Matt Schreiner:

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you are in the world. We will get started at 1:01 PM Eastern Time. Please be patient with us as we prepare for our broadcast and allow everyone into the Zoom platform. Thank you. Once again, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on where you are. We will get started in roughly 40 seconds at 1:01 PM Eastern Time. Thank you.

All right, I have 1:01 PM Eastern Time. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, depending on your location. And thank you for joining us today for our LPF webinar titled The Evolving Landscape of Retail Parking Security. We would like to thank LiveView Technologies for sponsoring today's session and for being a valued LPF partner. LiveView Technologies has spent years developing the first remote full security solution. LiveView Technology camera units rapidly deploy whenever and wherever you need them. No need for wires, power or internet.

So whether you need surveillance in a parking lot on a lonely roadway, on a busy intersection, or at a concert or sporting event, LiveView Technologies has a solution for you. My name is Matt Schreiner and I'm the director of operations for Loss Prevention Foundation and I will be your host today. Before we get started, we would like to cover a couple of logistics items.

First and foremost, the session is being recorded. A link to the recording will be sent out to all registrants tomorrow. Everyone is muted. Audio is available through the webinar portal and through the dial-in number provided when you registered. And we do ask that if you have any questions throughout the presentation, that you enter them into the Q&A box within the Zoom platform.

We will hold all those questions until the very end to ensure we're able to get through the material that has been prepared for you today. Now let's meet our distinguished speakers. First we have Ryan Porter, chief executive officer with LiveView Technologies. Good afternoon, Ryan.

Ryan Porter:

Good afternoon, Matt. Glad to be here.

Matt Schreiner:

Excellent. Thank you sir. Next up we have Kris Vece, LPQ, vice president of strategic accounts with Protos Security. Good afternoon, Kris.

Kris Vece:

Good afternoon everybody.

Matt Schreiner:

Now this time, I'll turn the presentation over to Ryan and Kris to take you through their material.

Ryan Porter:

Perfect. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate, Matt and Terry and LPF allowing us to come and be a part of this and share some of the things that we've learned over the years and give you an idea of what the future looks like with technology and innovation. Really quick agenda going to discuss at a very high level the current retail issues and goals that we come across, the challenges that people have and then how innovation and technology can play a part in solving some of those issues.

And then how LiveView and Protos has put a solution together that's very powerful that we've been able to expand and spread out across the country and have seen a lot of positive results and real change, real effect. And then we will open up for a question and answer after that. So going to go to the next slide there. Really quick, just a little bit of background on LiveView technologies.

We started in 2005 with streaming video and remote difficult areas. So most of what we do is solar powered and cellular connectivity. And so with that, you add on top of that reliability and uptime, it becomes a very difficult thing to do. And it took us years to figure out all of the pieces to get the solution to really work and accomplish what it's trying to accomplish. And so we've been in all different types of environments with all different types of customers. Everything you can think of, anybody that needs eyes on, whether it's department of transportation or remote areas off the grid, just really difficult, hard areas to have this type of equipment technology in. And that was our niche.

We figured out how to control cellular bandwidth usage. When you add cellular communications with video, it can get very expensive. And so we were able to write software and be able to accomplish that. And then being able to use solar power so we could really go anywhere that we want and not have to be dependent upon what kind of infrastructure is there and getting power to where the unit needs to be, those types of things. We knew it was important to be solar powered to actually increase that reliability.

So years and years of evolution and improving software and the hardware to get this marriage of all this equipment to work really well together and ultimately be reliable. So if we go back to 2016, 2017, we never looked at big box retail as a market for us or a vertical. And we were approached by one of the leaders in the industry in big box retail, and they said, "Hey, we're really interested in what you're doing and we want to use them for our parking lots."

And it was interesting because the first thing that I said to them was, "Well, these are mobile units. Why don't you just mount it to your building or mount it to a light pole?" And they said, "No, we want the presence of this system." And so we jumped in and that was, we started deploying in 2017. And since then we've really expanded and grown into a lot of different retailers in their parking lots and other uses that they have.

