The BSIA recently added a section on remote maintenance in its latest ‘Maintenance of CCTV surveillance systems – code of practice’ publication. This may not seem significant, but it will change the way you maintain your installations along with your revenue models.

Remote maintenance checking is nothing new, it’s been used in the IT industry for years, from warnings about depleted printer cartridges, to server outages, IT systems are monitored to reduce downtime to near zero in our ‘always on’ world.

But what about CCTV? The industry as a whole has been always has been and still is geared towards Annual ‘preventative’ maintenance, which generally means an annual service visit, and additional visits when the customer reports an issue.

This means that despite huge technological advances in CCTV products in the last 30 years, the way CCTV systems are maintained has barely changed at all.

CheckMyCCTV customers are changing that. By monitoring CCTV systems for faults, operational issues, and tampering using CheckMyCCTV, Installers can now offer their customers an unprecedented level of proactive CCTV maintenance. Nearly 10,000 CCTV installations are are already monitored this way using CheckMyCCTV, and this number is growing all the time.

So how does this change how CCTV systems are maintained?

A typical maintenance contract will normally include an Annual preventative maintenance visit, and in the words of the BSIA “A preventative maintenance visit allows the technician to carry out a complete audit / check of the CCTV surveillance system”, which is great, but between visits it is still down to the end user to detect and report issues.

The problem is that many faults are often only discovered after an incident has taken place which subsequently wasn’t recorded. Customers are left with huge risks for days, weeks, or even months when faults, tampering, or vandalism occurs.

There is another way…

The BSIA list 3 types of maintenance in their Code of practice document:

• Preventative maintenance – Planned scheduled maintenance.
• Corrective maintenance – Emergency maintenance to correct a fault.
• Customer and user maintenance – Basic maintenance carried out by the end user.

By using CheckMyCCTV to provide remote CCTV status checks, CCTV installer are providing a 4th type of maintenance for their customers:

• Proactive Maintenance – Systems are monitored for issues 24/7 and issues are detected, reported, and ultimately resolved in a timely manner.

With proactive maintenance, systems are checked automatically by CheckMyCCTV, so instead of waiting for the user to discover faults or issues, they are reported as they happen. This information can be used to provide the end-user with a proactive maintenance service, where issue are resolved before an incident occurs.

Benefits for Installers

Proactive CCTV maintenance can have huge benefits to installers and their customers:

1. Targeted Response – You know exactly which of your installations need work, so they can be targeted accordingly.
2. Reduced Downtime – Reduce the time it takes to rectify your customers’ CCTV faults.
3. Do more with less – Proactive maintenance requires less manpower, time, and energy, allowing you to use your resources more effectively.
4. Increased user satisfaction – Your customers know their systems are being checked 24/7 and faults are fixed in a timely manner.

The next time you bid for a maintenance contract, ensure you keep your competitive advantage by providing a proactive maintenance service using CheckMyCCTV. For more details or to arrange a demonstration, contact us on 0161 870 6137 or email sales@nullcheckmysystems.com

To download the BSIA maintenance of CCTV surveillance systems – code of practice document, click HERE or visit the BSIA website at www.bsia.co.uk 

CheckMySystems are pleased to announce PALS-Services as our latest monitoring partner, providing innovative loss prevention solutions to the retail market.

One of these services; PALS-ConneX can make sure that your huge investment in CCTV is efficient and in working order 24/7/365.

Karl Jordan, Managing Director of PALS-Services explains more about PALS-ConneX…

“How often have you come to use your CCTV system only to realise the broadband connection or recording system is down, or not recording for as many days as it should or you’ve had a camera failure? Many, I know…..and probably many you don’t know!

With PALS-ConneX, you are alerted immediately of any failings, downtime, switch off or changes in images. Great for maintenance, performance management of installers, alerts of malicious or non-malicious activities but most all, the assurance that your investment and system is doing what you want it to do.

This will reinvent maintenance contracts for some retailers, with a real opportunity to know 100% what the issues are and when. It will really support service providers in achieving a right first time solution also to improve first time fixes and ultimately reduce downtime and a great service to the end user.

