Wright Hennepin International to add video monitoring

ROCKFORD, Minn.--WH International Response Center, a national provider of central station monitoring and security dealer support services, announced in late March that it had signed a letter of intent with American Monitoring Services of Denver and HS3 Technologies to distribute AMS and HS3 security products and services, which include remote video, virtual guard tours and biometric access control, to WHIRC's network of 250 dealers and 40,000 monitoring customers. (Update as of April 25: AMS will continue a business relationship with WH, but the letter of intent had expired. Going forward, “We will continue our business relationship with AMS but are no longer pursuing a joint venture with them," said Wendy Youngren, business manager of Wright Hennepin. "WHIRC and HS3 are moving forward with our program development to provide remote video monitoring and other combined services. We are very excited about this relationship.” AMS is still on board to sell WH's services, she added.) "The partnering of these companies' products and services will bring new opportunities to security dealers to provide affordable video monitoring, especially for their commercial customers," said Youngren. AMS offers responsive virtual guard services from a remote centralized command center and provides interactive video monitoring. Through the integration of IP network security camera systems, remote access control systems and perimeter alarm systems, AMS provides a "total security solution to meet a variety of needs," according to the release. HS3 is a national provider of security solutions that offers technologies and services through a national authorized dealer and distribution program. HS3 provides custom security solutions for commercial, residential, government and military applications, including DVRs, biometric access control, personal biometric identification units and wireless internet-linked satellite surveillance systems. WHIRC is a division of Wright Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association. In business since 1937, the cooperative is a non-profit, member-owned energy and service cooperative serving over 42,000 retail electric customers. For more on this story, see the June issue of Security Systems News.