Eastern Bank Welcomes A-COM Integrated Solutions As A Commercial Customer

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Eastern Bank announced A-COM Integrated Solutions (A-COM) as a new commercial banking customer. Founded in 1973, A-COM is a family-owned security, home and business automation company offering services to benefit increasingly mobile lifestyles. With decades of experience in the safety and fire protection industry, it serves more than 20,000 customers with advanced business management and security in such areas as intrusion, access, surveillance, cyber security risk assessment and proactive IT monitoring. Eastern is providing a full banking solution to A-COM, which includes a revolving line of credit.

“For more than 45 years, providing customers with peace of mind over the security and protection of their homes, businesses and data has been central to our business philosophy,” said Wayne Beck, CEO and Founder of A-COM. “Eastern understands our model, has ensured a smooth process for managing our working capital and daily treasury needs, and offers the resources to support our future plans as new opportunities form from our customers’ changing needs.”

“A-COM is known for its commitment to excellence in customer service and giving back to the community,” said Greg Buscone, Executive Vice President, Senior Commercial Banking Officer of Eastern Bank. He added, “We are pleased to provide our banking solutions and look forward to working with them.”

Eastern provides a range of commercial financing offerings to help companies across many industries to improve cash flow, increase efficiencies and build for the future. Commercial lending solutions include working capital/lines of credit, equipment/term loans, real estate loans, acquisition financing, asset-based lending and employee stock ownership plan-related financing.

The Commercial Banking team advising A-COM includes Executive Vice President, Senior Commercial Banking Officer Greg Buscone, Senior Vice President and Commercial Team Leader Brendan O’Neill, and Senior Vice President and Commercial Relationship Manager Matthew Hunt.

Security Alarm Corp. acquires Alert Alarm Systems Plus

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Security Alarm Corporation (SAC) of Port Charlotte, Florida, has announces the acquisition of Alert Alarm Systems Plus, Inc. (AASP) of Sarasota FL. SAC is one of Florida’s premier security companies, having been named by Business Observer to its “Top 500 Gulf Coast Companies.” The president of SAC, Justin Allbright, was praised by Business Observer as one of its “40 under 40 Class of 2020.”  The company was awarded “Integrator of the Month” by Security Sales & Integration trade journal also in 2020. SAC was founded in 1979 and has 40+ employees.

AASP was founded by Victor and Vincent Della Volpe in 1989 and is a traditional RMR company which attracted Mr. Allbright as a natural partner for the two companies. 

“We are excited about the partnership with Victor and Vincent who have built a well-run and successful business. We wanted to expand on the Gulf Coast and AASP was perfect for achieving our acquisition goals,” Mr. Allbright explained. SAC has acquired four other security companies in the past.

Victor Della Volpe said the entire acquisition process went extremely well, and he praised Steve Rubin of Davis Mergers & Acquisitions who facilitated the transaction. “Thank you, Steve. It was a pleasure working with you and we appreciate everything that you did for us.  We are very happy,” Mr. Della Volpe said.

Resideo Wins Best New Product at CEDIA 2021

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Resideo’s ProSeries security and life safety platform has won the 2021 CE Pro best product award for an integrated security system.

With its innovative modular design and built-in Amazon Alexa, our ProSeries end-to-end solution brings security, life-safety and smart control together in one simple platform.

Alarm.com Joins PSA’s Network of Technology Providers

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PSA, a consortium of professional systems integrators, announces the addition of Alarm.com to its network. The Alarm.com platform integrates with a growing variety of IoT devices through its apps and interfaces to provide mobile control for business security and automation system functions.

“We are thrilled to partner with Alarm.com and know the immense value this will bring to our systems integrators,” says Matt Barnette, CEO of PSA. “This partnership has been in the works for some time as the team at PSA knows that Alarm.com’s suite of products and services can give our integrators a competitive edge.”

