VCA Executive VP of Global Sales Kevin Waterhouse Offers Insight into Company’s Next Step
Company explains decision to launch own brand of IP network devices and software.
Waterhouse says VCA is using analytics in its video monitoring solutions to "reduce false alarms and improve detection."
There are now a large number of other analytics solutions available for customers to choose from. How does VCA stand out from the crowd?
KW: ‘User friendly’ may be an overused phrase, but it is in fact an accurate description of VCA analytics. The significance of this should not be underrated, as there is a perception in the marketplace that analytics can be difficult to implement and use. We will be adding to the user friendliness of our analytics over the coming months with a new dashboard graphical user interface which will make it even easier for any business to view both real-time and historical business intelligence.
VCA analytics has also established a reputation for being highly accurate and when employed for intruder detection purposes, has a very low rate of false alarms, which is particularly important in outdoor environments. Here, false alarms continue to be a major issue for organizations who need an effective perimeter protection solution to detect intruders. It is now taken for granted that high definition cameras from any reputable manufacturer should be able to capture evidence grade images. However, our on-board video analytics significantly upgrades the capability of VCA cameras, which for this type of application should perhaps be better described as ‘Intelligent Video Detectors’.
In this respect, they provide a great opportunity for VCA, installers, remote monitoring centers and end-users, to all work in harmony to reduce the time consuming and costly impact of false alarms. It is just another excellent example of how VCA can support the supply chain by generating new revenue streams, whilst providing end-users with a robust and reliable solution.
You have spoken about the new devices carrying the VCA brand, but you also mentioned VMS providers. Can you expand on this part of your strategy?
KW: Sure. In addition to our edge-based devices we have developed a server based software tool that will make the integration of our VCA software very quick and with little CPU overhead. The software can be added to either Linux or windows-based software. We already have a number of VMS clients embedding VCA and expect many more to follow, along with PSIM, Access and Intelligent Building software providers. In addition we will shortly be launching a new device, which will allow VCA to be added to any IP camera providing an RTSP stream.
So is VCA not developing its own VMS?
KW: Absolutely not. We have a very good relationship with the world’s leading VMS providers and have worked closely with them to develop our VCA software tool. However, we have now released some application-specific software to support our edge devices. Ucountit, for example, is our cloud-based Business Intelligence service and Utrack is a unique auto-tracking software tool. Both have been introduced because we believe it is important to provide application solutions that fully exploit our analytics technology.
So you have new products and new services, but will you have sufficient resources to directly supply and support these systems integrators?
KW: We will not hesitate to continue to invest in human resources to ensure that our pre- and post-sales services more than match any increase in sales. We already have a strong technical support team in place and have recently recruited three seasoned security professionals to ensure that we can support customers worldwide. Gary Mercer has joined VCA as UK Sales Manager, while Ami Paz is our new Business Development Manager for Israel and Çağlan Dilber has been appointed Business Development Manager for the MENA region. Ian Young has also joined the EMEA team to drive the software and applications developments and business. All four have extensive global experience in the des
ign and implementation of analytics applications across many different market sectors. Our US team
has also recently been extended and more news on that will soon be released.
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