Virtual security guard: what it is, and when alerts on your phone are enough

A virtual guard is a staffed service. Alerts from your own cameras are software. One question decides between them: when something happens at 3 a.m., who acts?

If the answer is you, or someone you trust, and a photo on your phone is enough to decide what to do, alerts are often enough and cost much less. If nobody will pick up, or you want a stranger to speak to the person on your site and call the police for you, a staffed service is the better fit.

The name changes from company to company. You will also see remote guard, live video monitoring and security camera monitoring service. They overlap, so the name tells you little. Our guide to CCTV and remote video monitoring sorts the main options.

A typical virtual guard service works like this.

• Cameras on your site are linked over the internet to the provider's monitoring center. Some providers use the cameras you already have. Others supply their own cameras and speakers.
• Analytics or sensors flag something, such as a person in an area that should be empty. Many services do not watch every camera all the time. They look when something triggers.
• A trained operator opens the live video and decides whether it is real.
• If it is, the operator speaks through a speaker on your site, often describing what the person is wearing and doing. This is called a talk-down. The aim is to make the person leave before anything is taken.
• If the person stays, the operator works down the list you agreed in advance: you, your manager, then the police.

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A virtual guard is more than an alert, because a person is involved. It is still not a guard on your site.

• Nobody can physically stop anyone. The operator can talk and can call.
• The police decide whether to come and how fast. The operator can only ask.
• It covers the cameras, zones and hours you pay for. Outside them you have a recording, not a response.
• An operator cannot describe someone the camera does not show. Poor night lighting or an out-of-focus camera limits the service.
• It depends on your internet and your power. Ask what happens when either one fails.

Alerts are software that watches your cameras and sends you a photo when something happens in a place and at an hour you chose. Nobody sits in between. You look at the photo and decide: call the site, ask a neighbor to check, or call the police yourself.

Alerts are often enough when:

• You, or someone you trust, can read a message and act at any hour.
• Your first move would be to look at a photo and make a phone call.
• You do not need a stranger to speak to people on site or to call the police for you.
• You already have cameras and a recorder and want them to tell you something instead of only recording.
• You have many cameras or several sites, and paying a person to watch each one would cost too much.
• The risk sits in a few hours, such as after close, and you can be reachable for those hours.

Pay for people when the alert has nobody to land on, or when you want a person in the loop.

• Nobody will see a message overnight, and you cannot change that.
• You want a person to judge the video before anyone is called.
• You want someone else to speak to the intruder through a speaker on site.
• You want someone else to call the police, with a live description of what is happening.
• Your insurer, or the police in your area, ask for a monitored system. Ask them before you change anything.

Whoever you talk to, these questions turn a sales page into a clear offer.

• Which cameras and which hours are covered, and what is the total price over the whole contract, not only the monthly figure?
• What triggers the operator: a sensor, analytics, a schedule? If the trigger is plain motion, wind and animals will set it off.
• What can the operator do: speak, phone you, call the police? Is a guard patrol a separate charge?
• Who is called first, and in what order?
• Do I get a record of what the operator saw and did?
• Do I need your cameras and speakers? What happens to them if I leave?
• What happens when the internet or the power fails?
• Do I pay for false alarms or call-outs?

You do not always have to choose. Some set-ups put a staffed service on the hours when nobody can respond, and use alerts from your own cameras for the rest of the day or for the sites where a service would cost more than the risk is worth. Others start with alerts, learn what really happens on site over a few weeks, and then decide whether a staffed service is worth adding.

For a worked example, read after-hours alerts for a car dealership lot, which compares a night guard, a patrol, live video monitoring and alerts.

Rules on cameras, speakers that talk to the public and recording depend on where you are. Ask a lawyer. Some insurance policies also name protective measures you must keep working, such as a monitored system. Ask your agent before you cancel or replace a service.

We are software, not a guard company. We do not watch your video, speak to anyone on site or call the police. Our software installs on a Windows computer at your site in 60 seconds and works with the cameras and recorder you already have: Hikvision, Dahua, CP Plus, TVT, Uniview, Axis, Hanwha, or any camera or recorder that offers RTSP or ONVIF. Read more in after-hours alerts from your existing cameras and AI alerts for existing CCTV.

• People on site after hours, in the zones you mark, is standard on every site.
• Smoke and fire, a covered camera and a camera that goes offline are standard too.
• Our own AI models, trained in-house, watch every camera. A second, larger model checks each event before you are alerted.
• The alert is a photo with the camera and the time, on WhatsApp, Telegram or the Foreman app, while it is still happening.
• Your recordings stay on site, your recorder keeps recording, and we never train on your video.