Alarm.com’s primary offering is an operating system for the connected property, which allows business owners to remotely control video, access control, and security via an app on their phones, tablets, or other devices. The platform combines innovative software and hardware development with the sales/marketing expertise and local market knowledge of service provider partners to drive adoption of connected property solutions.

Recently, Alarm.com released Ambient Insights for Alarm Response which leverages Alarm.com’s artificial intelligence and adaptive machine learning platform to evaluate alarm signals and provide an assessment of the likelihood that the subscriber will cancel the alarm.

Alarm.com products and services are exclusively sold, installed and supported by a nationwide network of authorized service providers.

“The security of your business and property is important no matter where you are,” says Chris Salazar-Mangrum, PSA’s vice president of technology partners. “Alarm.com’s offerings allow for control of those systems from a distance. We are excited to bring Alarm.com to our integrators to provide another service to their clients.”

Calipsa Adds Advanced Real-Time and Forensic Analytic Capabilities to Its False Alarm Reduction Software

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Calipsa has further unleashed the power of event-driven video surveillance software to create actionable intelligence for security operations. The new Calipsa Pro Analytics software suite adds four tiers of advanced analytics, incorporating customizable real-time alerts, camera health checks, object tracking and forensic video analysis.

“We help companies extract value from their new and existing video systems by turning video into operational business intelligence,” said Brian Baker, chief revenue officer, Calipsa. “Our advanced AI cloud-based analytics for real-time monitoring and forensic review leverage event-based video at scale to create more effective and efficient security operations.”

Calipsa Pro Analytics includes four tiers:

Calipsa Detect – Calipsa’s flagship false alarm filtering technology detects the presence of human and vehicular activity in video alarms. More than 90% of nuisance alerts are filtered out, enabling control room operators to improve monitoring efficiency and performance by focusing on true alarms.

The software enables users to mask areas of disinterest, such as roads or public spaces, further reducing false alarms. Custom schedules turn off filtering during unmonitored hours, while a mobile app and dashboard enable users to expand system control and review its performance.

Calipsa Detect Pro – This new offering complements the Detect features with a suite of camera health checks.  Alerts are issued when a camera’s angle has moved, there are significant scene changes or the camera has been tampered with. Users may receive idle camera notifications when selected cameras haven’t received alarms for more than 6 hours.

Calipsa Protect – Calipsa Protect is designed for proactive security by enabling enhanced intelligence for basic video alarms. With deep learning technology at its core, Calipsa Protect features color detection, region of interest, count-based alerts, crowd forming and loitering detection to create alerts for the events that matter most

Users may choose to receive alerts only when objects enter regions of interest, such as doorways or gates. Watchlists allow users to upload photos of objects to observe – or ignore. System algorithms send alarms for views containing similar objects on the inclusion list or filter alerts for images added to the exclusion list.

Calipsa Investigate – Combining Calipsa’s proactive analytics solutions, Investigate uses meta-based attributes to search multiple cameras for forensic analysis. Users can filter events by detecting color, loitering, crowd size and more to display relevant results for investigation. Calipsa’s algorithms search for alarms containing objects of similar appearance from all cameras or selected sites. This feature enables the tracking of an object’s movement across multiple cameras. Summarized results appear in an easy-to-review video for saving on the Calipsa platform and sharing with other stakeholders.

“Calipsa continues leading the way with solutions for analyzing event-driven video,” Baker said. “Our new tools for real-time and forensic analysis enable users to control and maximize their video surveillance investment. And with our cloud-based solution, there’s no need for onsite equipment installation and initial setup of Calipsa Pro Analytics suite takes minutes.”

Calipsa is used by over 125 customers spanning six continents. Calipsa analytics connect to over 115,000 cameras on 22,000+ supporting customers across all major verticals, including construction, manufacturing, critical infrastructure, logistics, education, healthcare, retail and safe cities.

