Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/31501
32 MONITORING www.securitysystemsnews.com APRIL 2011 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS Micro Key pays your CSAA dues By Daniel Gelinas KISSIMMEE, Fla.—Central sta- tion automation platform provider Micro Key on Feb. 8 announced a new promotion during which it will pay a year’s membership for new clients to join the Central Station Alarm Association. Why partner with CSAA and n For a more robust version of stories in this section, see: WWW.SECURITYSYSTEMSNEWS.COM pay a year of dues for potential Millennium platform users? “I’ve been a member of CSAA for over 10 years and have found it to be one of the best associa- tions in our industry,” said Micro Key president Wayne Torrens. “CSAA members work from a set of standards and association- approved best practices.” Should any liability issues arise, the adher- ence to CSAA standards would be important, he said. “My hope is to make this benefit, as well as the many others CSAA has to offer, available to as many CSAA- approved, NRTL-listed central stations as possible.” A NRTL is a nationally recog- nized testing lab like UL, FM and most recently added to the list, Intertek ETL. In 2009, CSAA and Bold teamed when Bold offered to pay for new clients to undergo the CSAA Five Diamond Certification process. Why partner up like this? “What company would not want to know the latest technol- ogies, expand their relationships with their AHJs, see how new legislation impacts their busi- ness and have access to premium education?” said CSAA member- ship director Becky Lane. “We applaud Micro Key’s generous contribution of helping their customers with this membership opportunity.” Micro Key’s offer extends to any CSAA-approved, NRTL- listed central station using Micro Key’s Millennium platform. The NRTLs recognized for central station vetting are UL, ETL and FM. The offer, which began January 1, 2011, is open to non-CSAA members, and will be in effect for proprietary and commercial central stations throughout the U.S. and Canada for the balance of 2011. SSN Central allies with local PD ‘We’re better protecting private businesses by pushing video’ By Daniel Gelinas ADDISON, Texas—Dallas-based Stealth Monitoring has formed what it calls a unique strategic alliance with the city of Addison, Texas to help better protect the local businesses monitored by Stealth. According to Stealth sales manager Rick Charney, the partnership will lead to reduced false alarms, better protection for end users and saved time and money for participating municipalities. “We’re monitoring cameras for private businesses, filtering the information and giving police valuable data, in order to not waste their time,” Charney said. “We’re providing a video control center. And smaller cities like Addison can’t afford something like that, even though they’d love to have all the video data ... We’re better protecting private businesses by pushing video footage of suspicious activity directly to the police.” Charney said Stealth did not charge the city to install the monitoring equipment at Addison PD headquarters where screened video footage from Stealth’s clients’ cameras would be received and viewed. Police dispatchers then decide whether to push the live video on to patrol cars via PDA, laptop, or smartphone. “This program puts Addison on the cutting edge of technology that will make our city safer and our police officers more effective,” said Ron Davis, Addison chief of police, in a press release. “In today’s tough economic times a program that provides our depart- ment with state-of-the-art technology, monitoring services and video monitoring equipment at no cost to taxpayers made this a win-win proposal.” Rick Charney Charney said Stealth had no plans to stop its municipal-level program in Addison. “We’re currently looking to increase awareness among other Addison businesses and businesses nationwide who want us to propose this solution to their local police department,” Charney said. “We are looking forwarding to working with other police departments to see whether we can provide a free system to them.” SSN DICE TRANSFORMS CHANGING INFRASTRUCTURE By Daniel Gelinas BAY CITY, Mich.—DICE is upgrading its NOC and disaster recovery center, based here, putting in more net- work infrastructure to accommodate an expected influx of technology-back-up clients. “It’s not just auto- mation software, it’s a company’s entire infra- structure: telephone Cliff Dice switches, telephone lines, voice, data, everything can fail over to us now,” company founder and president Cliff Dice said. “It’s not really about automation platform software anymore … it’s now about providing infrastructure back up.” Dice said his com- pany could even be the primary technology infrastructure a com- pany uses to conduct day-to-day business. “There are alarm centers that don’t have anything in their center other than bodies and PCs because everything’s at DICE … You could start up an alarm company off of our services.” Dera DeRoche-Jolet, owner of Monroe, La.