And so we want to today just talk about some of the things from our perspective that we see and some of the challenges and then some of the things that we've been able to help solve needs for and share some of our ideas. Understanding that a lot of the people on this call have years and years and years of loss prevention asset protection experience. And so at a high level, very high level, we just want to hit on a couple of these things with safety and theft and then go into our solutions, some of the things that we've learned and what we can share to see what needs that you have.

So first one, safety. Obviously one of the most important things, a few stats here, 14% of accident claims happen in parking lots nationwide. I should say, it's not just big box retail, it's any type of parking lot. So parking lots are everywhere and there's a lot of problems that happen in parking lots, 40% increase in violent incidences in 2020, and that's massive, right? Obviously 2020 is a unique year and it is carrying on to 2021, but we've learned a lot. The industry has learned a lot about behavior of people and ways to improve security and safety in those parking lots.

Theft, again, very high level, 61 billion loss from theft, fraud and other retail shrink. Shoplifters are caught. One out of every 48 times they steal, they're arrested 50% of the time. Professionals make up 3% of shoplifters responsible for 10% of all profit losses from theft. So we're seeing, again, from our perspective and what we're hearing from the market, there's changes in the rules and laws and states of what defined shoplifting. USA Today came out with an article earlier that talked about shoplifters are just becoming more brazen. They're just becoming nonchalant, I guess, you could say about it. They don't see the penalty or the problem with it, and they're becoming more aggressive.

At the same time, I think we can see studies, the violence is increasing, and so we have to look at it from members of the team and employees in the company. How do we want them to react to shoplifting? What rules do we want to give your employees to get the best results, but also to keep them safe? Then we move on to ultimately, especially after the pandemic and in the middle of it now, customers are coming back and regaining confidence in all of the environments that are happening and want to feel safe, want to feel that they can go to their local stores, be in the parking lot, go in the store and have good experience and be safe in that process.

So high level, again, those are some of the things that we're hearing and we want to help solve problems with. If you go to the next page there. Okay, so we'll do our first poll question. We'll go through these question and answers. If you can answer them, then we'll take about a 30 to 45 second pause and if you can input your answers and then we'll get the results and then talk about it a little bit.

So question number one, what is the most challenging aspect of your job on a day-to-day basis? Answer, keeping and training qualified staff, identifying and preventing customer theft, working with outdated security solutions, organized retail crime and fraud. And the last one is staying connected to major security issues after hours. It'll take about 30 seconds and answer that question.

All right, so the results, what is of that question? Looks like overwhelmingly the keeping and training qualified staff is 49%. So as we jump into this industry over the last few years, there's obviously in every industry there's churn. And so continuing to make it simple and easy, we've found that everything has to be in our system, in our solution, it's got to be user-friendly obviously, and it's got to just make good common sense. Nobody is going to take the time to read manuals when we look at thousands of users, they're just not going to take the time to do it.

And so we've tried and been successful at making our interface very simple and easy to use, and when we add technology or add devices, we feed it in so it has the same look and feel, which helps on the training aspect of it. So some of the typical solutions we see that have been employed for years, obviously on-premise, CCTV systems, face-to-face engagement. In the past, employees did a lot more of engaging with shoplifters and following out and chasing them down and having altercations, those type of things. It's definitely moving away from that and shoplifters are taking advantage of that. And so what can we do to help prevent and stop a shoplifter?

Proper lighting and alarms. People like to do things where they can't be seen. And so lighting after hours, those type of things are ways to help mitigate and reduce the events that happen. Going to the next slide there. Some of the limitations we have, on-premise CCTV, it used to be the idea of let's hide everything, let's keep it covert, but record everything. Now, there's definitely been a change to make it very obvious, make it very aware.

When we look at CCTV systems in the industry, it has been looked at as the camera system is the hub and everything attaches into that. When you have an on-premise system, it is local there. And so what attachments can we put on that? There's a shift. There's things happening now and technology is advancing with cloud-based systems that the on-premise camera system will serve its purpose of recording, being able to view and see what's happening, get archive footage, but we're now moving the industry and technology is now moving to cloud-based systems that are much easier to ramp up and add features to.