TMA 2021 Achievement Highlights

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The value of TMA Membership is demonstrated with a 94%+ renewal rate for 2021. Many thanks to each of you! With your support and participation, as of early September, TMA has advanced the following initiatives:

  • A new requirement for the Five Diamond Designation was implemented this year. The Five Diamond Committee and the TMA Board moved to include the addition of a recertification component for the Operator courses to assist in keeping operators’ skills and knowledge current; certified operators will be required to recertify every three years. The new operator recertification requirement began with the 2021-2022 Designation renewal cycle. In addition, two new companies have joined the program so far this year.
  • Nearly 34,000 TMA Online Operator Courses have now been sold to over 31,000 alarm professionals. A new module on video monitoring is in production and will feature successful guidelines for operators who monitor video accounts, with a focus on verification practices to avoid false dispatches.
  • In collaboration with the Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC), TMA has been advocating for a delay in the AT&T 3G Sunset, as well as educating members on the issue. TMA assisted to provide members to the AICC lobbyist for calls with members of Congress.
  • TMA Learning Center (TLC), org, has been completely updated with dynamic new student resources and a more interactive training manager portal. TMA continues to partner with The CMOOR Group to maintain our learning management system. The new TMA Learning Center (TLC) site launched on September 2nd.
  • In tandem with the redesigned learning management system is the availability of the exciting newly released New Hire Assessment Tool. The tool, designed in a survey format, may be used as part of the hiring process, providing monitoring companies an instrument with which to measure prospective and/or new employees’ level of knowledge in various areas such as communication, critical thinking, customer service, cybersecurity, leadership and operations.
  • Virtual Meetings – COVID-19 prompted us to move our pivot our Fall 2020 meetings as well the 2021 Mid-year Meeting to a virtual platform. Volunteers and staff invested many hours to transition from an in-person event to a successful virtual format.
  • TMA has organized a Quarterly Meeting of Operations Professionals to discuss timely industry topics. The most recent topic focused on GPS and mobile monitoring.
  • The NextGen group initiated its Meet Your Mentor Series, the well-received event hosts live video interviews with accomplished and respected industry leaders.
  • TMA launched an updated Excellence Awards program. A significant change was creating new Monitoring Center of the Year categories based on company size.
  • Long Range Planning. A group of 22 staff and volunteers, led by Pam Petrow, from Vector Security, has been working on developing recommendations to the TMA Board on the future of TMA.
  • The ASAP-to-PSAP service continues its exponential growth this year, with 90 active ECCs and plans to reach 100 by year-end. The ASAP infrastructure is being moved to a virtualized cloud environment. ASAP now covers over 11% of the US population, that’s over 37,000,000 people covered nationwide!
  • TMA has submitted a proposal to UL for a permanent Work-from-Home solution in UL827, which is currently going through the UL approval process.
  • TMA started the development of a new ANSI-standards, the Alarm Validation Standard (TMA-AVS-01), which uses data relative to alarm activations to evaluate what is occurring at the protected premises and to provide that information to public safety.
  • A new dedicated NFPA 730/731 workgroup has been established to coordinate TMA actions related to NFPA 730, Guide for Premises Security and NFPA 731, Standard for the Installation of Electronic Premises Security Systems, which are “in cycle” for the 2023 editions.
  • TMA’s Standards Committee was restructured, creating dedicated workgroups to individually manage TMA efforts for each standard. This model builds on the success of the UL 827 workgroup.
  • TMA continues to issue certificates for the FirstNet National Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN), with 56 companies participating in the program and 41 certificates issued so far this year.
  • TMA’s Installation Quality Certification Program “IQ Certification,” the only quality control program for installations, maintenance and service of electronic security systems is growing with 13 IQ-certified companies. TMA also conducted several webinars promoting the program including webinars with Rapid Response Monitoring, AvantGuard Monitoring, and National Monitoring Center.
  • TMA continued its series of well-attended Virtual Town Halls focused on pandemic-related business operations solutions and other topics of importance to our members.
  • Our dedicated COVID-19 Resources web page was created to provide TMA members with quick and easy access to the latest information from federal and state guidelines and requirements. The page continues to be updated and serve as a valuable resource.