No need to await security personnel, store managers etc. to spot the issues, we do it all with the simplest of software from our Business Intelligence Suite. The PALS-ConneX service solution puts you back in control!”

Darren Rewston, Managing Director of CheckMySystems adds “We welcome PALS-Services as our latest monitoring and service provider, and look forward to working with them to grow PALS-ConneX within their retail customer base.”

“Our solution is already proven in a retail security environment, and the PALS-ConneX service is a great way for end-users to have the integrity of their CCTV systems managed for them, reducing their costs, system downtime, and operational risk”

For more information about PALS-ConneX, or the innovative retail solutions from PALS-Services, email info@nullpals-services.com or call 01564 703086

CheckMyCCTV monitoring partner, EMCS, now offering an own-branded CCTV checking service to installers across the UK and Ireland.

Since launching their CCTV status monitoring service in November 2014, EMCS are now checking the status of over 500 CCTV systems using their managed CCTV Sentry service every hour of every day.

CCTV Sentry was previously expanded to check the status of CCTV systems which are not traditionally monitored by the central station as a value added service for installers, such as multi-site retailers.

Now the service has been expanded further so CCTV Installers can have all their compatible network connected CCTV systems checked under their own branding.

Speaking about the service, Mark Hewerdine, CCTV Manager at EMCS comments “The uptake of our CCTV Sentry service has been way beyond our expectations, and we are now in a unique position to be able to offer to run the service on behalf of CCTV installers, with their own branding, across their monitored and non-monitored CCTV installations”

Darren Rewston, Managing Director of CheckMySystems adds “CCTV installers now have the option to to run their own system checking service using our software, or having a monitoring station, such as EMCS, provide the service for them”

“For many CCTV installers, to have a monitoring station host the service 24/7 at a fixed cost, with no extra hardware or software required is a compelling offer, and many are taking that route.”

“We’re seeing how CCTV maintenance monitoring is revolutionising how CCTV systems are checked and maintained. No longer are systems checked just once a year during a service visit, leaving end users at risk. They are monitored 24/7 for faults, tampering, and operational issues.”

For more information about how EMCS can host your CCTV status monitoring service, contact them on 0800 716 179 or email sales@nullemcs.co.uk

If you have an analogue CCTV system which is not performing, don’t feel you need to rip everything out and start again, a new technology is breathing life into old CCTV systems without having to undertake costly infrastructure work.

In the UK there are many hundreds of thousands of existing CCTV installations, many of which are frankly unfit for purpose. Every week the police release footage of a pixilated blob or blobs attacking another pixilated blob, asking if you can identify any of the pixilated blobs in the image.

The reason why this footage is often so poor is that older Standard Definition (SD) analogue cameras are recording to a small hard disk meaning the images are compressed, reducing quality even further, and over time the cameras degrade or are not serviced correctly – it’s surprising there’s a recorded image at all!

Technology has moved on significantly in the past few years, and CCTV cameras are now High Definition (HD), Hard Disks are getting substantially larger to accommodate these HD images with little degradation, and even IR lighting has improved.

If you have an existing CCTV system in place, you may be looking to upgrade to High Definition but are put off by the cost. This is usually because there is a misconception that the only way to upgrade to HD is to rip out the whole system and replace it with an IP solution, meaning the cameras, recorders, and cabling all need to be replaced, which is a costly exercise.

This is no longer the case, and there is a technology now available which allows you to upgrade your existing analogue CCTV system to HD, but keep the cost down by reusing the existing cabling and only replacing the cameras that require a HD image (remember that not every camera needs to be HD).

Many CCTV installers are now offering HD upgrades to existing system by replacing the recorder with a Hikvision Turbo HD DVR, giving you the option to simply replace your analogue SD cameras with HD versions which record at 1080p (the same resolution as your LCD TV), with the benefit of not needing to upgrade your whole system in one go. Existing cameras can be left in place and upgraded at later date if required, so you can migrate to HD quality in your own time and within budget.

Ask your CCTV installer about upgrading your CCTV system to HD using your existing cabling, and see the benefits of HD without the cost.