And so we see the CCTV system not being the hub anymore, that it's actually these cloud tools where we fit in because it allows you to scale very quickly and globally as you have enterprises to be able to add features to. And as technology continues to advance, it's much easier to manage and control all of that equipment from cloud-based systems. So moving on, face-to-face engagement, obviously the risk and liability associated with that, especially when you have members of the team employees trying to engage with an active shoplifter or an active event, it is difficult and creates all sorts of liability and risk.

So proper lighting and alarms, there's infrastructure associated, you have areas that need additional light and activity there and it's expensive to run wires and put that infrastructure in. So those are some of the limitations as we look at the industry and look at it, these are all going to be here, what can we do to add additional value? And so next slide.

So as we look at, we're really focused on out in the parking lot, outside of the structure and the system that we have, our trademark, what everybody knows us for is our mobile units trailers. They're self-contained, there's no infrastructure required, solar powered. We literally can be deployed on site within 24 hours and up and running with security alerts, everything enabled, and we don't have to work with the IT team and plug into the infrastructure and the communications that you already have. It's completely separate. Did we lose that? I think, Matt, if you can pull the other screen back up.

Matt Schreiner:

Yeah, my computer just did something. Hang on just a second. I'm working on it.

Ryan Porter:

Got it. I'll just read off [inaudible 00:18:12]. All right. While he's working on that, we'll just keep going here. As we got into this, we know there's a lot of companies that have tried to do mobile systems with solar power. We looked at it as it was the holy grail. Everybody, there was a lot of people trying to do it, but it's really hard to do. When you look at, we want a mobile system that can deploy anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world and have a lot of times an unskilled technician be able to deploy it and set it up. So it's got to be simple and easy and trust that it's going to be reliable and work.

There's a lot that goes into making that happen from the health analytics that we're watching, the cellular connectivity, the solar to keep the power. There's just a lot of pieces. And then to add to that, be on an enterprise platform that can have thousands of users, thousands of pieces of equipment or hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment that we need to manage and have user access be correct, have the rights correct. There's a lot that goes into it.

And LiveView technology is really the first company that's been able to put all of that together in a solution that can scale globally. And so we've been successful in expanding and being able to support and run all of these systems. And then on top of that, we have 24 hour a day surveillance with access from anywhere, enhanced security alerts that are monitored immediately. And we'll get into this a little bit later with Protos, how they react to these event-based alerts. And then having the ability to continue to add technology, whether it's gunshot detection, LPR, all of these different types of recognitions.

Innovation will continue at a faster pace. We all know that there's a hardware side and a software side. And so we've built our system to be able to receive both. So as innovation occurs with analytics or any of those types of things, we can receive that and run it on our platform. Same with hardware. So as we look at IoT devices and all of these sensors that are doing amazing things and creating all of this value, there's got to be somewhere to plug that into so that we can get all of these despair pieces of hardware to work together in harmony.

And as you look at LiveView, that's really what we do with our platform. We take all of these pieces that are creating all of this data and information, we bring them together and we get them to work with each other so that we don't necessarily care who the maker manufacturer is or what firmware version, we can get them all to work together and increase the value of the data that is being collected, which is really valuable.

And then the last point, actionable data. As we collect this data and put it together, what can we do with that data? How can you use it in your organizations to be able to take that information and really make change with it? I definitely believe as we look at the technology, we're at that point in innovation where we have so much data, but we don't have the people and the time to sift through all that data from all of these different sources and make any sense of it. And so we end up looking at one thing and what's the result that we get from that and we make decisions on of it.

But imagine being able to combine all of these sensors and all of this data together so that it's putting a package with a bow on and say, "Here's all the information. Now you can make a more informed decision." And that is the next phase in this evolution, taking all this data and making it actionable. We hear AI and machine learning and all of these fun words that we're talking about now with analytics and where the industry is going, but we've now got to make it so it's usable and it can't take a lot of time to figure it out. And that's where automation comes in. That's what we do. We want to collect that and make it usable.

