Watch What Needs to Be Watched

My dad loves to watch westerns. Or so he claims. Currently, I think he likes to watch them just to bug me, my mom, each of my three brothers, my sister, my brother-in-law, my two sisters-in-laws, the neighbors, and the next street over. The fact of the matter is, there isn’t a single western movie that was worth watching. The plots are skimpy, they lack strong characters, and they have next to no dialogue. Westerns do have an abundance of shootouts, death either by the afore mentioned shootouts or by disease, lots of horseback riding, and little else. The characters, even those who are supposed to be the good guys, are typically scoundrels and have next to no development throughout the movie. Riding scenes make up the bulk of the movie and their scenery is normally sagebrush, sagebrush, and more sagebrush. There might be an occasional patch of dirt, a tumbleweed, or some rocks if you’re lucky.

This assessment isn’t just based on one bad experience with the genre. I have watched either all or part of True Grit (both the old one and the remake), Two Mules for Sister Sara, High Noon, The Searchers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and others. I can honestly say I didn’t enjoy any of them and would never recommend them. I apologize to the five people who actually like westerns, and want to ask if you’ve tried a different genre of film? Any of them? Anyways, in my opinion, westerns are the armpit of cinema and simply not worth watching.

The same is true for the bulk of security footage. Most footage shows about as much as a typical riding scene—absolutely nothing. For example, if the digital security camera is outside a store, the bulk of the recordings will show normal comings and goings—cars driving through the parking lot, shoppers walking to and from the store, etc. If the camera is at a construction site, it will show crews arriving, progress being made on the site, and people leaving at the end of the day. Let’s face it, watching a live camera feed is about as exciting as watching a western.

Today, companies across the country still approach business security the same way—by paying employees to watch all of their footage. Typically, this consists of a guard watching live in a back room. However, this is old fashioned and, while it can and does help your security efforts, it also has several drawbacks.

First, this guard is responsible for watching hours of footage that show absolutely nothing but is still expected to catch the two minutes of footage that show a thief leaving the store. I don’t know about you, but if a movie, TV show, lecture, or presentation doesn’t have something holding my attention, I lose focus extremely fast. So how can loss prevention professionals expect their guards to stay focused their entire shift? They can be distracted by other people in the room, their phones, an email, or a million other things. Furthermore, the guards are human and have other human needs. They need to eat, use the restroom, and stretch their legs as much as any person.

Second, closeting a guard in the backroom also uses valuable manhours without them contributing to active deterrence. When they are visible to customers or work crews, security guards are the best deterrent against theft and other crimes.

With these cons, why do we still use this antiquated system? Part of it is that for a long time, that is all that technology could support. Another part is, it’s already installed. It’s a lot easier to live with the current system than to research a new one, tear out the old, and install an upgrade. Whatever the reason, there is new technology from LiveView Technologies that helps watch for you and that is easy to set up.

Thanks to a combination of bounding boxes, advanced analytics, and instant alerts, LVT Units can actually alert you when security footage needs to be watched. For example, think of bounding boxes as a customizable invisible fence. The cameras on the LVT surveillance trailer are set to survey the bounding box. The unit uses its analytics to recognize when someone crosses into the bounding box and will instantly alert you to that threat. That way you know when you need to tune in to the live feed. It also gives you the chance to intervene with lights, audio warnings, and more before any damage is done to your property. Thanks to this programming, LVT Units allow you to augment and direct your security forces. No longer are your forces tied to a screen in the back room.

Ditch the traditional and stop watching what doesn’t need to be seen—westerns and that boring live feed. Let us focus on security so you can do what you do best. Talk to a LVT specialist today to learn how you could upgrade your business security.