Verified Security Blog
Protective Safeguards: When Your Insurance Depends on Your Alarm Being On
Some commercial property policies make keeping your alarm or sprinkler system working, and turned on, a condition of coverage. How to find the protective safeguards endorsement, what its symbols and conditions say, and where a working system quietly stops matching it.
Four Employees Moved On: Where They Still Show Up in Your Security System
Every employee is set up in four places in your security system: the door, the alarm and its call list, the video and app logins, and the key. Here is where former staff still show up, a one-page offboarding checklist, and a twice-a-year audit against payroll.
In 2013 I Said Video Was Headed for the Cloud: What Changed, and What Did Not
In February 2013 I wrote that video was the one application not ready for the cloud, and predicted that smaller systems would move to hosted platforms anyway. Thirteen years later, that is what I install. An Atlanta installer on what cloud video surveillance changes for a property manager who runs buildings from somewhere else, what it does not, and the one clip to time this week.
Two Hours of Daylight, Gone by November: An Atlanta Owner’s Guide to Security Camera Night Vision
Nobody touches the system, and in November the picture is worse. What moved was the sun: Atlanta gives up two hours and nineteen minutes of evening daylight between September 1 and November 2. An Atlanta installer on why cameras fail after dark, why the live view will not tell you, and the twenty-minute walk that finds it while a fix is still cheap.
The Oldest Frame on Your Busiest Camera: An Atlanta Owner’s Guide to Security Camera Video Evidence
Somebody turns an ankle in the parking lot on a Saturday and the letter arrives weeks later. An Atlanta installer explains what your cameras can actually produce when that happens: how many days you really have, why the recorder’s clock matters in Georgia, and the export test you can run this afternoon.
Three Systems That Have Never Met: What an Integrated Security System Actually Fixes, and What It Does Not
A back door is found unlocked on a Friday morning, and the answer lives in three apps that disagree about what time it is. An Atlanta installer explains how buildings end up with three security systems, what an integrated security system actually fixes, what it does not, and how to get to one system without ripping anything out.
Four Hours on Battery: What a Power Outage Actually Does to Your Business Security System
When your building loses power, every part of your security system starts a different clock. Your fire alarm runs a full day by code, your burglar panel is designed for four hours, your cameras stop with the network switch, and doors on magnetic locks release on purpose. An Atlanta installer walks through what keeps working, what quits, and what to check before the next storm.
The Weekend Is 60 Hours Long: How to Put Water and Temperature Alerts on the Security System You Already Own
A building that locks up at six on Friday evening and opens at six on Monday morning spends 60 hours with nobody in it. Over a school break that runs into the hundreds, and a tenant suite between leases can […]
The Cleaning Crew Starts Monday: How to Give Contractors and Vendors Building Access That Expires on Its Own
Most of what I get asked about access control is not about locks. It is about letting somebody in. A cleaning crew starts Monday. A refrigeration tech is coming Saturday at six in the morning. A remodel puts four trades […]