If you want to move on to the next slide there. So as we have gone out into the market, we saw a real need for monitoring our system. We can set up different rules depending on what you're trying to do in the parking lot. A good example in big box retail, we can record during the day when the store is open, but if you're a customer that says, "Hey, I don't want anybody on my property when the store closes at night because just people cause problems on our property." Then our system can do certain analytics during the day with customers there.

And then at night it goes into an armed state and anybody who comes on the property, we can detect them and we start a process of detecting them and then we determine, so we'll do strobe lights, floodlights, and audible messages. At the same time, we're putting that complete package together and sending it to the monitoring company, which in this case is Protos. So they receive that alert and now they can manage it, they can escalate, and we'll have Kris go into a little bit more detail on that.

But with that said, we can have those systems. If you're a company that has your own in-house monitoring, we can send those alerts to whoever you need them to go to with this. We use Protos for a lot of our customers because they're able to manage them really well. So Kris, I'll turn it over to you and you can talk a little bit more about the Protos solution there.

Kris Vece:

Ryan, thank you so much. So let's actually get into our second poll question. So what is the number one reason preventing you from upgrading your security plan with new resources and technology? Budget constraints, lack of support from higher management, problems with infrastructure, unable to determine which solutions are most effective, little trust in cloud-based technology, or it isn't a priority to me? We'll take about 30 seconds for everyone to answer that.

Budget constraints. So that's actually not surprising. I know in today's day and age, most of everyone's budget is on tight constraints and even at Protos, budgets are tight, Ryan, I'm sure they deal with it every single day with technology and implementing that technology. So that answer is actually not surprising, but I'm going to jump into a little bit of the partnership with LiveView and Protos Security.

So we've joined this partnership a couple years ago. We really appreciate the partnership with LiveView. So we actually have our partnership and we have a remote monitoring center in our Daleville, Virginia office. So Protos is able to monitor when alerts are received from these cameras. So the Protos remote monitoring team, we actually follow an escalation process and this process is defined by each one of our clients. So we set that up ahead of time.

And in order to do that, we want to hire with an emphasis on the security experience and training through what these real world monitoring scenarios are. So we're going to ensure that only the highly skilled personnel are entrusted with the protection of these client sites in our monitoring center. And each monitoring team member is trained on each of our client's unique needs, and they serve and provide with clear procedures on how to react in various incidents and scenarios.

So some of these actions typically include whether we are contacting local law enforcement, we actually follow audio intervention scripts or we're alerting the client in real time of something happening at that location. And through this incident reporting, the client receives high level incidents within an instant. These are live incidents that are coming through into each one of our clients. But not only are they getting it in live, but we'll also do a weekly roll up and a weekly recap of these monitoring incidents to each one of our clients.

So some of the features that our Protos team members monitor is every alert is checked by our monitoring team. So if there is an alert that goes off on our system, every alert is monitored. And depending on what that alert is, each of our agents will escalate the warnings with audible alerts or predetermined scripts. Like I said earlier, we will engage with local police or a local security company to go out and check that alert and what is happening at that location. And then our team will work with LiveView for the optimal performance of each one of these camera systems.

And then through the live monitoring, we're reducing the noise of false alarms where maybe it's an environmental trigger, the wind blows something in front of the camera and the alert goes off, or animals running through the parking lot. So we can reduce that noise for each one of our clients. And I'm going to show you how we walk actually through an alert. So I'm going to turn it over to a guest presenter, Adam Sammons, who is our VP of operations and monitoring at Protos Security.

Adam Sammons:

Thank you, Kris, I appreciate it. So we want to go through how our team processes alerts. As Kris mentioned, alerts are generated when motion is detected within the predefined bounding boxes. And so when that alert comes in, it is processed through live use proprietary software called Command Center, and each alert contains the location name, the date and time the alert was received, the time zone, and the ID number for the alert.

And also within these alerts, if we can go to the next slide, please. Each alert contains location-specific information and procedures if the situation requires further escalation. And as Kris mentioned, these escalation procedures might include anything from an audio broadcast using the two-way audio features of the unit all the way up to contacting local law enforcement, if it is necessary, depending on the situation.

