If you think digital signage is the only thing that can be monitored and managed from a location that’s nowhere near your client’s store, boardroom, restaurant or hotel, you don’t know the half of it.

These days, remote monitoring is becoming increasingly popular in for audio, video and lighting systems, says Jeremy Scheinberg, COO at Alcorn McBride, a 20-person Orlando, Fla.-based manufacturer that works with clients in the theme park, museum and retail markets on audio, video, lighting and show control solutions.

Alcorn McBride’s Digital Media Manager can monitor and update audio and video products from a centralized location, allowing playlist updates, schedule changes, and new content essentially on demand, Scheinberg says.

“For a lot of integrators, [remote monitoring is] a bit outside of their typical service agreements, so it allows them to be proactive,” he says. “All you really need to do it is a player and a network connection in the field. We’re not talking about installing anything that’s not already there. Once you’ve got the network set up, it’s very easy to use.”

Whitlock, a Richmond, Va.based A/V integration and managed services firm, recently established a head end for its A/V networking operations center in Dallas, says CEO Doug Hall, a move he says will give the offering a centralized focus and help it grow quickly. The center “differentiates us from our competitors,” Hall says, by allowing monitoring and service delivery for video conferencing products.

Alcorn McBride’s Digital Media Manager can monitor and update audio and video products from a centralized location. Click image to enlarge.

“We’re no longer selling to librarians or even to A/V people,” he says. “Today we’re selling to IT people, and customers want to see you have a real investment before they’re willing to try something new. Having a national footprint really helps us, but the fact we have local people in our network across the country is what sets us apart.”

Whitlock’s networking operations center includes redundant systems and security tools throughout, says Hall, which is why it remains the most rapidly growing part of the company at about 30 percent of annual revenues and still climbing.

Brett Price, founder and CEO at Clare Controls, sells its year-old Clare Assure - a cloud-based network management system, ensuring the cameras always stay online - for light and heavy commercial projects. When an end-user has an IP camera installed, there’s about an 80 percent take rate for remote monitoring. “In large deployments, it’s almost silly not to [use some sort of remote monitoring]. In light commercial projects, the value is in knowing your cameras will always be online,” he says.

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D. Craig MacCormack

Craig MacCormack is a veteran journalist with more than 15 years experience covering local and national news and sports as well as architecture and engineering. He joined Commercial Integrator in January 2011. Follow him on Twitter: @CraigMacCormack.

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