Wayne Alarm expands into remote video

LYNN, Mass.—Wayne Alarm Systems, a full-service security company based here, in May began offering remote video services.

“We consider ourselves one-stop shopping. So, no matter what offering—from a security standpoint—someone could have, we want to be that company that can provide it,” Jeff Kahn, general manager at Wayne Alarm Systems, told Security Systems News. “We know that the industry is heading toward verification. Now we're able to alert the police department as to what the person looks like, what they're wearing.”

Wayne Alarm has been offering remote video and verification through Videofied products. “We're thinking that we should be able to increase our apprehensions as a result of our service,” Kahn said.

“We feel that the offering is something that can be very beneficial to a certain group of our customer base and other companies out there,” he said. “We put in CCTV systems every day, we do a good job of it, but we weren't taking it to the next level where we can provide services for the customers based on their input.”

A large part of the development was “the integration between the software from the remote video system that we're using and our monitoring center software,” Kahn said.

Another key component of this service's development was understanding the various methods to get video from the site to the monitoring center, Kahn said, such as through cameras enabled from the manufacturer or through a gateway.

“A lot of our existing customers may already have camera systems; so, we can incorporate one or two or more of their existing cameras into the remote viewing platform by installing this gateway,” Kahn said. “Or, if they want to add cameras, we can install a separate camera that has all of that built in and tie it into their existing system for recording and also … remote service as well.”

Wayne is offering a few storage options for video other than traditional DVRs and NVRs, including SD cards in cameras, cloud storage and at Wayne's monitoring center.

Wayne Alarm operators can also use speakers in the cameras to communicate directly with people nearby the cameras, if the customer chooses.