The Protos remote monitoring team will also assign a tag along with any applicable notes when the alert is resolved based upon what was noticed in the video clips and also in the live video stream. When an alert is received, the Protos remote monitoring team will immediately access a live video feed, and this happens typically within 10 to 15 seconds of us receiving that alert. So almost real-time, we'll be in there looking at a live video feed, and our monitoring team will assess the situation and any necessary escalation procedures, whether it be, again, an audio broadcast, contacting local law enforcement will be taken care of based upon the procedures, as defined by the customer.

An example escalation process, depending on the situation, they might do a first warning letting the individual know that the area is monitored by produce security, informing them that they need to leave the premises. Escalating it, typically we'll let them know that if they do not leave, we will contact law enforcement. And then if they continue to ignore the audio broadcast, we will contact local law enforcement.

But again, this is customizable by the customer and depending upon the requirements of the site. But again, by partnering with LiveView, we've had great success with this, deploying it at retail, manufacturing sites, distribution centers, construction sites, and it has been a great partnership with LiveView and the monitoring services. And I'll turn it back over to Kris.

Ryan Porter:

All right, so as we look at this new innovation technology solutions, why change from what we're doing or why add? Some of the things that we look at, reports that we get back from our customers, they're having up to a 70% reduction in parking lot events. With these systems, especially during COVID we saw this with the guard services and the people that are on site. Our systems don't get sick. They're there 24/7, they work, they don't take holiday vacations, they're great. They're always there and working. So they can also gather actionable data to improve security plans.

Over time, we can learn and work with you to learn what is the need of the specific location and that data that we gather, times when people are in the store, where they're parking, all of this data is able to give us information to improve the security and the safety. And then again, with Protos, have the confidence that every alert is monitored, recorded, and handled appropriately.

As we look at this solution coming in, there's budgets. Everybody has budgets that they've allocated, and so we're able to come in at a much more affordable cost than your average guard service. And so with that savings, you're able to use that savings at specific locations and spread it out over other stores and basically just provide a better solution at a more affordable cost.

Now one of the interesting things, the feedback that we get, which was unexpected, as the number of incidents decrease in the parking lots up to 70%, we have large groups that are finding up to a 60% reduction of shrink inside the store, and they went so far as to ask and interview some of their known shoplifters in certain areas. And the response from the shoplifters was, "When we see those systems in the parking lots, we know we're being watched and we just go somewhere else."

So it's really interesting to see the dynamic of the effect inside the store with shoplifters, but then also the effect that it has on the customer, the mindset of the safety and the improved safety that they have going onto the property. We've had studies done where they'll interview and ask just your average shopper, "Why are you parking next to these units?" And the response is, "This is the safest spot in the parking lot, and I know I'm being watched. And so if anything happens, I feel that this is the safest area."

So we really want to change the mindset and improve that security and that presence in the parking lot because I think it carries into the store also and changes the way people act in the store. So with that, we'll will now go into, Matt, if you want to go into question and answer?

Matt Schreiner:

Yeah. So we have a few questions that were submitted during the registration, but we do ask the audience if you have questions, please enter those into the Q&A box within the Zoom platform. So first question, what is installation like with the LiveView mobile unit? Is this technologically challenging or is this relatively simple for any user to set up one of the mobile units?

Ryan Porter:

Yeah, great question. So we've developed the system, I'll give you a couple of highlights. There are no tools required to install the system. You can set it up completely without a screwdriver. So it's very simple. The main thing is when we send a unit out, there'll be a map with it. And so we want to make sure that the solar panels are pointed the right direction to get the power generation that's needed. But the other thing is there's no configuration required on location.

So there's no technician with a laptop that's setting it up and then trying to configure. It really is identify the right position to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish. There's some outriggers that come out. So you set the jacks to level it, you add the cameras to the unit on the top, and then you crank it up in the air and lock everything up. At that point, we identify that the system comes online from our knock and we can work with that technician on site to just verify a few things. And then all of the alarms and schedules and analytics are all done remotely. So there's nobody out there trying to figure this out on their own.

