Page 110 - Security Today, April 2017

REMOTE MONITORING
LEVERAGING IP TECHNOLOGY
Unique approaches in staffing have renewed and reimagined remote monitoring for sprawling or complicated campus environments
By Benjamin Bryant
NOT LONG AGO, THE TERM “VIRTUAL GUARDING” CON- JURED UP IMAGES OF BARGAIN OFFERINGS SEEKING TO REDUCE THE COST OF PHYSICAL SECURITY GUARDS BY “REPLACING” MANPOWER WITH VIDEO MONITOR- ING. THE RESULTS IN THE EARLY DAYS WERE UNDER- WHELMING—IF NOT OUTRIGHT PROBLEMATIC—COL- ORING THE PERCEPTION OF REMOTE MONITORING FOR MANY. TODAY, THE PLAYING FIELD HAS CHANGED, WITH INNOVATORS IN THE VIRTUAL GUARDING SPACE OFFERING SOLUTIONS LIGHT YEARS BEYOND THE OFFERINGS OF THE PAST IN TERMS OF CAPABILITY AND PERFORMANCE. OFTEN TAKING COUNTERINTUI- TIVE OR SURPRISING APPROACHES, NEW LEADERS IN THE VIRTUAL GUARDING SPACE HAVE MOVED BEYOND THE IDEA OF “REPLACING” GUARDS WITH TECHNOLO- GY. INSTEAD, THEY ARE LEVERAGING NEXT-GENERA- TION TECHNOLOGIES, PARTICULARLY IP AND NET- WORKED SURVEILLANCE, AND NEW APPROACHES TO STAFFING TO NOT ONLY ENHANCE INCIDENT DOCUMEN- TATION AND RESPONSE, BUT MITIGATE POTENTIAL INCIDENTS ALTOGETHER.
This approach has made new, modern iterations of virtual guarding a game changer for safety and security. It’s a new role for virtual guard- ing as a powerful and cost-effective approach, both alternative and enhancement to traditional manned guarding, delivering the enhanced capability, reduced costs, and better response to the diverse security challenges faced on public, industrial, professional, and educational campuses.
LEVERAGING ELITE PEOPLE AND
LATEST-GENERATION IP TECHNOLOGY
Currently, emergent leaders in the virtual guarding space are those successfully leveraging guarding and security expertise, matching it with the right technology to move beyond mere “remote monitoring” to true, comprehensive “virtual” guarding. This is what the Arizona- based Surveillance Acquisition Response Center (SARC) set out to do
as part of its early work to remake and redefine the concept and utility of virtual guarding. Upending both technological and business models for traditional virtual guarding operations, SARC focused its attention in a place long minimized by those in the “virtual” space: people.
“Traditional views of remote monitoring and virtual guarding focused on the core idea of replacing expensive people with lower cost technology,” noted San Kim, SARC’s Director of Operations, “this left the human resources that remained—monitors and responders, in par- ticular—as almost an afterthought in crafting a solution. SARC took the opposite approach and began with people.”
As SARC crafted their approach and operational models for a rei- magined virtual guarding offering, they mandated the use of highly- trained professionals with law enforcement, intelligence, military and security technology background in their monitoring centers. This guaranteed a baseline institutional understanding of the many aspects of security and surveillance operations, hastening and sharpening the focus of real time observation, documentation, and response activity, improving the accuracy of judgement calls and the efficiency of sup- port and cooperation with local law enforcement.
SARC then turned their eye to technology, keenly aware of the opportunity presented by advancements in IP networked surveillance technologies to craft a virtual guarding solution unlike imagined in the earliest days of remote monitoring.
“IP wasn’t just a game changer,” said Kim, “it was the game changer in terms of virtual guarding. It wasn’t hard for us to see the benefits and applications of IP in our space.”
Kim notes the scalability and flexibility of IP as foundational for the development of next generation virtual guarding offerings. “The sites in need of our solutions—including campuses of all shapes and sizes—are increasingly complex in terms of size and available infra- structure. IP cameras allow us to utilize existing data infrastructure directly (without having to add an additional IP enabled recorders or use IP encoders).”
He further notes a host of other IP benefits that work synergistically to empower and enable virtual guarding solutions capable of meeting the security requirements of even the most sprawling, complicated, or remote sites within or related to an industrial, healthcare, mixed-use,
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