-based Alarm Monitoring Services, said the DICE disaster recovery center literally saved her company. “In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated our region. Over 100 AMS dealers, and over 10,000 monitored accounts [could have been affected],” DeRoche-Jolet said. “Using DICE’s disaster recovery system, we received and handled every signal sent before, during, and after one of the most devastating storms in American history.” SSN Security Central beefs up By Daniel Gelinas STATESVILLE, N.C.—Security Central, a third party central sta- tion serving approximately 2,000 dealers and 300,000 accounts in all 50 states, is ready to grow. “We broke new ground to add space so existing offices could be removed. The space freed up was included in the complete remod- el of the central station, giving more room for operator seating,” IT director Brett Springall said. Springall said before the central station overhaul, the company had seating for 38 operators. Post ground breaking and renovation they have seating for 60. Springall said there were sig- nificant infrastructure upgrades as well. “Infrastructure upgrades includ- ed the addition of two 180kw Kohler generators, new ASCO automatic transfer switches, all new electrical panels and cir- cuits, two new APC Symmetra UPS systems, new local area network (LAN) cabling and switches, and new furniture,” Springall said. Dick Gill, owner of Fayetteville, N.C.-based Gill Security, said the upgrade would allow Security Central to continue providing excellent service. “It’s great to work with a company that keeps up with technology.” —Dick Gill, Gill Security “We’ve been with Security Central for over 20 years. And really, now is the most excit- ing time in our industry with technology changes,” Gill said. “It’s great to work with a company that keeps up with technology, to have a central station that’s willing to invest in technology and the personnel to handle increased business, as well as any crisis that might arise.” Security Central is a CSAA member and is UL- and FM- listed. SSN BRIEFS The Protection Bureau announces new central station manager & assistant EXTON, Pa.—The Protection Bureau on Feb. 23 welcomed Brian Delphus as central station manager. Delphus will be responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the company’s on-premise CSAA Five Diamond Certified central sta- tion. Delphus came to the Protection Bureau with 16 years of call and command center management experience. At his previous position with Ameritech, Delphus grew a customer care center from 21 agents to over 1,500 agents. He also managed over 3,000 agents in four different locations for QVC. Following closely on the announcement of its new central station manager, The Protection Bureau on Feb. 24 announced Bill Fisher was named assistant central station manager in January 2011. U.S. Chamber of Commerce lauds Custom Alarm ROCHESTER, Minn.—Custom Alarm on March 2 was recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for being one of the top 75 small businesses in the United States. Custom Alarm has been named a Blue Ribbon Small Business Award winner for the second straight year. The small businesses recognized have shown tremendous dedication to restoring jobs and prosperity despite a challenging economy, according to a release. Seven of the businesses have been named finalists for the Small Business of the Year Award, sponsored by Sam’s Club. All Blue Ribbon Award winners will be honored at America’s Small Business Summit on May 23-25 in Washington, D.C. Sonitrol Pacific earns national recognition EVERETT, Wash.—Five people from Sonitrol Pacific’s Everett office earned recognition in the Sonitrol National Dealers’ Association (SNDA) annual National Achievers Competition. The SNDA announced March 3 that Sonitrol Pacific Everett employees John Provost, Tara Fulmer, Sarah Bailey, Salena Wolfe and Jeff LaMont won honors in their respective categories. All five will travel to Tucson, Ariz. in April to be recognized at an awards ceremony during the annual SNDA conference. The National Achievers Competition consists of a series of questions and problem solving essays for technicians, monitoring operators and administrative support team members. Submissions are judged by a panel of SNDA members from across the county and winners are selected based on their overall scores. Sonitrol Pacific team members Robin Goings, Amanda Dittebrandt and Heather Orso each earned honorable mentions.