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.

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.

Calipsa, a provider of deep-learning powered video analytics for false alarm reduction, announced that Edmonton, Alberta-based GPS Security Group is using its false alarm filtering platform. GPS, which offers a complete range of security services across Alberta, British Columbia and other parts of Western Canada, is the third Canadian central monitoring station to adopt the cloud-based Calipsa technology.

Calipsa’s software uses artificial intelligence with deep learning technology to recognize genuine alarms caused by human or vehicle movement. More than 90% of notifications resulting from nuisance factors such as animals, lighting, weather or foliage are filtered out, helping operators reduce their response times to genuine threats.

A platform dashboard enables station managers to monitor the software’s performance, including detecting idle cameras that may need replacement or moving to a better position.

Click here to learn more about Calipsa’s false alarm reduction platform.

Micro Key Solutions and the New DICE Corporation have partnered to provide central stations who are using Millennium Monitoring automation software with the ability to add interactive and advanced video services with AI analytics.

While the two companies both offer monitoring and video solutions currently, the partnership allows central stations powered by Millennium Monitoring to take advantage of interactive video services offered by Matrix Interactive.

With the overabundance of cameras and recorded video, the industry is seeing a greater rise in video monitoring. By integrating with Matrix Interactive, Millennium Monitoring meets that demand in a new way.

 The Matrix Interactive engine uses several third party multi-billion-dollar technologies embedded into the platform, providing true AI analytics going beyond motion detection and basic video verification. These technologies include object detection, human behavior detection, and object filtration.

 Verified automated scheduled video tours are another service made possible through Matrix Interactive. The platform analyzes, understands, and prioritizes the video stream in real time. If nothing is detected during the tour, there is no need for operator intervention. The priority level determines if the video is sent to an end user, a central station operator, and/or recorded.

“The change in focus from our video partners, including DICE’s Matrix Interactive, has positioned video monitoring into a more useful and sellable security offering. With analytics being right at the core, DICE’s solution embraces the changing needs in the market and delivers actionable information when dispatchers need it most, separating that data from the deluge of video information that floods a monitoring center,” said Chuck Speck, Executive Vice President of Micro Key Solutions.

“Micro Key continues to partner with best-in-class solutions to provide real revenue and growth opportunities to our customers and help them separate themselves in their competitive markets. Solutions like this fit solidly in that mission and we’re excited to add them as a partner.”

“We are proud to partner with Micro Key Solutions and are enjoying a great working relationship,” said New DICE Corporation Co-President Avi Lupo. “Thanks to an open and generic platform DICE developed for industry players, the solution is an opportunity to add value for Micro Key central stations and their customers by providing them with advanced interactive video monitoring. Plus, it is an excellent new RMR generator with initial minimal investment for Micro Key central stations. The platform is scalable, but they can start off with the entry level package that provides ROI in no time and then add more cameras, services, and modules when ready.”

For more information on the Micro Key Solutions monitoring platform and adding interactive video services, visit www.microkey.com or call 407-870-0040.