TMA would like to acknowledge and thank our many volunteers; your efforts allow us to succeed in elevating the professional monitoring industry. We look forward to another productive year with your continued support and engagement.

The New Dice and Calipsa Present VPR on New Innovations of Interactive Video Monitoring

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Register now to attend a TMA Virtual Product Review presented by two TMA members who have partnered to innovate a new interactive video offering. The New Dice and Calipsa will provide a high level overview of DICE’s new generation of interactive video monitoring technologies – including cloud video recording, remote guarding, AI video analytics, data center (827), virtual scheduled guard tours and much more with Calipa’s event processing of video alerts.

REGISTER

Immix presents innovative dispatch solution in next TMA VPR

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Register now to attend TMA’s upcoming Virtual Product Review (VPR) presented by Immix.

The Last-Mile Solution for Dispatch
August 18, 2021 | 1:00PM/ET

This webinar will outline and demonstrate the integration between Immix and IncidentCo in providing a dispatch solution that provides real-time video and information to responding authorities, creating a faster, safer and more effective response, resulting in a better security outcome.

Speakers:

  • Chris Brown, CEO, Immix
  • Jason Caldwell, Director: Marketing and Business Development, Immix

Register at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8377011283647730189

DMP’s X1 Series™ Introduces New Access Control Solution

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DMP’s X1 product line delivers a solution that’s simple to program, installs in minutes, and is easy to use.

What’s Different About the X1? 

  • Network and cellular-based connectivity – customers’ access control functions are never vulnerable to normal network outages.
  • A system that scales easily – up to 1,000 doors on a system can be managed in the cloud. To add more doors locally without adding multiple X1s, the new X1-8 is a cost-effective solution.
  • Add-on module for PoE power.
  • Support for Wiegand and OSDP reader protocol on any or all readers.
  • Fully programmed in Dealer Admin™ and maintained in Virtual Keypad™.
    Frictionless access control using Bluetooth readers and mobile credentials.

The X1 also includes network and cellular-based connectivity, ensuring a customer’s access control functions are never vulnerable to normal network outages. And, unlike other access offering, the X1’s optional cellular module can be used as the primary or backup for an entire system to ensure constant communication with the cloud.

While the X1 Series is cloud managed, all programming including up to 10,000 credentials, 99 schedules and 999 permission levels are all stored locally in each X1. Therefore, if the customer’s site were to lose network connectivity, the system will continue to function like normal.

What Does All This Mean to Security Companies

The X1 offers a solution to help security companies expand their businesses in the stand-alone access control market now and into the future. And, since this product line provides customers with an app and browser that they can use to manage the systems from anywhere, integrators are now able to create new RMR off of access control applications they previously didn’t have.

For more details about the X1 Series or to schedule a webinar, visit DMP.com/X1.

Michael Venoit Joins Continental Access as Division’s New Vice President of Sales

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Continental Access, a division of NAPCO Security Technologies, Inc., is pleased to introduce Michael Venoit as the new Continental Access Vice President of Sales. Michael comes to Continental with a successful track record of strategically driving sales and growing revenue in security and access control, having worked for several well-known industry manufacturers. Reporting to Stephen Spinelli, SVP of Sales for all NAPCO divisions, Venoit is a proven team leader, who will be responsible for managing the Continental Access Regional Sales Managers and accounts, as well those of industry icon, Scott Schramme, Continental’s VP of Business Development.

Stephen Spinelli said, “We are happy to welcome Michael aboard, he’s got great energy and experience in the field and should be an ideal fit for managing the entire Continental Sales Team and developing that business.”

Based in greater Boston, Michael’s career spans over 15-years in the electronic security industry. And as Continental is a broad single source provider for mobile, cellular, cloud, wireless locks, embedded & enterprise solutions, currently forming a new national dealer program.