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SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS AUGUST 2011 www.securitysystemsnews.com CSAA General Meeting Board of directors approves funding plan to build ASAP program proxy server By Daniel Gelinas CHARLOTTE, N.C.—The Central Station Alarm Association held its general mem- bership meeting on June 7 at the ESX show, and the message to attendees was that while the economy is tough, the moni- toring industry’s association is doing okay and is pushing for action in the form of a nationwide initiative to radically revamp public safety communications. CSAA treasurer Daniel Demers (Reli- ance Protectron Secu- rity Services) said that on the surface, the financial outlook may seem grim, but that one has to take the current economic climate and projects of the CSAA into consideration. “For the current year, we’re actually fore- casting a deficit of about $75,000, but that’s very prudent and is specific to the ASAP/ NLETS program we’ll hear more about.” ASAP stands for Automated Secure Alarm Protocol and once fully functional will allow central stations to use the Moni- toring Station to PSAP Data Exchange Pro- gram to deliver a data-slim link to band- width-rich multi-media content like video and audio to PSAPs and first responders. CSAA president Ed Bonifas announced the association’s board of directors had, the day before, approved moving forward with a funding plan to build the necessary proxy server infrastructure to begin bring- ing more central stations on board with the ASAP-to-the-PSAP initiative. Bonifas officially announced the Hous- ton, Texas PSAP and San Antonio-based UCC joining the pilot program and offered some encouraging stats. “In 30 days time, the Houston PSAP has managed to reduce the number of alarm company phone calls that they deal with by a full 10 percent … by every measure, this is a rousing success,” Bonifas said. “Houston claims they’ll save $2 million a year in operating costs when we all get on this program.” Bonifas said the program is essential and would not be cheap. “This has now gone from a neat idea being worked on by a dedicated group of volunteers ... to a frontline CSAA project.” Bonifas said. “The dilemma is that this server is going to cost somewhere around a quarter of a mil- lion dollars to build and it’s … going to be somewhere in the range of a six-figure a year operating cost.” Bonifas said the board of directors finally settled on asking for small contributions from many rather than large contributions from a few.. “We’re asking smaller alarm companies to commit $1,000 a year for three years. The national companies, $5,000 a year for three years.” Vector president Pam Petrow, who has worked on the ASAP-to-the-PSAP program since its inception in 2004, said response to the funding initiative was positive so far. “We called 34 companies and we now have commitments from 34 compa- nies,” Petrow said. “We’ve been doing a road show for all the APCO conferences for the last several years… They’ve all been exposed to it and about 100 have expressed interest.” SSN MONITORING 25 CSAA, ESA recognize industry excellence at ESX 2011 By Daniel Gelinas CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Two of the security industry’s biggest national associations, the Central Station Alarm Association and the Electronic Security Association, held their annual awards ceremonies at this year’s Electronic Security Expo, here. ESA held its banquet and Sara E. Jack- son and Morris F. Weinstock awards cer- emony June 7 at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, adjacent to the Charlotte Conven- tion Center. Three awards were given: The Youth Scholarship Award, which was won by Brian Roxas; the Sara E. Jackson Award, won by Stanley Security Solutions’ LJ Lynes; and the Morris F. Weinstock Per- son of the Year Award, won by former ESA president Mike Miller. “I really appreciate this a great deal,” Lynes said, accepting his award. Miller, who is VP of Pasco, Wash.- based Moon Security, thanked friends, family and colleagues for their support and guidance over the years. “My mentor George Gunning always told me remember your stakeholders,” Miller explained before extending a special thanks to ESA executive direc- tor Merlin Guilbeau. MICRO KEY Continued from page 24 but until now, the end user would see in their caller ID a generic number. So on an outbound call string we inject, through the automation platform, the dealer’s phone number.” “Within the Millennium database they know who belongs to which dealer, so they Mike Miller On June 8, CSAA held its Excellence Awards ceremony at a breakfast. Support Person, Operator, Manager, and Central Station of the Year awards recognized excellence in the world of central station moni- toring. Bryan Nussbaum, of proprietary cen- tral station State Farm Insurance, won the Support Person of the Year honor. State Farm’s Joe Miskulin accepted the award on Nussbaum’ behalf. “He’s just a really bright guy,” Misku- lin told Security Systems News. Operator of the Year honors went to Vector Security West’s Melanie Warych, while EPS Security’s Amy Jo Feliciano won Manager of the Year. The top award for Central Station of the Year went to Diebold, which has central station operations in Ohio and Hawaii. Diebold’s central station operations manager Bob Carfolo told Security Systems News, “We were hopeful, but certainly not expecting it. This is certainly not just an honor for me, but for my whole team.” SSN autodial by clicking on Mrs. Smith’s name and at the same time, the system knows that Mrs. Smith is a client of ABC Alarm Company and she sees ABC Alarm Compa- ny in her caller ID and answers,” he added. Crawford said the service could drive down false alarms because end users are more apt to answer the verification call if they recognize the number as coming from their trusted alarm company. SSN theplusfactor Looking for proven methods to realize RMR in your business today? transmit video up to one mile! 3 3 HubWayEX Active UTP Transceiver Hubs Transmit high quality video over long distances more cost-effectively with HubWayEX – and reduce your system’s total cost of ownership. 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