We’re a guest speaker at the Hikvision UK road shows in January 2015, presenting our experiences of how installers manage and maintain their large scale multi-site installations effectively using CheckMyCCTV.

The roadshow will be visiting the following venues:

January 15th 2015 – Bisham Abbey, Marlow [FULLY BOOKED]

January 16th 2015 – Brandon Hall, Coventry [FULLY BOOKED]

January 21st 2015 – Bolholt Hotel, Bury [FULLY BOOKED]

January 22nd 2015 – Mercure, Livingston

Aimed at CCTV installers, the key topics of the roadshow include:

• An introduction to Hikvision.
• The latest SMART feature set.
• The Turbo High Definition range designed for new installations and legacy upgrades.
• The iVMS 4200/5200 management systems.
• Managing and maintaining multi-site installations using CheckMyCCTV.
• The future of Hard Disk Drives for surveillance.
• Monitoring solutions through EMCS.

Places are limited so please book your place today using the form below.

Registration form

[si-contact-form form=’8′]

Following the successful launch of their CCTV Sentry health checking service,  EMCS, one of the UKs largest independent monitoring stations, has extended the service to cater for customers with unmonitored CCTV installations.

EMCS identified that faulty CCTV systems or network outages could impact the effectiveness of their monitoring service, as well as leaving their customers at risk.

CCTV Sentry was introduced by EMCS to help ensure the connections to their customers’ CCTV systems are operational 24/7 and the system is working as expected.

Mark Hewerdine, CCTV Manager at EMCS comments “As a reputable monitoring station, EMCS have to know that the CCTV equipment installed at a site is operating correctly, as a faulty or incorrectly configured CCTV system could mean the difference between an alarm activation being handled effectively or not”

“Our CCTV Sentry monitoring solution allows us to check the status of each CCTV system automatically, so we know when a system has a problem as it happens rather than after an incident occurs. We inform the installer of faults so they can be resolved in a timely manner”

“CCTV Sentry is available on all the main monitored CCTV platforms such as Xtralis Adpro, Dedicated Micros, Heitel, and Videcon, and Hikvision, and is now also available as a ‘stand-alone’ service for multi-site environments where an operational CCTV system is a necessity, such as retail, logistics, education, transportation, and critical infrastructure.”

Darren Rewston, Managing Director of CheckMySystems Ltd. adds “The success of the CCTV Sentry service from EMCS is testament to their commitment to raising standards in the monitoring market. By extending this service to customers with unmonitored network attached CCTV systems, EMCS can detect and report operation issues of CCTV installations whether they are a single CCTV system, to large multi-site or multi-location installations.”    

For more information about how EMCS can monitor the status and effectiveness of your CCTV installations, contact EMCS on 0800 716 179 or sales@nullemcs.co.uk

UK based monitoring station, ASM have launched LiveCheck, a CCTV status monitoring service to ensure your CCTV systems are operating correctly 24/7. 

ASM LiveCheck automatically monitors CCTV systems for problems every hour of every day and reports issues as they happen – before they become critical.  

Speaking about the ASM LiveCheck service, Matt Edgley, Sales Director at ASM comments ‘With our LiveCheck solution we’re able to give all monitored clients the assurance that on-site CCTV systems are operating correctly by remotely monitoring the health and operation of critical functions.’

‘ASM customers do not have to rely on someone noticing that something is wrong or be exposed to the increased security risks that come with a CCTV system that’s not in 100% good health. As soon as a problem arises we will know about it and, if we cannot fix the issue remotely, immediately recommend an engineer visit to solve the problem.’

Darren Rewston, Managing Director of CheckMySystems comments ‘ASM LiveCheck is a great example of how ASM is providing their customers with innovative services to ensure their CCTV is operational 24/7. After all, if the CCTV system is faulty, it is possible that a critical alarm is not sent to the monitoring station, leaving sites with an increased security risk’.

ASM LiveCheck performs a number of system checks every hour to identify issues such as Connection problems, Camera Failures, Recording Issues, Hard disk failures, Time accuracy, and more.

To find out more about ASM LiveCheck, visit ASM at www.asmuk.net or call 0333 888 4038