As a privately owned integration company for over 42 years, Engineered Security Systems Inc. (ESS), Towaco, N.J., has been working to provide engineered solutions, installation, service and UL central station monitoring to its clients using its own in-house resources.

When asked what they are most proud of over the past 42 years, David George, president and chief executive officer, told SDM, “We are proud of the reputation we have built with our clients; they trust us to provide only the finest solutions in electronic security and fire alarm systems. Our goals are to provide clients with the best industry solutions to their needs in place of using a one-size-fits-all approach. We look to know and understand our client markets to be able to better engineer systems with products that meet current and future needs without providing oversized solutions.”

ESS is upgrading its central station to handle more video services including: video verification, video guard tours, virtual concierge and virtual guard station.  In order to handle the large amount of cameras and locations, they brought in ABM Data Systems and Innotive’s Innowatch product. The partnership will allow for true video alarm verification and provide a unified security solution for ESS, according to the company. George explained, “To handle the large amount of cameras and locations, we brought in Innotive’s Innowatch product. Their next-generation smart control room solution offers bandwidth efficient delivery of video and effective control room operations.”

“Along with this solution,” George continued, “we are redesigning our central station layout and integrating Innowatch with our Phoenix alarm software to allow for better interaction between operators and the video screens.  A new video wall and workstation configuration will allow Innowatch to direct operators to relevant streams of video amongst our many client sites.”

The remodeling of the central station is intended not only to allow for more video services, but to “streamline all the customizable functions [ESS] provides for [its] clients.” George states, “The remodel includes internal virtualization of our off-site access control management platforms, burglar alarm programming software, remote telephone entry management software and other services to allow operators to access the resources they need at a workstation based on the new layout for the new video wall.  This update also allowed for better redundancy and continuity.”

Although the upgrade will allow the current staff of ESS to better handle more accounts, it will not directly create more jobs. George goes on to say, “We estimate that more jobs will be created through our ability to provide more customized solid solutions for our clients.  More operators and field technicians will be needed as off-site video market grows.” The upgrade costing $1.2 million is set to be complete by the end of September.