Large, enterprise-scale end users are among the most complex in the security sphere.

If you have walked on almost any college or hospital campus, or visited a secondary school in the past several years, chances are you have seen a proliferation of both “blue light” emergency stations and entry control intercoms. Safety and security have always been a priority for these facilities, and these types of products are very popular options.

Ener-Tel Services, based in San Angelo, Texas, started in 1984 as an automation controls company for heating and cooling units, explains General Sales Manager Ron Pullen. “The owner also did a lot of work for Verizon, so the ‘Ener’ is for energy management and the ‘tel’ is for telco. We started off as an energy management company and grew into all the other categories like fire, CCTV, access control, home and business security, and fire alarm and sprinkler. We do residential, light commercial and have a commercial group that does the integration side, talking to architects and engineers.”

To tweak a line from a famous Frank Sinatra song: 2017, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for connected homes, that is. Massive amounts of advertising from big players inside and outside the security space, a rapidly advancing technology landscape, and an avid interest from homeowners at all economic levels led to a connected home space that is growing by leaps and bounds.

The keypad has been a fixture of the access control world for a long time. The first pushbutton combination lock is credited to Alfred A. Peters in 1875. And since then, they have been a popular — and often a more affordable — option for securing doors when a customer doesn’t want to keep track of keys or cards.

Just as there are a number of things that qualify as “video monitoring” — from verified video to guard tours and more — there are equally varied ways that dealers have found success in providing video monitoring services to their customers.

With a particular focus on the application of video surveillance technologies in central station monitoring, Video Monitoring TODAY features perspective from industry experts, profiles of leading companies, coverage of trends and issues, and relevant news. This first issue is dedicated to fully exploring the opportunity that video monitoring presents to dealers and integrators, whether you have your own central station or use a third-party service.