Variety of Sensors Provide Total Peace of Mind When most people think of security system monitoring, they think of monitoring of door and window sensors and motion detectors for intrusion detection. But, monitoring can be used for so much more. There are a variety of sensors available to monitor different types of environmental conditions. There […]
Security
9 Billion Dollars Lost to Return Fraud Every Year
How Video Security Systems Capture Return Fraud Crimes Wow, the National Retail Federation reported that 9 billion dollars are lost to return fraud every year by retailers. What is return fraud? According to a recent article in the online version of USA Today, return fraud is defined as “a crime where people exchange stolen goods […]
Unlock Doors with a Smartphone?
NFC Technology Trialed with Access Control There is a new technology that is slowly making its way into the world of traditional door access control. The technology is called Near Field Communication or NFC. Some newer smartphones are built with NFC chips inside of them which will allow those phones to control devices just by holding […]
City of Atlanta to Add Surveillance Cameras
Atlanta Approves Multi-Million Dollar Security Upgrades As reported this week by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), the City Council for the City of Atlanta voted to spend $2.25 million to expand its video surveillance presence in the city. City of Atlanta officials are pointing to the existing video surveillance infrastructure as one reason that crime in […]
Easier Access Control
How to Get Easier Access Control Do you have an access control system for your facility that allows you to use access cards or keyfobs to open locked doors? If so, you probably manage that system with a server that has software that holds the system configurations and the list of cardholders. If you are […]
Getting Your Video While On the Go
Tools Make Remote Video Viewing Easier Video surveillance cameras are widely deployed in many homes and businesses. In fact, this article from Popular Mechanics magazine states that “there are an estimated 30 million surveillance cameras now deployed in the United States shooting 4 billion hours of footage a week.” But, we often encounter users and […]
Surprise in San Jose
San Jose Passes New Alarm Response Ordinance The residents of San Jose, California got surprised recently by the passage of a new alarm response ordinance. According to this article in the San Jose Mercury News from January, 2012, the San Jose police department has decided not to respond to any security system signals unless there […]
Hard Drive Shortage May Affect DVR Availability and Pricing
How Recent Flooding is Impacting the Market If you are a regular follower of the news, you will know about the major floods that have inundated parts of Thailand. Unfortunately, some of the areas that experienced the heavy flooding contained factories that manufactured electronic goods that are regularly consumed here in the United States. One […]
Holiday Decorations Swiped in Macon
Thieves Steal Copper from Decorations The Grinch is back! In the latest caper, thieves broke into a storage area for holiday decorations in the city of Macon and stripped all of the copper from the decorations. Here is the link to the article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle: http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/morning_call/2011/11/copper-thieves-destroy-macons-holiday.html?surround=etf&ana=e_article Would you think you would have to […]
New 180 Degree, 20 Megapixel Camera from Arecont Vision
Explore the Latest Innovation from Arecont Vision Arecont Vision, a leading manufacturer of megapixel video surveillance (CCTV) cameras, has released a new 20 megapixel, 180 degree, day/night, dome camera. This new camera has four 5-megapixel imagers in one dome camera housing and it allows users to get wide views with high-resolution quality. I predict that megapixel […]