One of my customers has asked me to watch his security cameras from my central station. The set up for this is not a problem but I am wondering how to bill for this type of service? The cameras will be watching a car lot. I am not sure if we should check each camera once an hour, once a night, or constantly all night. What is anyone here doing with this type of service?
James
hopefully you have something set up to trigger an alarm in the cs so you can begin watching or do you intend to have someone stare at the monitors all day/night.
Depending on which DVR system you use, some of them have Central Station Monitoring Software just for Video. You can normally monitor hundreds of accounts, and set it to send video on motion only.
Or like others said, just log in and check the cameras when there is an alarm.
You can also do a guard tour thing if you want, but if the alarm is set up right then you shouldnt need to. Also, you will need enough cameras to do the guard tour otherwise the client wont be getting the same as having a guard on premises.
Tip - let him monitor it himself, if there is an alarm, he can login and view it and decide for him self .. this way if the internet goes down and you cant monitor it at some point, you wont get sued.
Why don't you answer the guy's question instead of being a smartass.
WHat? Tell him how much to charge? ...ok as much as you can get because the liability could be an issue.
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and what the f*ck was smartass about my post?
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It didn't come off that way to me. Seemed like a good piece of advice. js
Different ways to look at this - I'm just thinking out loud here...
How long would it take for someone walk onto the lot, break into a car, and take something or take a car? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 15 minutes?
If the answer is 5 minutes and it takes the cops 5 minutes to get there, then you would need to be watching the cameras every single minute!
And even if you had someone to sit and watch the monitors 24/7, I think guards which do this get bored, tend to fill their time with other activities - reading books, sleeping, etc. i.e. They are not looking at the monitor(s).
Then with an alarm monitoring center, there are busy times when no one would have time to look at a monitor.
Another way to look at it... You have employees - are in business to make a profit. How much does their time cost you and how much profit do you want to make on their time. So arrive at a cost (include facilities), then factor in your profit, then that is how much to charge. Figure out how much per minute.
Then give the customer various options. How frequently to look at the monitor - the more time spent doing this, the more cost to the customer. Or if setting up alarms on the lot and only looking at the monitor when an alarm triggers, then maybe a set monthly charge.
So far as a set monthly charge. If the lot is fenced off and locked, then a lower monthly charge. If anyone can walk onto the lot and look at cars at any time (customers looking at cars after hours), then you will spend more time looking at the monitor. Maybe charge for each time you need to look at the monitor based on your time spent doing this?
Also log each incident and what is occurring. The customer might like this idea. Maybe the place closes at 9:00 pm on Fridays, but 10 people wander through the lot between closing and midnight. All potential sales! Maybe he would want to stay open longer when these people are showing up? The log would show this stuff.
And the legal stuff... If not watching the monitor every single second, then you can't be expected to catch anyone doing anything during the in-between times. Protect yourself with a contract which spells this out.
I dunno... His suggestion was a good one. Set triggers on the cams. My question is: What's the station supposed to do when they observe something happening?? As for continuous monitoring of the premise over an eight hour shift... Charge the customer the going rate for guard service. 8 hours, $16.00 per... You can't get any better "security" than a "set of eyes" permanently on the premise (beats guard patrol).
A cheaper solution: We have a customer with a small outside car lot (it's an auto repair shop with a fenced enclosure). Perps were breaking into the vehicles parked here over night. We installed a couple of Silent Witness Night-Hawks and set up an outdoor PIR between the two cameras. Movement in the lot triggers a silent signal to the CS and they call the customer to say there is "activity". The customer can dial up the lot and watch what's going on. He's already nailed two guys trying to make off with tires, stereos, etc. and is pretty darned pleased with the way the system's worked so far. Only thing he doesn't like is that the "activity" usually happens around 4 a.m. and sometimes it's just some nimrod taking a shortcut through the lot.
It really depends on what your level of the term "watch" means. I'll give you some insight on two car dealerships I'm working with right now, who have completely different views on the term "watch". The first dealership "owner" I talked to, told me everything (concerns) I wanted to hear, that he didn't want to have; False alarms. Knowing the response from the county police was a great concern to him. He currently has the old "sleeping" guard at the 15 acre facility who's costing him an arm and a leg, and about the only advantage of it is, he responds to the false alarms, instead of the county police. He's had lots of theft, and damage, even with the guard on site. They presently have no cameras. Keep that in mind. The second dealership "dipshit" that I talked to already has an "interactive" (Remote Video/Talk back PA) system. The system was put in, in
2000. I have some great photos of what not to do on a dealership install (if you're interested). That system is completely dead, and never, ever, worked as described. Keep that in mind. My answer to this situation is simple. You have to design a cost effective system that is going to work, not just record video, not just seeing a person walking across a lot, and calling the police. And, you absolutely have to make money, and not add to the Central Station burden of False alarms. How do you do that? I can only tell you what roads I have, and am going down, as an example. First off, you have to "interactive" with the location. Being able to deter crime, is just as important as detecting it, or worse, just recording it. This does involve several key components. Outdoor Passive detection, unitized cameras, and two way audio. Short yourself on either, and you're just going to create a nightmare for yourself. There are also legal steps you need to have in place for such a system. Believe it or not, in some States even criminals have rights in trespassing (Go figure). I can really go into depth, but I'll keep as simple as possible. We use network cameras with two way audio, a omni-directional mic, amplifier, and speakers for the interaction. We also use outdoor passive infrared detectors for motion detection. We use the Internet for all communications, because it's the fastest. I won't get into the process here of how we handle the intervention process, but I will tell you we charge between $175.00, and $375.00 per month for the monitoring fee, based on the size of the system, and the size of the lot. If you want some more info, I'd be glad to pass some along, where I can.Jack instalinkinc at adelphia dot net
"James" wrote in message news:OIadnfE-pdUqvdbenZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...
and that's smartass to you...sheesh you better not ever visit NYC...you'd die from hurt feelings ordering a bagel.
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| > It didn't come off that way to me. Seemed like a good piece of advice. | > js | | | " or do you intend to have someone stare at the monitors all | day/night." | | | | | |
wonder if they had any in that New Orleans one that was on TV :-)
:-))))
Yah want to do service in the AM though as less traffic, afternoon is hell so i normally come off the road around 2pm ish ... then again i normally get up around 11am :-))))
Seemed like a pretty legitimate answer/question to me. You'd be surprised at how many people actually "do" just stare at monitors all day and night. Hell look at the Christmas tree of cameras at any given Wal-Mart. What do they have like 15,000 cameras per store, along with 5,000 dummy cameras? Fixed even!
Big budget on cams thats for sure. They still using Radx in your neck of the woods?
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| > > It didn't come off that way to me. Seemed like a good piece of advice. | > > js | >
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| > " or do you intend to have someone stare at the monitors all | > day/night." | >
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The Prince of Dubai built custom designer islands out of dredged sand and is selling the acreage for big bucks. Hong Kong (was it hong kong) built an entire island for an airport with highway and super long bridge to get to the airport. What are we gonna do?...rebuilt a major port city below sea level and levees still only Cat 3 rated. Are we freekin stupid or what?
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Target does it in house .. Hmmm, must be some really clear images ;-))
" or do you intend to have someone stare at the monitors all day/night."
I've was taught two valuable things when I was in the Navy.
Man I love you!!
You are one of the reason I come here almost everyday..
you and our friend from the Bahamas..
Damn I wish I could go and pay him a visit..(not the same type of visit I want to give to mrs Ass....) A few hour on the beach then a few hours on the road servicing alarms...what a life!!! LOL
"Jackcsg" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@adelphia.com...
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