Category: Electronic security

When there’s no one observing in the area, electronic security does the analytics, monitoring, and alerts. Whereas physical security obstructions, electronic security captures the scenarios and responds by recording, identifying, alerting, or granting access to the proper individuals and obstructing access to the improper individuals.

The advancement in this aspect has been extensive and rapid. CCTV that used to consist of an unclear recording in a tape in the back storage room has advanced to a tech that can recognize license plates at the end of driveways, snap pictures of familiar faces, and send the picture to your device before you’ve finished your morning cup of coffee. Alarms have advanced from local sounds that no one pays attention to to systems that send an operator to monitor the footage of the system that is activated in seconds. The same advancement has been noted in access control. Keys have been replaced by fobs, fobs by credentials send through mobile devices, and mobile credentials have been joined by devices that recognize faces and fingerprints.

Despite all the advancements, the basics are still the same. You want to know who’s there, you want to know what happened, and you want the right tools to address issues as they arise. The challenge now is that the choices have increased, and it is rarely clear from the marketing literature what differentiates a system that will truly safeguard you from one that is just for show. Here we examine the crucial categories. We’ll look at the monitoring and surveillance systems, the various types of alarms, and access control systems from simple cards or fobs to sophisticated biometric systems, intercoms, and video doorbells. We’ll also address the oft-misunderstood question, is paid monitoring worth it?