A lot of the installations that are done are first-time installations for that technician. They've never seen our equipment before and they're able to deploy it and be very successful. Keeping in mind it's an enterprise solution. So we see everything. We are monitoring each piece of equipment on that from the edge controller to the cellular connection to all the cameras, the switches, whatever IoT devices are on there. We're in constant communication with everything. So really the installation is the physical hands to mount it all and get it up in the air.

Installation usually takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes. And so it's really simple and I want to stress it. You could call today and say, "Hey, we just had an event happen. We want to get a system on here on our property just to put everybody at ease to put our customers and put the employees at ease." And that system can be out within hours to 24 hours and up and running. There is no working with your IT department to plug into your existing system. IT departments don't want to bring anything outside in and we don't want to try to plug in. We run completely separate. So there is no integration upfront needed.

Now in the future, as you start using the system, there's plenty of opportunity to integrate and send alerts or features as the relationship evolves, but it is that simple, less than an hour on site and it's up and running and alerts can be sent to monitoring. So great question.

Matt Schreiner:

Excellent. So I have two questions that are around the same thing, so I'm going to tee them up for you, Ryan. First and foremost, can you get LiveView's mobile unit without having to have the additional monitoring? And the second part of that is, is the system able to integrate with other virtual command center platforms, or are we restricted only to the LiveView platform?

Ryan Porter:

Yeah, good questions. So the first one, we have multiple options and features on our platform. So we have customers that they want live video and archive footage. We have others that want live video archive footage, but they might want speaker talk down and strobe lights or some of these other features. And then all the way to what we've explained here with Protos is where that system is running analytics and detecting. It might be video analytics, it might be gunshot analytics, whatever the type of analytic is, it's going to create an alert and that alert is going to go somewhere.

So if you're running the system that is detecting and creating alerts, that alert can go to whoever you want it to go to. It can go to Protos, it can go to your in-house monitoring knock. It can really go to whoever you want it to. It can go locally to the asset protection manager or somebody on site. So it's completely customizable to whatever you want. We have found that if you're not set up to receive the alerts and prepared for it, then it's not as effective.

So if you're thinking that somebody who usually sleeps at night, we can just expect them to receive the alert and do something with it. Even a couple alerts a night can be a problem. And so then we turn it over to the group or the person that is awake and prepared to receive those alerts.

Matt Schreiner:

Excellent. And this question's for both of you. So does LiveView Technologies and/or Protos Security have canned responses to help retailers build out an alert escalation process so that they don't have experience doing that? Can you guys help build that for them and give recommendations so that they're not having to start from scratch?

Adam Sammons:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We work with, again, we work with LiveView, but we also work with the customer. We do have some canned responses like we had in the slide there that we can recommend. One thing that we find is actually very effective is in addition to those canned responses, we also like to customize some of our audio broadcasts to the individual.

So if we notice that perhaps there was an individual wearing a green T-shirt that perhaps is stealing something or trying to break in, we will actually customize that audio broadcast and say, "You in the green T-shirt, please leave the area immediately or law enforcement will be called." So in addition to those canned responses, we also like to customize those as well if we find that to be very effective in helping to deter theft and other criminal activity.

Matt Schreiner:

Fantastic. Thank you very much for that, Adam.

Ryan Porter:

Yeah, real quick, Matt, in addition to that, obviously we'd love to work with the customer, get feedback, but it's evolving, right? It's here's standard, but then each site can be a little bit different, need customization. We've also found that you bring the system in to serve the number one purpose. It might be safety in the parking lot, reduce events, but then we have these other wins that we can get.

So for example, we'll work with the marketing department of the customer and they'll start working with us and say, okay, in this geographic area, maybe they have a lot of snow. And so the customer will say, "Hey, we want to do some marketing audible canned messages on a schedule to talk about snowblowers or something like that." So marketing gets really excited because they can now have messages and set a tone in the parking lot that carries with people inside the store. So they see that.

