January 28th, 2005

Modern Communications could keep Carlow's safety in the picture [Michael Godfrey, The Nationalist]

 

CARLOW could have its own private CCTV network to monitor violence on the streets of the town for as little as €1,500 per week.

Local company, Netwatch Ireland Ltd, the first company in Ireland to use modern communication technologies to provide remote visual monitoring security systems to businesses throughout the country, has said it could provide such a system for the town.

Founded in 2002, the company has had an enviable success rate, winning the Carlow Chamber of Commerce New Business of the Year Award, 2003 as well as the 2004 Carlow Enterprise of the Year Award and National Enterprise Award 2004.  The company has also been shortlisted for the Small Firms Association (SFA) Awards, which will be presented by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in February.

The system used by Netwatch incorporates advanced alarm technology with the most modern CCTV techniques to create an intelligent security system which allows the command centre to watch in "real time" any intrusion taking place at a premises and, more importantly, to speak directly to criminals before they commit a crime.

Company Sales Director, David Walsh, stated it is only a matter of adapting their system and it could then provide Carlow with its own CCTV system.

"We have a tremendous relationship with the gardai and have had some tremendous success," he stressed.  "Knowing that they are being watched and that the Gardai have been notified is a huge deterrent - in 95% of recorded cases the intruder leaves the premises without committing a crime.  Imagine the success that could be had on the streets of the town if people knew they were being recorded as well as the fact that the gardai were on their way," Mr. Walsh stressed.

He pointed out that in many towns it was too expensive to have a CCTV system, as the cost of man-hours needed is cost prohibitive.  However, as they already have a manned command centre, he is sure a system could be in put in place to cover know hot-spots during critical times on busy weekend nights.

"We have the expertise and we have the system already in place.  It would only be a matter of coming up with a suitable timetable," Mr Walsh said.

When it started, Netwatch had just two employees and during its first year, it had a turnover of €10,000.  It now employs 25 people with a turnover of €1.8 million.  If current expansion plans materialise, it is envisaged that the company will employ 60 by end of 2006.

The idea to start the company stemmed from the fact that in 1999, gardai received 135,000 alarm calls from traditional burglar alarms.  Some 117,000 of these were false alarms.  It became obvious to Netwatch founders that remote visual verification was the most effective way of doing this.  But the most disturbing of all the statistics was, despite the fact that almost all of the companies surveyed had some form of crime prevention systems in place, almost half of them still suffered through crime.

Developing a solution the Netwatch founders accepted that it was not the case that existing security systems weren't effective, but to varying degrees of effectiveness.

Using new technologies pioneered in Australia, the Netwatch team developed a system for the Irish market, which delivers all of the advantages of intensive manned security solutions at an extremely low cost.  The Netwatch system differs from standard CCTV systems in some very important respects.  It is an event-based system.  When an alarm is triggered on a premises, live pictures of the area where the security breach occurred are send down ISDN lines to the Netwatch command centre.  It is a fully interactive system.  The cameras can be controlled remotely to focus on different areas and they are equipped with microphones and speakers allowing the command centre to communicate directly with the intruder to warn them to stop, that the gardai are on the way or, indeed to alert them to danger.  It also allows for a high degree of liaison with the Garda.  For example, if gardai inform Netwatch that they have a car in the area, the command centre will simply guide them to the exact location of the intruder allowing them to be apprehended "red-handed".  Another advantage of the system is that gardai and keyholders know they are only called upon when the activation has been caused by a genuine intruder.

"It is also very cost effective with a full monitoring service costing as little as €15 per day - not much more than an hour of a security guard's time," said Mr. Walsh.

In a major step forward for the company, the Society for the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI), the representative body for the motor industry in Ireland, is recommending the system to its 1,850 members following its successful installation in several car dealerships throughout the country.

Mr. Walsh stressed the achievement of these results has been due to a combination of the technical and technological expertise of the Netwatch team; the extreme high service levels offered by the company; and the effectiveness of the system which has meant that client referral is among its most powerful sales and marketing tools.