 Okay, I'm here with Diana Marshall, the Security Solutions Integrator with Alert Alarm. And we are going to be talking a little bit about ways to handle the use of security cameras and probably a lot of other wonderful information. So Diana wasn't able to join us through the camera due to some technical difficulty, but we have her lovely picture there. So Diana, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself? Sure. Hi, Krista. Thank you so much for having me today. So yes, I am Diana Marshall with Alert Alarm Hawaii, and I have been living in Hawaii for about 18 years, and for the last 15 of those years, I have been working with Alert Alarm Hawaii as a security solutions integrator. So yeah, tell us what that means. What does that mean? Okay, well, so what that means is I work mostly with condominium associations and class A buildings and larger buildings and have a look at what their existing security systems, as far as whether they have cameras yet or if they don't have cameras, whether they have access control systems or not. And what I do is I merge them together to design complete systems for the end users. So you're perfect for this show because that's exactly the audience that we're speaking with. So that's great. So let me ask you this before we get into the heart of the matter, just because it's such obviously in the middle of everyone's lives right now, has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your company? And then I also wanted to know if you've seen any kind of an increase or decrease in, since you kind of monitor that, just curious if that's been affected. Well for the most part, we are, I don't want to say we are business as usual. However, we are 100% fully operational, thank goodness. And we have a full staff at our central monitoring station, which is here in Honolulu. And for most folks who live here, you know that Alert Alarm is the largest monitoring company in the state with over 35,000 monitored accounts. So it's so important for us to stay fully operational at all times. So the things that have changed though is that the non-essential workers such as myself and other administrative people within our offices are working from home, like a lot of folks out there, but we do have full staff at our monitoring station, which is over by Honolulu Airport 24-7. That's amazing. I've been to the facility. It is quite impressive. I mean, it is, you know, it looks like you're almost going into a, I won't give any way any secrets, but it just looks like you're going almost into a military type environment as far as, not militant, but so high-tech and much larger than I would have ever anticipated. So quite impressive. So talking about, let's say you have an association that putting in a security system and they've been considering part of that security system to be cameras. What are some of the pros and cons and things they should consider? Are there any legal issues? Why don't you talk to us a little bit about that? Okay. So most condominium homeowners associations consider putting security cameras in because they've either had incidents or they just want to keep an eye on what's going on, which we call situational awareness. And some of the things to consider are, you know, what are the areas you want to keep an eye on and how will these be monitored, you know, as well as, you know, what are the homeowners associations, rules and bylaws, you know, according to depend the different locations, you know, for example, you want to make sure that you would not install cameras at an area that the homeowners have a reasonable expectation of privacy. So typically cameras get installed in common areas and so on. So those are usually, that's the first step. Those are the calls I get when a condominium association is considering that. So they wouldn't want to have anything facing somebody's lanai, obviously, correct, or even those type of things. And then are there different levels of cameras? I mean, I saw some pretty cool things when I did visit your facility, you know, where you can actually hear things, and are there any restrictions to having, you know, voice recorded or voice monitoring type of cameras? Sure, sure. Okay, so there are really basically two different types of cameras. And I mentioned the phrase situational awareness, that type of the camera, you're looking at a broader area, you just want to see what's going on, you know, in the common areas or maybe in the pool area, a courtyard, for example, are there a lot of people congregating and we'll talk about that in a minute. But then, so those areas are usually, you know, approved by homeowners associations to, you know, to install cameras. So those are situational awareness cameras. And then you have other cameras that are more dedicated to critical or sensitive areas with regard to condominiums. Those areas would be, you know, where the power plants are, the electrical rooms, and so on. A lot of times you want to keep an eye on what's going on in those areas. So those cameras are more focused at a certain area, or, you know, at some condo buildings, where the trash bin areas are, for obvious reasons, you know, people get a little crazy. And then elevators, of course. Elevators, absolutely. Elevator lobbies. And now, in any case that you've ever seen or is it even legal for them to have sound where they can hear what's going on, or is it