5.7.18 – SSI – In the home automation world, the term “video verification” is used pretty casually. An alarm goes off, and maybe a video camera is pulled up to see if there’s a bad guy on the premises. In the security industry, however, the term has a more formal meaning, generally referring to video sent to a central monitoring station to determine if an alarm is legitimate.
Since most security alarms are false — up to 98% of them in some areas — emergency responders have started to demand video verification before dispatching police. At the very least, they give highest priority to alarms verified by eye witnesses or video evidence.
While the video verification process isn’t necessarily that complicated, it does require a specialized service to get video feeds to the central station during an alarm event.
Among the many exhibitors at the recent ISC West show were two companies enabling video verification for standalone cameras and alarm systems. One is I-View Now and the other (brand new) is Chekt. Both enable security and smart home dealers to generate recurring revenue (RMR) while providing customers a highly valued service.