And then the safety also, you can play music in the parking lots through our systems because it changes the environment. It becomes a much more controlled environment, which changes the way people act and behave. So we really like to dive in with customers on more than just security or safety, but there's a lot more that we can do that can help increase sales and opportunity with customers.

Kris Vece:

Ryan, we even have a lot of our clients that are partnered with you have the greeting message at the beginning of the day, "Hey, welcome to whatever location it is." And at the end of the night they say, "Good night. Thank you for shopping at this location."

Matt Schreiner:

Wow, that's fantastic.

Ryan Porter:

And just to add onto that, as we look at that enterprise solution, keeping in mind we can control everything for any specific area. As COVID came out, there was a lot of our partners and customers wanted to do COVID announcements, just public COVID announcements. And so we were able to just set schedules and from here be able to deploy that nationwide without having to go into each system and do work in there locally at the store. So it's a much easier way to deploy features.

Matt Schreiner:

Absolutely. So the next question I have is can you elaborate as to the long-term effectiveness for units that have been on a site for a longer-term deployment?

Ryan Porter:

Yeah, good question. So when we first started really in big box retail, there was ideas and concepts of, okay, we're going to put these systems in and we need to move them around maybe every month or every couple months, move them around to different areas, or maybe we need to do different things with it to keep it fresh and mix up and change how people perceive them. We found that to not be the case.

Usually when they go on site, they're in a position that has the greatest effect for what they're trying to accomplish. And instead of moving them around to try to change it up, we can do different things to change. Probably the best way is with the audible messages. So if we're keeping those fresh, changing out the messages and mixing it up, then it changes the environment and it changes the way people perceive them, but it also draws attention.

So when they come in the parking lot, they see them there visually because they have a visual presence, but then we have strobes on 24/7, which draws their attention, but then you get another sensory input of audio that, again, draws their attention to it. So with all of our customers, we haven't seen anybody want to move them for the purpose of trying to keep it fresh because an idea of, well, maybe they come obsolete and the effectiveness of them diminishes over time.

In four or five years now of doing this, the effectiveness is staying the same. They're still seeing the results. So it's not like, "Hey, let's put it out." We see results for the first six months and then it diminishes over time. The results are holding, which is really exciting.

Matt Schreiner:

That's fantastic. That's great information. So the next question I have is based on a mobile unit, what is the square footage of the effective deterrents around that unit? Because we have a question that's asking how many of these mobile units do you need to effectively protect a parking lot or a construction site?

Ryan Porter:

Yeah, so if you look at the, if we're running analytics, whether it's thermal analytics or optical analytics, the detection range for human or vehicle classification on that is about 300 feet every direction depending on where it's pointed. So if you look at big box retail, we have a specific customer that wants to cover the entire front parking lot, the whole front skirt, every square inch of it in the parking lot facing forward to the store. And so we'll do two mobile units in that parking lot. Those customers are some of your bigger parking lots in the retail space, probably some of the biggest parking lots. So two units cover it.

We have a lot of customers that will put one unit in the parking lot because they're not necessarily trying to run analytics to cover an entire area. They have certain spots that they want to watch, maybe the entrances or they might have product in the parking lot, and so they're trying to cover and record certain areas. Now in our systems, we'll usually do a panoramic 360, so we're getting 360 of the whole area, but then we'll use PTCs and thermals on specific areas that are the hotspots or whatever, that they want to watch.

Matt Schreiner:

Yeah, absolutely. That makes total sense. Next question, do you ever see people vandalizing these units? And if so, who covers the repair costs? Is that something LiveView Technology covers or is that something the retailer or the person that purchased or is leasing that unit has to pay for?

Ryan Porter:

Yes, we have two different models in our company. We have a model where the customer can purchase the equipment, and then there's an ongoing monthly subscription for it to run the platform. The other model is we have a fleet, a large fleet that we deploy out and we own the equipment. At the end of the day, the responsibility is on whoever owns the equipment. So if it's our fleet, and we've deployed it anywhere in the country and there's vandalism or anything that happens to it, we're responsible for it and we do the repairs on it. If the customer owns the equipment, then they're responsible for the repairs on it.

