In 2017, the global video surveillance market was worth $18.3 billion. An estimated yearly growth of 11.8 percent is expected to put the global industry’s value at $43.8 billion by the end of 2025. The North American market is the largest, accounting for roughly 36 percent of global sales. Private organizations and investments from government entities, including schools, account for a significant amount of growth within the continent. With so many local businesses using live video monitoring, it’s time to take a closer look at this technology and how it can protect your company.
Live Video Monitoring Service Basics
A live video monitoring service takes care of all your business’s video surveillance needs, from installation to implementation. Live video security monitoring service businesses work closely with their commercial clients, developing a video surveillance system that meets their needs and budgets. They then install and monitor the video surveillance systems live. Live monitoring security means threats can be detected and responded to in real time. A faster response means a greater chance of catching any perpetrators threatening the business.
Video monitoring services help catch perpetrators in the act, but they’re also a powerful crime prevention tool. When criminals can see your cameras in place, they’re much more likely to move on to a softer target.
“Video surveillance cameras deter crimes like burglary, armed robbery, employee theft, vandalism, and murder,” a Philadelphia homicide detective once told AllBusiness insurance and risk management expert Paul Davis. However, in a 2017 article, he noted that many businesses fail to make the most of their video surveillance systems. Richard Stellacci, an account manager for a safety software firm, told him that many commercial burglaries weren’t solved because businesses weren’t vigilant at maintaining and monitoring their video footage.
“You see the businesses had a video system, and you say can you pop out that tape? Then the owners say it has been broken for quite a while, or the tape malfunctioned. You have these crimes where basically you could have caught the guy walking in. Now we had no evidence because their camera isn’t working or they forgot to turn it on.” Video monitoring services take the responsibility out of the hands of businesses, so they can feel confident their security needs are met while they’re focusing on other tasks.
Live Video Monitoring for Retail
According to the 2018 National Retail Security Survey, the loss of inventory from shoplifters and dishonest employees cost U.S. retailers $46.8 billion in 2017. Video monitoring services help retailers like your business reduce their losses and protect their bottom lines by monitoring stores more effectively than on-site security guards can.
Video monitoring services are also more effective than unmanned surveillance cameras, as threats from shoplifters and dishonest employees can be detected in real time. Apprehending perpetrators and recovering the items when a crime is committed is much easier than tracing criminals after they’ve left the store.
Video monitoring services can also detect a regular retail practice called sweethearting, which often goes unnoticed by managers and security personnel. Sweethearting sees retail employees deliberately failing to scan items or discounting items to benefit their family members and friends. A live video monitoring system can detect this behavior in the moment it occurs so you can respond in real time.
Video monitoring services don’t just protect retail inventory. They can also protect your customers while they shop. Video monitoring services can catch threats to shoppers, like kidnappings, assaults, and threats posed by flash rob thefts while they’re happening, allowing you to act faster. This is especially important for large retail spaces, like shopping malls, where security guards cannot adequately monitor the entire area are all times. By protecting shoppers, a video surveillance system service can help protect your retail business’s reputation.
Live Video Monitoring for Car Dealerships
A vehicle is stolen every 44 seconds in the United States. With vehicles being such hot targets for thieves, it’s crucial for American car dealerships like yours to protect their assets with the most effective security tools. Video monitoring can give your business an edge in the war against vehicle theft by alerting you of suspicious behavior worthy of investigation before a crime is even committed. This will help you spring into action and intervene before a criminal can drive one of your vehicles from your lot.
Car dealerships are especially vulnerable to attacks since, unlike other sales-based businesses, they usually cannot move their stock indoors to protect it after hours. One of the key advantages of video monitoring services is that they offer 24-hour service, ensuring someone keeps a watchful eye on your stock when you head home for the evening.
Video monitoring services can often be a more affordable and reliable choice than employing on-site late-night security guards. The nature of their job also puts security guards at risk. If they’re attacked, your business is liable for any costs related to their medical treatment and wellbeing. If your business does not want to shoulder that burden, a live remote monitoring solution is a smart security alternative.
Live Video Monitoring for Construction
Like car dealerships, construction businesses often need to store their equipment and materials on outdoor sites. This outdoor storage can leave these valuable items vulnerable to damage and loss. Mobile live video monitoring reduces the risk to these items by deterring vandals and thieves. If criminals do strike, live video monitoring services can respond in real time, increasing the probability of apprehension, recovery, and eventual conviction.
Live video monitoring systems can discourage criminals from even entering your site in the first place. Construction sites can be dangerous places, especially after hours when night impairs vision. Should a criminal become hurt on your job site, you may be held liable. Paying for medical bills and other expenses could severely impact your construction company’s budget and reputation.
Live Video Monitoring for Critical Infrastructure
Electrical power plants, transit systems, and other critical infrastructure businesses are key targets for metal theft, a common practice that costs companies across the country approximately $1 billion annually. While those numbers are staggering, they’re not even the greatest cost that critical infrastructure businesses bear. Criminals inevitably damage property as they procure metal. This damage can be expensive to repair and may even interrupt services, causing an even greater financial loss.
With critical infrastructure firms like yours standing to lose so much from metal theft, implementing the right security measures are crucial. Live video monitoring systems can deter criminals, especially when working in tandem with fences and signs. If metal thieves do take the risks and attack your infrastructure, the remote monitoring system can alert you in real time. You may be able to stop the attack before any real damage is done. If you don’t, the video footage procured could be enough to convict the perpetrators.
Live Video Monitoring for Apartments
Apartment complex firms are responsible for keeping their buildings and residents safe. Video monitoring services are one of the most efficient ways to boost your apartments’ security credentials.
Live video monitoring services are a much smarter choice than on-site security guards. Security guards can be expensive, and they can’t effectively monitor an entire apartment complex, especially if it’s very large. There’s also a risk that the security guards you’ve trusted may threaten your property or its residents. When you can’t be sure who to trust, video monitoring services are a much smarter solution. Remote monitoring means they can never violate your trust, but since the monitoring occurs live, they can be every bit as responsive as a guard on the scene.
Live Video Monitoring for Industrial Facilities
Factories, manufacturing plants, warehouses, and other industrial facilities also need to take their security seriously. Your industrial facility must protect its equipment and products from damage and theft. Video monitoring services can deter and detect thieves after hours as well as light-fingered workers during operating hours. Studies show most damage and thefts occur within minutes of a break-in. Video monitoring services offer real-time surveillance, so they help your business be much more responsive than traditional taped surveillance systems.
Industrial facilities also have a responsibility to their workers. A live surveillance monitoring service can detect unsafe practices in your industrial facility and alert you of them, ideally before accidents occur. This could save your business a substantial amount of money in lost productivity, legal fees, and compensation.
Live Video Monitoring for Schools
Schools must be safe places for teachers, students, and administrative staff. School administrators like you can’t have eyes everywhere, so outsourcing the job by employing video monitoring services makes sense. A security camera monitoring service can alert you to any troubling incidents as they’re unfolding so you can diffuse the situation and protect your school’s reputation.
Live video surveillance systems can also alert you to vandalism and theft occurring during school hours, overnight, or over vulnerable school vacation periods. You might take a break between terms, but video monitoring systems never do. That makes them a valuable tool for reducing loss in your school.
Live video monitoring services are powerful tools for protecting businesses in a variety of industries, including yours. With modern businesses facing a range of external and internal threats, increasing security with a video monitoring service makes sense.