typically just cameras? Absolutely. So I would say most of the newer cameras have the capability of having microphones and speakers installed, you know, on them. And the reason for this is for what we call interactive video monitoring. So let's say, for example, you've got your site manager in his or her office, and they are alerted by one of the cameras that there are people congregating by the pool, and in this era of the COVID-19, that's not allowed anymore. An alert can be sent to the site manager, and the site manager has the ability to speak to, you know, the people that are in that area. For example, you know, you are at the pool area, which is prohibited. Please leave immediately. And then the site manager has the ability to hear any kind of feedback. Yeah, if, for example, the offenders at the pool area are not leaving, because a lot of times, interestingly, a lot of times the offenders think, oh, must be a canned message or something. And so the site manager can say, yes, I'm speaking to all five of you, you with the red baseball cap and you with the striped shirt. And then usually that's pretty effective in getting them away from there. I would imagine. Yeah, so those are those are with more of the newer camera systems that are out there. So along with cameras, what other, you know, do you do keyfogs or do you handle all those type of things as well? Absolutely, yes. So that's where the integrator part of my title comes in. So what we do is we match up the cameras in the locales of the readers where the homeowners have access to. And say, for example, a fob is stolen and, you know, the person who stole it goes to use that reader in a certain area. We are able to track that fob because we have, you know, the database of who who actually owns that fob. But we also have the ability to match that person up with, you know, the video image at the camera that's located at a reader that that person tries to enter through. Wow, I never knew so much was in a little tiny fob. And I have many different reasons. Yeah, now there are some of the older style fobs. And a lot of you are familiar with the core key systems. Those types of readers do not work that way. Only the newer ones, whether they are proximity or smart readers, smart card readers, where you wave a fob at it or wave a card, you know, we call them credentials. Only those types of systems will have the database. Okay, okay. So do you personally, I know I'm sure the company does, but do you handle commercial as well businesses or you primarily? I do. You do. So with all the businesses being empty right now, and I mean everyone's at home for the most part, at least especially storefront, have you seen an increase in notifications to the company that they're, you know, break-ins or vandalisms and things like that? As much as I hate to say it, unfortunately, we have seen an uptick in crime and break-ins recently, mostly with the small businesses. You know, as I mentioned before, we monitor many, many accounts, intrusion detection systems, also known as burglar alarm systems. The residential burglaries have gone down, but the more commercial businesses burglaries have gone up. I would imagine that would be the case, you know, yeah. Yeah, we're staying pretty busy because we have a lot of businesses calling us and saying, hey, I want to upgrade my system or I want to install a brand new system because their businesses are going to be empty for, you know, maybe a month or longer. If you were, if you had someone that, you know, had a small business and they had the choice from a financial perspective of choosing cameras or an actual like door, window monitoring system, it could only do one or the other. Which would you, would you think is more effective? Which would you recommend? Well, we now have camera systems that can act as intrusion detection systems because we can program certain activities so that the camera recognizes that as an entry or a break in and it can send an alarm to our monitoring center. But if I had a choice one or the other, you know, I would, I would pick an intrusion detection system as a starting point and have, yeah, have the have the cameras there as a backup. And then, you know, to take it a step further, of course, alert alarm also monitors camera systems alerts, like I mentioned before. So that's, that's being more proactive than reactive. So, you know, with an alarm system, the bad guy's already in and then you go back and look at the video after the fact. Right. Which is interactive video monitoring. It's happening right now. Our dispatchers can, can describe exactly what's going on to the authorities in, in real time. And that's, that's big. Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. Well, we are already halfway through the show, if you can believe it. And we're going to take a believe a 30 or 60 second break and we will return shortly. Okay. Aloha. I'm Kili Akina, the host of Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Hawaii Together deals with the problems we face in Paradise and looks for solutions, whether it's with the economy, the government or society. We're streamed live on Think Tech biweekly at 2pm on Mondays. I want to thank you so much for watching. We look forward to seeing you. Again, I'm Kili Akina. Aloha. And welcome back to Kondo Insider. I'm your host, Krista Stadler here on Think Tech Hawaii with Diana Marshall with alert alarm. She is a security solutions integrator. Love that title. More things to talk about related to security. So, system that has supported capability and I would imagine some of that might be internally in your facility. I'm not sure. Maybe you don't have to explain that to me whether it's internal or external at the location or maybe you offer both. How long, how long do they, should they keep that footage? Okay. So that's usually determined by the Homeowners Association. And so what I explain usually to the, to the association is, you know, it's up to you. Typically we know of an incident within one or two days. But, you know, what about those incidents where the homeowner wasn't home and then they find their vehicle was damaged, you know, two weeks later. So I always recommend between 14 and 30 days for condominiums just, you know, to play it safe. And then usually we can go track, go back and track the footage all the way back to 30 days. A lot longer than I thought. That's great. And is that in a typical system or are there two different types that typically held in the facility? Like I'm thinking of some of the condos, the more upper, you know, high end, really nice lobbies and it's got the three security people there with all the monitors. Is it kept there or would it be kept in your facility? Well, that is an excellent question. And so here's how it works. So say, for example, you have installed 20 cameras and they're all five megapixels each. I have a calculation I work with to determine how large the hard drive is going to be on the network video recorder to give you 30 days worth of recording. And it isn't always exactly, you know, on the mark. But so that video footage is stored right there on site at the condo building, usually in the site manager's office. So having said that, say for example, there's an incident, the site manager is able to retrieve that video. He can download video clips that can be kept forever. So that's the answer to that question. They can take those segments that they want, maybe if there's some kind of a legal issue pending. Yeah, I've also seen photos like still photos taken from the video footage. Yes, stills can be provided also what we call video clips, which are usually between 10 and 15 seconds long. And so and then, you know, I want to insert something here about that. So there are a lot of systems out there, Krista, that are the old analog style cameras that was traditionally what everybody installed for many, many, many years. Now these new IP megapixel cameras are kind of somewhat new to the market. They've been around for about 10 years, but more and more mainstream lately. The old analog camera systems will not provide what we call forensic quality video that might be admissible in court. That's something to consider. So the difference between those old analog cameras and the new IP megapixel cameras is with the analog cameras, when you go to zoom in on those images, they get real fuzzy and pixelated quickly. With the IP megapixel cameras, just like on your on your smartphones, when you go to zoom in on them, they still stay pretty crisp and clear. So there are some video clips that will be admissible in court, you know, should it go that far. And this is why we always encourage the condo associations, if they still have those old analog systems out there, they should modernize soon to the IP megapixel systems, because the costs have come down on those systems now. Okay, that's really interesting and good information. This all fascinates me, actually. And who typically has access, I mean, obviously the folks that are manning the security booth, but who has access typically to the footage? Is it kept real tight? Well, it's been my experience that the site manager should always have access. If he's got a security manager, then of course that person as well. Also, usually board members and not all of them, but some of the board members might have access or should have access to the video if they need to. For example, what if something happens to the site manager, there needs to be another person, for example, on the board who has the username and password to get into the system if they need to. So that's always kind of a precautionary measure to have somebody on the board have access to it. There has been a question out there for homeowners that they want to have, you know, access to the video feeds. And of course, that is completely up to the homeowners association, but probably not a good practice. You want to limit the number of people who have access to those video feeds. But, you know, one exception to that rule is, for example, if you have one of those entry phones that doesn't have a built-in camera, you do have a camera system, though, that is near that entry phone, you could provide access to that one camera only to the homeowners and tenants. I've seen that. Yeah, there's a way to do that. And that would be the only exception, as far as homeowners having access to the network video storage. If you're taking a property, I'll just use an average, I don't know, 20-floor condo was built in the late 70s or something, never had any type of security system. Is there, is it from an installation standpoint? You're just thinking of the building now, not really common areas. Is there a lot of electrical work to be done? Or is most of it battery-based? And what's