The first part of the question, do we have vandalism to them? We have had vandalism for the number of units we have deployed in the country. And keep in mind, these are usually deployed in the roughest areas across the country, percentage wise, a very, very, very small percentage of vandalism to it.

And I really believe it's because it's an interactive thing, right? There's messages coming down. We even have technology on there that we can identify when somebody comes up to the unit and we can do an audible talk down if they stay in that zone for too long, if they're tampering with it at all, then we can do message talk down to them to say, "Hey, this is monitored, step away." And even those alerts can go to Protos and they can respond to them.

Matt Schreiner:

Absolutely. That's great insight, Ryan. Thank you for that. Next question that I have, I know that we focused a lot on the mobile unit, the trailers that can be mobilely deployed. Can you speak to a more permanent solution that LiveView Technology has where you can mount it to either the front side or back of a location?

Ryan Porter:

Yeah, so if you look at our system, the mobile unit, we call it a mounting structure, and then the live unit. And if you were to look at a picture of ours, you can see it in the background there of the screen here. That live unit, you can actually take that live unit off the trailer, off the mast and it will still work. There's a battery backup in there so you can remove it and walk around with it, and it's still doing everything it's supposed to do.

And so there's nothing in the base of the unit. There's no recording or archiving there, there's no communication in the base. It's all in that what we call the live unit, which is the top part. So you can take that live unit, you can mount it to a trailer, you can mount it to a pole, you can mount it to a building, wherever you need it. The trailer gets its power from solar, and so that puts power up to it.

If you mount it to a building, then that same system can hook into a hardline AC connection. And then keep in mind those cameras are all interchangeable. You might need a specific camera to do a specific thing. We can put any type of camera on there with any type of software technology for whatever you need.

Matt Schreiner:

Excellent. And it looks like we have one more question, and I'm going to tie a couple of together. Can you speak to a little bit around the marketing type analytics or any type of ROI that the marketing teams would see from the analytics and/or from store operations? We have one that's talking about just having good analytics of people walking into the store versus walking past your store. And another person is talking about their facility being charged three times by a vendor that plows snow for them when they actually only came one time in that day.

Ryan Porter:

So this is the next evolution of analytics in business intelligence that we're diving deep into. In the past it's been usually video analytics off of motion detection where we're creating alerts. Now we're doing things like snow removal in parking lots is a big deal, right? It's expensive. It's only based on when it snows to certain levels and people are charged for it. So we're working on analytics to be able to identify when that specific parking lot receives snow and when it's cleared and how many times.

So with snow analytics, yeah, now that we've got this video, what else can we do with it? And that's really the next evolution for us as a company. As we look at business intelligence, the flow of customers coming in and out of the parking lot. Running analytics in the past, there's line crossing and so from one direction to another.

But let's take it to another level of if we identify somebody in the parking lot that's not following the normal flow inside or out from the store to their vehicle, but they're actually zigzagging through the parking lot because they're looking in cars to break a window and get in and pull valuables out of the car. So we want to be able to run analytics to identify that and create alerts off of that. So that is the next evolution and now technology and the capabilities here to be able to do those types of things.

Matt Schreiner:

Absolutely. We all see it coming, it's just we can't get there fast enough. We all want all of it right now, and that's the way our society is, and that's what we have. So thank you for those valuable insights to those questions. We do have a couple of announcements before we adjourn. First and foremost, LiveView Technologies is sponsoring a 20% discount off of Loss Prevention Foundation memberships, as well as our certification courses. We'll include that discount code in the post webinar email blast that you'll receive tomorrow. So be on the lookout for that.

Secondly, LiveView Technologies is sponsoring five of our attendees to receive a free LPC course scholarship, valued at $795. So if you did select that you are interested in a scholarship, be on the lookout for that email blast tomorrow as you can be one of those lucky winners to receive one of those courtesy of LiveView Technologies.

We, at the Loss Prevention Foundation, thank you for joining us today for our Loss Prevention Foundation webinar. We look forward to having you back with us real soon on future Loss Prevention Foundation webinars. Stay safe and have a great day. Thank you for joining us.
Kris Vece:

Thank you.