ADT Commercial Offers Hosted Video Solution for Retail Market
BOCA RATON, Fla. — A new hosted video recording and managed system service released by ADT Commercial will allow retailers to remotely access video from anywhere.
With ADT Hosted Video, retailers can remotely view video from multiple locations simultaneously within the same Web browser. With unlimited cloud storage and on-site storage ranging from 2TB to 12TB, multiple authorized users can access and share stored video, according to the company.
As the company continues to build its managed services portfolio, ADT executives thought it was time to focus on network-enabled solutions, ADT Commercial Director of Service Solutions Bill Lawrence tells SSI.
“We’ve been watching the market for quite a while and we saw the opportunity to jump in,” he says. “A lot of companies are offering hosted video. Our strategy is not to be a ‘me too’ player. We want to enhance the overall hosted video capability into a broader portfolio of managed services that we’re offering.”
Although the company introduced the product at the National Retail Federation (NRF) trade show in Dallas this week, the program has not fully launched as yet. Thus, ADT Commercial is still defining what types of packages to offer customers. For now the company is offering a basic package with one or two alternatives.
At least two companies, including a wireless solutions retailer and an electronics technology vendor, have tested the hosted video pilot program. Initially, ADT Commercial planned to market the solution to smaller retailers or businesses with small facilities, such as CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens, Lawrence says. The company also finds that smaller applications within larger enterprises are seeking a centrally hosted and managed solution that does not tie into the loss prevention security system.
The system is better suited for retailers that have up to eight cameras, Lawrence notes. “If you start getting too far beyond that, then you’ve got some potential bandwidth limitations. It makes it challenging to capture video at the right frame rates and resolution over a low bandwidth connection,” he says.
So, how did the company build up its infrastructure to handle all the additional storage capacity? By collaborating with other data centers. “We have our own data centers, but by partnering with others, we have much more flexibility and scalability. We can go from low volume to high volume with no interruptions without having to over build at the beginning,” Lawrence says.
ADT Commercial is providing the service exclusively to its end-user customers and not through its dealer channel. Because ADT’s dealer program focuses on residential and small business, the hosted video platform was deemed not to be a good fit. However, the company may extend the service to the dealer channel in the future.
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.
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