Although the price points on thermal imaging solutions have dropped in recent years, they have yet to reach a point that would spur increased adoption on a much broader scale across the market. But what if end users could pay a monthly fee that would not only enable them to install thermal cameras on their premises, but also have them monitored around-the-clock? SightLogix is looking to answer that very question as it rolls out its new SightWrap service this week at ISC West 2015.
SightWrap bundles hardware, software and monitoring services together in one monthly fee for end users, who will also not be required to shell out any upfront capital costs to get the outdoor security service up and running at their facility. Those dealers that are chosen to take part in SightWrap will also have an opportunity to share in the recurring-monthly-revenue generated by these installations.
According to Frank De Fina, vice president of sales and marketing for SightLogix, SightWrap is enabled by the company’s new SightSensor XA wide-area smart thermal camera that the company is also launching at the show.
“Similar to the megapixel camera that replaced numerous other cameras, the extended range SightSensor XA basically replaces other thermal cameras. “With one of these extended range cameras you can replace up to four typical thermal sensors, so this is, we think, groundbreaking and even if you compare us to other solutions, we’re able to cover basically the entire area of a football field,” explained De Fina.
Essentially, De Fina said that SightWrap will function as an outdoor burglar alarm for organizations as it will send video clips to a central station upon being triggered by any type of intrusion within the perimeter being secured.
“What we thought about was that your typical verticals that we would go after would not necessarily want to invest in so-called military-grade thermal sensing, so the team sat down and we thought about how can we solve these problems for these folks, but also overcome the significant capital expenditure? We came up with a model where we would lease the product, we would lease the service, but we also do everything… they don’t have to pay for installation and they don’t have to own the equipment. The system is designed to be independent from what they might have already.”
SightLogix President and CEO John Romanowich said that SightWrap would be ideal for a variety of vertical markets including auto dealerships, scrap metal recyclers, power substations, cell towers, self-storage locations, and heavy equipment rental sites. Through conducting their own market research, De Fina said what they’ve found at many of these aforementioned businesses is that oftentimes they already have cameras in place, but they’ve been unable to solve their intrusion problems with traditional security solutions.
“You can pick any rear a lot of any particular vertical and they probably have incidents of vandalism, theft, etc. Almost all of these folks have cameras already, but when we visit them I ask them, ‘have you caught anybody?’ The answer is no,” said De Fina. “Before they knew about us, anytime they would get hit, the immediate reaction would be, ‘well, let’s just put more cameras up there,’ without realizing that’s not going to solve their problem for them.”
De Fina said that the company is currently in the process of building out their dealer channel for SightWrap.
“We’re building the RMR-based channel partners right now and we’re granting exclusive territories to those that sell and install these systems, but also to share in the recurring revenue,” added De Fina. “It is aimed at the population of dealers who want to participate in the RMR business, but don’t really want to create their own security operations centers. SightLogix will do all of that for the end user, the channel partner just goes out and sells it, installs and then shares in the recurring revenue.”
In addition, SightLogix has also successfully integrated its SightTracker GPS-based auto tracking pan-tilt-zoom controller with Axis Communications’ IP dome cameras. When the SightSensor XA and Axis dome cameras are used in conjunction with one another, end users will be able to detect and verify targets over areas four times greater than other solutions currently available on the market.
“Last year, we announced an alliance with Axis and the first big step to that alliance was making sure that technically we were able to operate and track via their PTZ domes,” said De Fina. “It is very important and it opens up a lot of the market to us via our Axis partnership.”
“Specifically what we’re doing is steering an IP dome, which could be an HD dome. We have the ability to now detect the target at long rangeand then, with Axis as our partner, we can automatically position their very high-quality, high-definition cameras and show a lot of detail to assess the detected target,” added Romanowich. “It gives you that vital information for knowing not only that something is happening and knowing where it is happening, but also what is happening so you’re getting closer to having that Holy Grail of identification detail which can include seeing a person’s face or reading a license plate.”
