Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/40004
SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS SEPTEMBER 2011 www.securitysystemsnews.com MONITORING BRIEFS Ascent Media changes name DENVER—A July 8 story from the Denver Business Journal reports that Ascent Media Corp., which has shifted its business objectives over the last year, has changed its name to Ascent Capital Group Inc. The Douglas County-based holding company said it will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Global Stock Market under the ticker symbol ASCMA. "The company believes that the new name better reflects its current busi- ness profile and objectives following the recent sales of its media assets and the acquisition of Monitronics International Inc., one of the nation's largest, fastest-growing home security alarm monitoring companies," Ascent said in a statement. Prior to buying Dallas-based Monitronics in December 2010 for $1.2 billion, Ascent primarily provided digital video production and distribution servic- es for Hollywood studios. But those busi- nesses suffered through the recession. CSAA Fall Ops Management Seminar Set for Nov. 13-15 VIENNA, Va.—Be sure to mark your calendars for the CSAA Fall Operations Management Seminar, to be held Nov. 13-15, 2011 at the Embassy Suites Hotel near Oak Brook, Ill., just 20 miles west of Chicago. The seminar includes timely topics for operators and managers and will also will feature an update on the ASAP proj- ect from the three central stations that are piloting it (Vector Security, United Central Control and Monitronics). Continuing education credits (CEUs) are available to eligible participants. Monitronics officially begins ASAP-to-the-PSAP DALLAS—Monitronics International, an alarm monitoring company that works through a network of nationwide, inde- pendent authorized dealers, on Aug. 2 announced it had officially begun par- ticipating in the ASAP-to-the-PSAP program aimed at reducing emergency response time and saving lives. As part of the program, Monitronics is now monitoring emergency calls in Richmond, Va. The company also began on Aug. 8 monitoring calls to the Houston Emergency Center (HEC), which is the fourth-largest pub- lic security access point (PSAP) facility in the U.S. The Central Station Alarm Association and Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International developed the protocol that reduces the two- to three-minute relay that cur- rently exists, in part by allowing data to be processed by a computer at the dis- patch center. 'Train-the-Trainer' course back this fall By Daniel Gelinas MONROE, La.—A new secu- rity industry venture, Central Station University, is bringing back a popular training pro- gram that was last offered in 2009. Interested central sta- tion managers will be able to take the SIA-APCO Central Station Operator Instructor (CSOI) Course—more popularly known as the Train-the- Trainer course—in both Costa Mesa, Calif. and Orlando, Fla. from Sept. 12-16. Alarm Monitoring Services owner and CFO Dera DeRoche- Jolet is the owner and president of Central Station Univer- sity, which in 2011 signed an agreement to revise and further develop the SIA-APCO Instruc- tor and Operator courses. CSU is now the exclusive provider of these courses, according to a release from CSU. DeRoche-Jolet is certified as an instructor by the Electronic Security Association's National Training School and has been a national instructor for SIA since 1995. "The biggest challenge for managers is consistency. Train- the-Trainer provides consistency in hiring trainable employees, training them to be quality operators, and developing con- tinuing education to maintain that quality," DeRoche-Jolet told SSN. "Plus, the SIA-APCO courses have a strong reputation in our indus- try. Our work with state regula- tors will build that recognition even further for all the central stations that use this training." CSU general manager Sean Rockhold said the revised course is an improvement over TRAINING see page 30 DICE adding staff By Daniel Gelinas BAY CITY, Mich.—DICE Corp.—which has been moving away from branding itself strictly as a central station automation platform provider and more as a technology-infrastructure back-up provider—has been busy with more than a dozen new hires recently. And company president and CEO Cliff Dice says there are no plans to stop there. "Since I've been back from retirement in the last two years, we've doubled the size of DICE as far as people, and I had told the state of Michigan last year, when we were chosen as one of the top 50 fastest growing companies in the state, that over a five-year time frame I would add about 50 engineers and we're on pace for that," Dice told Security Systems News. Dice said his company's trend of building, expanding and hiring even in a down economy is about staying ahead of a changing industry. "A lot of smaller companies are being bought. The number of customers may be decreasing, but the services are increasing … the customers we have are expanding and growing into this IP sector and I see that as a continuing trend for the alarm industry," Dice said. "You're going to see a lot less alarm companies and what will be left are companies that are doing a lot more than just alarms." To be eligible for the Michigan 50, companies must meet Cliff Dice certain criteria, including: a candidate must be facing issues of growth, not survival; a candidate must employ six to 99 full- time equivalent W-2 employees, including the owner; a candi- date must have between $750,000 and $50 million in annual revenue or working capital in place from investors or grants; a candidate must be headquartered in Michigan; and a candidate must demonstrate the intent and capacity to grow. SSN VRI partners for telehealth solutions By Daniel Gelinas DAYTON, Ohio—Valued Relationships Inc., a healthcare services company with more than 20 years of experience providing telemonitoring, medication adherence and medi- cal alert systems, on July 13 announced a partnership with MedApps, a provider of biometric technology solutions for the collection, transmission and remote management of patient health data. According to VRI CEO Andy Schoonover, the partnership in which VRI will be monitoring the MedApps solution HealthPAL will benefit end users in need of round-the-clock tele- health monitoring. "Of all the standalone biometric cap- ture devices on the market, we have found that the cellular connectivity and reliability really allows MedApps to stand apart from the rest," Schoonover told Security Systems News. "We are live monitoring the HealthPALs in the telehealth section of our Care Center. We have folks monitoring the information 24/7 and responding to bio- metric readings that our algorithms determine are outside the norm." VRI's current PERS dealers have access to the HealthPAL devices and, according to Schoonover, are finding success selling them into home health agencies, hospitals, and other healthcare-related entities. SSN Andy Schoonover DMP fights false dispatch By Daniel Gelinas SPRINGFIELD, Mo.—Digital Monitoring Products on July 19 announced a new feature to its alarm panels that, accord- ing to VP of marketing Mark Hillenburg, displays the com- pany's continuing dedication to reducing false dispatch. "DMP long ago recognized the need to provide end users with a simple way to reduce or eliminate false alarms," Hillenburg said in a release. "The CANCEL/VERIFY false alarm reduction feature has been available for many years. This new False Alarm Ques- tion feature provides a differ- ent option for end users." The False Alarm Question feature, when enabled, asks the end user directly, "Is this a false alarm? Yes/No." If the end user selects "Yes," the central station operator gets a signal that tells them the alarm is cancelled. If the end user answers "No," the oper- ator reads "Alarm Verified." "The original CANCEL/ VERIFY feature is a great feature. However, the new 'Is this a false alarm?' feature takes the same technology, but words it in a way that is more easily understood by the end user," Atlas Security opera- tions manager Jon Adams told Security Systems News. The new feature highlights a continuing concern for false alarm reduction, according to SIAC executive director Stan Martin. SIAC last year revised its unpopular CP-01 alarm panel standard. "Though accepted by the national companies and many of the largest region- al and independent alarm companies, there was still a significant group of deal- ers that would not utilize CP-01 equipment due to the perceived limitations," Mar- tin told SSN in a September 2010 interview. "It should be noted that DMP was the only manufacturer that commit- ted their entire panel line to the previous standard." SSN MONITORING 27