Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/31502
24 MONITORING www.securitysystemsnews.com MAY 2011 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS Mace CS acquires Command Center By Daniel Gelinas ANAHEIM, Calif.—Mace CS on April 1 announced it had acquired UL-listed wholesale central station The Command Center, Inc. by purchasing all of the company’s stock. TCCI is a wholesale central station located in Corona, Calif. Financial terms of the stock acqui- sition were not disclosed. According to Mace CS VP and GM Morgan Hertel, the acquisi- tion brings 20,000 accounts from 70 dealers to the Mace fold, and adds an undisclosed amount of RMR to Mace’s coffers. n For a more robust version of stories in this section, see: WWW.SECURITYSYSTEMSNEWS.COM Hertel, who used to be vice president of TCCI, had been pushing for the acquisition. “Originally, when I was in the dealer business we moved our accounts to TCCI back in the mid ‘90s. One thing led to another and I ended up managing the place for six years. When I left TCCI two years ago we had some initial conversations but nothing came from it then,” Hertel told Security Systems News. “Mace is commit- ted to growing, the funding is in place, Dennis Raefield likes the business, and for the old TCCI owners it made sense because of the long history with me.” Mace acquired its central sta- tion piece, CSSS, in 2009. The acquisition of TCCI represents the company’s first expansion since then. “It’s a good fit because most of the team at TCCI were staff members hired by me when I was there and I know most of the dealers. It’s a little like getting re-married to your ex: You know all the good and the bad and now you have an opportunity to both work on the shortcomings to make a much better relationship moving for- ward,” Hertel said. “Over time the dealers will be migrated to our stages monitoring platform ... [They] will have a whole other level of opportunities— like remote video monitoring, two-way audio, and GPS—at Mace.” SSN Avondale forces false fines By Daniel Gelinas AVONDALE, Ariz.—City officials here March 7 met with certain members of the local security industry and SIAC to discuss their false alarm ordinance. The city remained firm on its deci- sion to fine alarm companies for false alarms. According to SIAC industry/law enforcement liaison Jon Sargent, the outcome could have been better. “This is similar to what hap- pened in Fontana, but not quite the same. That had to do with due process and constitutional issues. Fining the alarm company for non-wrongful conduct is not right,” Sargent said. “They can’t fine the industry for users’ false alarms.” Maria Malice Fontana, Calif. last year finally settled with the Inland Empire Alarm Association after a protract- ed legal battle over its unconstitu- tional false alarm ordinance. Avondale has outsourced administration of its false alarm ordinance, including fining of alarm companies for false alarms, to Waldorf, Md.-based CryWolf False Alarm Reduction Solutions. Calls to Avondale City Council and CryWolf were not returned by press time. What’s the next step for the industry in Avondale? “In every other city we work in, the third party bills and col- lects the fees from the users,” Sargent said. “The industry can not just sit by and allow this to go unanswered.” AzAA president Maria Malice who is with C.O.P.S. Monitoring agrees something must be done. “We have an industry attor- ney reviewing [the ordinance],” Malice told Security Systems News. “Cities that outsource administra- tion and collection have found that fining alarm system owners is very effective and they collect 80-90 percent of the moneys owed without involving the alarm company in the process.” Avondale assistant chief of police Lynn Parkin said there was hope of working together. “The city is certainly still will- ing to consider concerns from the alarm industry. [They’ve] raised questions with the adopted ordinance that will be evaluated,” Parkin told SSN. “After the evalua- tion is complete, the City Attorney and the alarm industry’s attorney are planning to meet to discuss the matter.” Arizona Alarm Association executive director Susan Brenton and Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Safeguard president John Jennings were also present at the March 7 meeting. SSN AUTOMATION PLATFORM NEWS SUREVIEW’S CLOUDY FORECAST By Daniel Gelinas LAS VEGAS—SureView Systems, supplier of the video-centric cen- tral station automation platform Immix, was touting a move to cloud computing at this year’s ISC West with the release of Immix Cloud. It’s a migration the company said will benefit central station clients. “Immix Cloud is a private cloud-based product that will allow customers to distribute