the time frame to look like for installing something like that? Okay, so that's a great question. So typically these, the cameras use Cat5 wire, and we like to protect them in conduit. Cat5 is considered low voltage, so an electrician does not need to be involved. Alert Alarm Hawaii actually installs all of the wiring, and we subcontract the conduit installation to licensed electricians where it's needed or warranted. So, and those are code requirements, but it's been my experience that usually you'll have the pool areas, and everything's going to be mainly on the first level of the condo building, of course, unless they're on a hillside, but we will run all those wires back to the site manager's office. You asked about battery operated. We do not know of any battery-operated cameras that really work well, so we do not sell them, and we don't recommend them. They really need to get better with that technology before we can stand behind those. And then as far as the actual power required, it's right at the head end in the site manager's office, usually just need some standard power outlets, 110, and everything else is low voltage. Great. That sounds easy breezy. You know, I have a question. It really is. I've noticed, because of course I do property management and rental management, and I happen to live in a condo, I don't typically see cameras in the hallway. So, there would you get off the elevator, and often I thought it would be nice to have them there, but is there some restriction about having cameras in the hallways in condos? Not that I know of, and actually I know of a couple buildings where they do have them. They have them on every floor. Yeah, in the elevator lobby looking. They want to keep an eye on what's going on near the elevator at the elevator lobby, but it also captures the hallways all the way down to the end. And, you know, they had certain situations over there where they deemed it was needed. And, you know, this one building I'm thinking of, and yeah, so I don't know that there are any restrictions, and, you know, usually we install them wherever the homeowners association asks us to install them. Except for if they're looking into, you know, somebody's bedroom window. We don't do that. That would be good. But I don't know if you could, so if you're uncomfortable talking about this, but I think it's really interesting and important for someone who would want to use your services or a company like yours, but what I understand there's different levels of, I don't know if I want to use your background checks, or I don't want to carry levels that you have to have to even work for your organization, which is very comforting for my perspective to know that the people in that building have been really screened. And I, if you're comfortable talking about that, that's great. I think it's a sell. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. This is something that we're pretty transparent about. Alarm Hawaii is a UL listed company, and everybody's heard of the UL listing under writer's laboratories. But the special meaning it has for a monitoring station such as ours is that we have to have certain protocols and policies and procedures in place in order to monitor places like banks, high-end jewelry stores, and other high-end stores down in Waikiki, for example, because their insurance requires it. Because of that, we have to be very careful about who we hire. So there's a background check, a criminal background check for every single employee at Alert Alarm. Of course, you know, the usual drug testing and screening, we do that as well as random drug testing that's required. And Alert Alarm is pretty on top of that. Yeah, that was one of the things when I visited your facility that I was, among other things, very impressed. Right. It's important to know that whoever it is that you're allowing to come onto your property, whether it's a business or a residential, that they have been vetted. You can trust that they have been with the company usually for a number of years, because the average person at Alert Alarm has been with our company for several years. You know, me being there 15 years, I'm actually still one of the newbies. That's amazing. That's amazing. I remember you had one guy down in the shop, he'd been there for, I think, since the beginning, and he knew everything about everything. Oh, yes, yes. We have a lot of those, a lot of those. Of course, we have the newer guys, you know, they've only been there a couple of years, but we don't turn them loose until they have been thoroughly trained and vetted. And we're really proud of that fact. Yes. Well, you know what, Diana? We are coming towards the end here, but I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to do this. And it's really interesting to me, and I would imagine to many of our viewers, and I think that they're just so fortunate to have you and for us to have you in Hawaii and in the industry. So thank you for sharing your expertise. And I'll extend my pleasure. And soon. All right. Thank you very much. You stay safe. Thank you. And thank you everyone out there in Tech Land. Thanks for joining us. My next show, which will be a month from now, the first Thursday, I plan to talk about basically rental management and the effects of COVID-19 from landlord and tenant perspective. So look out for that and we'll see you next month. Take care.