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Keeping video surveillance systems up and running can be challenging — in large part because not everything needed to keep the camera functioning properly is under the control of the security integrator.

False alarms have long troubled video monitoring stations. With stations in Lafayette and Baton Rouge, La. and Chicago, Ill., Acadian Monitoring Services did better than most in the industry, estimating only two of three alarms received were false.

It has been a long and arduous year since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, on January 31, 2020, issued its declaration of a public health emergency related to COVID-19. As the virus pillaged its way around the world, it caused commercial establishments within many segments to quickly shut their doors.

Jacqueline Brogan, central station manager at Alarm Detection Systems in Aurora, Ill., is The Monitoring Association’s 2020 Central Station Manager of the Year for her work in leading a team of more than 20 operators. She first joined the team in 2012 as an operator, then became a customer service representative in 2015. She returned to the central station in 2019 to take on her current position.

When SDM put out its inaugural issue in January, 1971, the security industry as we know it today did not exist. There were no trade shows, no systems integrators, no DIY systems and no reliable publications to turn to for information.

To say 2020 was a bit of a roller coaster ride is perhaps an understatement. At this time last year, most security integrators anticipated a strong 2020, only to be thrown into turmoil late in the first quarter by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Communication — both with end users and emergency personnel — has always been an essential part of any monitoring business. The methods through which monitoring centers communicate, though, have become incredibly varied.

Thomas Paine, an early American philosopher, once said, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Although these insightful words were written in reference to the American Revolution, they embody the sufferings of so many people today, due to the proliferation of COVID-19.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic drove widespread stay-at-home orders, 2020 was shaping up to be a challenging year for larger security dealers. As SDM reported last year at this time, at least two banks that had been major lenders to those dealers had either stopped making new loans or had begun imposing terms that were less favorable to the dealers

The pandemic has brought changes for wholesale central stations. UL has temporarily allowed central station operators to work from home, provided certain requirements were met; and multiple wholesale central stations chose that option — others went a different route.