and monitor their sites through a browser-based application,” said SureView technical director Simon Morgan. “It allows a lot By Daniel Gelinas PROVO, Utah—Vivint announced on March 17 that it was in the process of transferring all of its more than 500,000 monitored accounts to Secure Global Solutions’ stages cen- tral station automa- tion platform. Vivint expected to have the transfer completed by the end of April, with both of Vivint’s monitor- ing centers going through the switch over. What prompted the move? more flexibility so they can tailor services, depending on what their clients want.” Immix Cloud is designed to deliver flexibility and mobility advantages for central monitoring stations, according to SureView COO Scott Haugland. “This is really the software plat- form for the future. We’re paral- leling the needs of our customers with advances in technology,” Haugland said. “It will be much easier to use and much more cost-effective.” Morgan said Immix Cloud would allow central stations to “Stages simplifies the job of our dispatchers, allowing them to focus on providing the exceptional service we require,” Vivint VP of operations Lindsay Grauling told Security Systems News. SGS VP Hank Goldberg said the rela- tionship is a good fit. “Vivint has all the Lindsay Grauling regular problems of a central station in managing dispatch. The intro- duction of ‘scripting’ allows Vivint to respond to alarms in a controlled, predictable way,” offer immediate access to real- time events and data using iPad, iPhone and Android applica- tions. Haugland said Immix Cloud would exist initially in a pri- vate cloud set up by Immix Cloud cus- tomers, but that plans were in place to move the platform to the public cloud toward the end of 2011. SSN Scott Haugland Vivint moves accounts to stages Goldberg said. “Vivint should realize a great reduction in training, improved response time to alarms, reduced cost and increased quality.” Grauling agreed. “SGS’ flexibility and desire to innovate make them the perfect partner,” Grauling said. Vivint, formerly APX Alarm, changed its name and incorpo- rated a home automation/con- trol focus in February. Another Utah-based moni- toring center, AvantGuard, also in February switched all of its monitored accounts to the stages platform. SSN BRIEFS SureView announces Brivo integration to offer video-based access control monitoring TAMPA, Fla.—SureView Systems, devel- oper of video-centric central station automation platform Immix, and Brivo Systems, a supplier of software-as-a- service (SaaS) applications for secu- rity management, announced the successful integration of Brivo’s ACS WebService hosted physical access control system with Immix. The integrated system delivers a single platform to manage video sur- veillance/CCTV, access control, alarms, and VoIP audio. Central stations and command cen- ters can now leverage Brivo’s SaaS model for deploying access control with the event-based monitoring of Immix. This integration allows for events from Brivo to be received and processed by Immix. Combining the integration library of Immix with Brivo enables a range of remote guarding services, including after- hours video access, unattended delivery services, and access control alarm man- agement. These services can provide an increase in recurring monthly revenue streams for commercial central stations, while helping drive down the cost of man guarding for private command centers, according to a release. “The integration of Immix with Brivo’s WebService Security Management System provides an option for Brivo’s customers who want to have their system centrally monitored. The ease of imple- menting these features demonstrates the power of cloud-to-cloud integration,” said Steve Van Till, Brivo’s President and CEO, in a statement. Monitronics wins false alarm reduction recognition SAN ANTONIO—Monitronics’ central station data entry director Mary Jensby went to San Antonio to the False Alarm Reduction Association Symposium recently and brought home an award from FARA recognizing Monitronics for its efforts at false alarm reduction. Monitronics VP security Rick Hudson was pleased with the award. “Monitronics was honored last week by FARA with their prestigious Achievement Award. This award is presented to the organization that has demonstrated the highest level of false alarm reduction over the past few years. FARA is an association of over 350 Public Safety Members—the very people we dispatch on a daily basis,” Hudson said in a statement. “To be rec- ognized by this group is a true testament to the progress our company has made in reducing false alarms. Monitronics is now on the leading edge in addressing one of our industry’s leading challenges—false alarms.”