The intruder who has been left unchallenged will eventually smash a window or force a door, which in turn will activate the alarm and send a signal through to the Central Monitoring Station. The experienced intruder having surveyed the site prior and knowing what he is going to target once inside will quickly gather the equipment and leave through the same route prior to the arrival of the patrol officer. Nothing has stopped them and the customer has sustained a loss and damage to the premises.

Any loss sustained, will be covered by insurance, so who cares?

The loss can be viewed in a number of ways. 1. Costs incurred due to damage to the premises and the ensuing repair and maintenance works. Additional costs may also arise if alternative premises need to be sourced whilst these repairs are being undertaken. The often unconsidered cost is the uninsurable value of loss of time. 2. The actual loss of capital equipment is covered by an insurance policy, but what if the items are scheduled to be delivered to a customer tomorrow and there are penalty clauses for late delivery and again an un-insurable cost eventuates. A worse scenario would be if all your business critical information was stored on the stolen PC, you could severely jeopardize the long-term viability of your company. In fact intruder alarm systems are very useful, but you should understand what they are designed to do. An intruder alarm system is designed to detect an intruder after they have broken into the premises and at best will limit the time an intruder spends on the premises.

In a single sentence, an intruder alarm system is.  "Designed to limit loss"

A recording of all cameras is kept either on a videotape or more often now on a DVR. The recording of events is extremely useful as if a
visitor was to return to their car and find a dent in the door, they can return to reception and replay the video and see who caused the damage. However our scenario of the intruder in the previous example would have produced video of the break in, but on closer inspection the intruder has a mask on and doesn’t actually look at the cameras so what is the video footage showing us?
It actually re-enforces the point that the intruder detection system limits the time an intruder spends on the premises.

The CCTV system really only records the loss.

SummitWatch

Remote Off Site Video Verification

What is a remote off site video verification system?

Cameras are installed to give coverage of the perimeter of a premises or critical areas of a customers business. A detection device is positioned covering the same field of view as the camera, these can be motion detection devices or volumetrics detectors/infrared beams or a combination of detection devices to suit the premises application. The cameras and detectors are connected to a transmitter. This can be a transmitter only or more often, one of the new combined video transmitter and digital storage devices. The SummitWatch transmitter can be connected to the customers LAN or WAN so the customer can view live and stored pictures through the infrastructure already installed, and the transmitter is connected to a phone line for signaling to a Central Monitoring Station or CMS. The SummitWatch system is connected to the customers public address system or an amplifier with speakers sited externally around the premises.

On site the customer has complete control of the CCTV system as an on site surveillance system. The difference is that when the customer vacates the premises and arms the intruder alarm system, they also arm the SummitWatch system.

This is what is known as "the event", three frames of video that represent the actual alarm on site. An operator can now switch to live video from that camera or select any camera to view. The operator can observe someone on site, and they simply use a microphone to challenge the intruder with a simple warning such as “ You in the grey jumper, you have activated a remote video alarm system please leave the site immediately” This has the same effect that a person on site challenging the intruder would have, the intruder leaves site and the customer doesn’t sustain a loss. The signal takes between 8-30 seconds to reach the CMS, giving plenty of time for a response to warn off the intruder. The operator could operate any PTZ camera from the CMS and obtain a good image of the intruder prior to warning the intruder off. This may in turn be forwarded to the police for appropriate action. A customer can also control access to the site by motorizing the access gates, installing an intercom at the gates and connecting up the remote outputs to the SummitWatch system.

A person who needs access simply presses the intercom and talks to the CMS operator, the SummitWatch control software displays the video and an interactive site plan from the site, which holds all the critical information and details about persons who are allowed access. A few questions answered, and access is either granted or denied, the gate can be remotely opened and lights switched on and alarm zones isolated, all under the watchful eye of the remote CMS.

The value in terms of equipment lost and potential ramifications if down time was experienced, combined with guarding cost reductions, has justified the engineering effort by the installers to provide effective solutions.