor-neutral access to their video surveillance system via their smart phone or PDA for as little as $49.95 a month.

MIST president and CEO Larry Smith said MoDII gives end users more options and complements the operations of the central station or security director. "Visualize a scenario in which a business has an alarm that goes off. The alarm is sent to the central monitoring station. The people at the station can now take a look at what specifically caused the alarm to be activated. But the only people who could view that are people tied down to that command center," Smith said. "MoDII adds a significant measure of mobility to that now. If you had security officers that were out on patrol in their cars. They can now dial up and view the cameras within the facility that sent out the alert ... Because they now have that video stream and they can be mobile, it allows them to be much more proactive in terms of how they respond."

So will MoDII's ability to deliver mobile monitoring of CCTV systems cut out the central station? "The other aspect of this is that let's say it's your business and you have the alarm going to the central monitoring station. When the alert goes off, the monitoring station is going to contact you anyway to let you know that there's an alarm," Smith said. "Now you can look at your PDA and see just what's going on and decide what type of action you're going to take ... I think they complement each other."

MoD II users dial into their existing surveillance system at any time to watch real-time, streaming video of their businesses. Clients can switch between cameras, showing one location or even look at multiple locations.

Smith said MoDII should have no trouble differentiating itself from competitors as MIST decides how best to bring the offering to market. "If you take a look at the streaming video on other competitive products out there, it's a stretch to even describe it as video ... with MoDII we're typically transmitting at seven frames per second--it's very lifelike movement," said Smith. "Right now we're in the process of ramping up our go-to-market strategy. We'll do some direct sales ourselves, but it'll be a small amount. We're in the process of signing up security systems integrators. Integrators that are already in the business of installing and managing security systems, and MoDII, we're marketing as an enhancement to existing security systems."