When a mutual friend of founders Niall Kelly and David Walsh responded to a customary alarm call at his business, he was viciously attacked by intruders who hadn’t left the premises and was lucky to escape with his life. The incident highlighted starkly for both men the short-comings of traditional security systems. On questioning the standard methods of electronic security, the Netwatch founders surmised that there must be a security system that ensures an individual would never again have to experience the situation whereby he or she would walk blindly into a real-life crime scenario.

Prompted by this reality, in late 2002, David and Niall decided to research the possibility of devising a pro-active alarm monitoring system, rather than the current reactive ones, using new video transmission technology. After trawling the globe and several false starts, they eventually discovered a company in Australia who specialised in the area, although pre-dominantly for military installations, and after much persuading they were granted a meeting, for which they flew to Victoria, Australia.

The Australian company was hugely impressed by Niall and David’s passion and commitment. A pilot scheme was agreed to modify the technology and incorporate the features which they had identified as being critical to a commercial proposition.

The system was a vast step forward in the protection of key-holders; not only could Netwatch now visually confirm via cctv systems if a criminal was on-site but they could detect him before he reached his intended target and intervene by issuing a live personalised audio warning advising him to leave the area. This early intervention alone has proved effective in preventing 97% of attempted crimes.

The system is more effective than CCTV, an alarm and a security guard combined as it allows visual recognition to determine a real crime from a false alarm and alert the authorities, along with remote access which negates the necessity to place a business owner, key holder or security personnel in danger.