How Does Remote Video Monitoring Work?
A video surveillance system is an excellent way to deter crime, mitigate loss, and keep your property secure. These systems are a great tool for capturing evidence of an event that takes place. Allowing you to determine what and how an incident occurred. But what happens if you need to view an event while it’s happening? The solution resides with remote video monitoring.
Professionally administered remote video monitoring allows trained operators to oversee events at your property in real-time. Police departments have found that apprehension rates increase when remote video monitoring is used in conjunction with intrusion alarm monitoring systems.
What is Remote Video Monitoring?
Remote video monitoring employs an Internet connection to transmit footage captured by security cameras at your property to a remote Signals Receiving Centre (SRC). At the SRC, a properly trained operator reviews the live footage and promptly responds to any suspicious activity.
How Does It Work?
Your surveillance system’s security cameras are connected to a Network Video Recorder (NVR) or a cloud-based server, which records the video footage. Regardless of the type of recording device you utilize, it will use an Internet connection to securely send video footage to an SRC. It’s important to note that often times, your existing camera set-up can be applied to remote video monitoring.
Types of Remote Video Monitoring
Once the video surveillance system is connected to an SRC, there are three main types of remote monitoring that you can choose from:
1. Live Video Monitoring
Live video monitoring requires an SRC operator to monitor your camera footage on a nearly full-time basis. This is an extremely labour-intensive process, however may be necessary for some high-risk locations. This type of video monitoring is becoming much less prevalent.
2. Scheduled Video Monitoring
Scheduled video monitoring consists of SRC operators checking your camera footage at pre-determined times during the day. This is primarily used to ensure that certain protocol is being followed. These types of events typically include regular deliveries, guard patrols, or staff arrivals.
3. Event-Driven Video Monitoring
Event-driven video monitoring is the most common remote video monitoring methodology. This practice involves the prompting of Operator intervention through an analytic driven alarm. Resulting in an Operator investigation, consisting of viewing live and alarm-based camera footage. These events can include signals generated by the intrusion alarm monitoring system, or alarms from the video analytic driven alarm itself. This type of monitoring is also referred to as video verification. When used alongside an intrusion alarm system, video verification enables SRC operators to ascertain the validity of the alarm and minimize false police dispatches. During a security event, operators view the footage and then follow established protocols and procedures based on their observations. Typically, operators document every action they take during this process in the SRC’s automation software.
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For over 30 years, Fire Monitoring of Canada (FMC) has been an industry leader in the monitoring of fire alarm and security systems. If you would like to learn more about how video surveillance systems can help improve your facility’s security, call us at 1 888 789 FIRE (3473), email fminfo@fire-monitoring.com, or fill out the contact form below.