London riots a reminder of the need for security

LAST week, as London went up in flames, few people watching the scenes on television could not but have been reminded of the ever growing need for more effective security systems in today’s often dangerous world.

For Patrick O’Connor, MD of ADA Security Systems, the devastation was a further reminder of how fragile the fabric of society is and the speed with which checks and balances break down.

“Having lived in London myself some years ago, I could relate very much to what was happening there and remembered very well many of those areas that were last week reduced to rubble,” he says. “It was an unfortunate reminder of how quickly events can spiral out of control in urban areas.”

ADA Security Systems celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2011, employing 28 staff and with an annual turnover of over €2.5m. Amongst the company’s main products and services are CCTV, intruder and fire alarms, medical/social alarms and access control, including biometrics.

The head office is based in Rockchapel, Co. Cork with neighbouring county service outlets in Tralee and Abbeyfeale.

With over 16,000 security alarms installed nationwide spread across the commercial, domestic and industrial sectors, ADA’s Homesafe wirefree systems include fire, flood and carbon monoxide detection facilities, all of which can be accessed remotely.

The company also specialise in advising high net worth clients on personal security prevention, as well as providing security systems for multinationals and countering the proliferation of GSM jamming technologies which are now an added feature of the criminal arsenal.

“We are very familiar with assisting and developing security for wealthy individuals and key corporate people over the past number of years,” says Patrick O’Connor. “But, unfortunately, what we are seeing increasingly today are even modestly affluent individuals becoming more concerned with personal security in terms of their domestic and family arrangements. There is now a criminal element emerging capable of extreme ruthlessness and violence for relatively small return. Personal security is no longer the sole preserve of the millionaire class,” he adds.

Installing domestic perimeter systems, complete with infra-red cameras where live pictures are fed direct to a central command allowing loudspeaker alerts to intruders, have generally proven very effective as a first line of defence.

“We can monitor the boundaries of any building, and confront any intruder directly over loudspeakers while simultaneously alerting the gardaí of the situation,” he says. In developing its protection systems, particularly in areas like kidnapping, ADA have looked at jurisdictions like Israel and South Africa where such crime has been commonplace for some time.

“The most innovative products in the security industry come out of Israel and South Africa, a reflection of those countries’ experience in dealing with the problem. We have a connection to one of the leading Israeli security companies for the past 17 years, an arrangement that continues to compliment the initiatives we develop ourselves at our R&D facility.”

Keeping abreast of emerging technologies remains a constant within the security industry, and adapting systems from the corporate to domestic areas at competitive cost. “Research on crisis economies, which is what we are going through at present, consistently show five industries that will come out winners — security, healthcare, IT, community and environment — and we are positioning the company in as many as these areas as possible to benefit from this,” he says.

“Our philosophy has always been to maintain a strong research and development arm, something that is more essential in this industry with every passing year. When we brought one of the first wireless alarm systems into the country almost 20 years ago, despite a certain amount of ridicule from the established players in the market, we demonstrated the kind of company ethos that remains intact to this day — that of one constantly looking to adjust and adapt to the changing trends and threats of this industry, and bring the most cost effective solution to our customers.”

While perhaps not as high profile as their corporate kidnap prevention systems, ADA’s recent development of a burst water pipe alert will no doubt play well amongst the thousands of home owners who suffered severe house damage during last winter’s freezing conditions.

ADA developed a small unit for the attic that will automatically alert by text or other means that a problem has occurred, and immediately shuts down the water before it creates any damage. “We are, we believe, the only company in the world with a preventative measure like this linked into the overall alarm system.”

Providing security systems for Garda stations throughout the country provides another persuasive calling card for ADA Security in a diverse number of locations including Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Tralee, Dundalk, Bray and Dun Laoghaire.

“Right from 1991 when I started the company, becoming part of the community through its major points of reference like the Garda station and post office was amongst our key objectives, and remains so today,” he says. “We tender in the normal way for these contracts, but it is a reflection of our systems and their cost effectiveness that we are successful in this area. We are effectively delivering exactly what they want.”

ADA Security also successfully won an EU tender to upgrade CCTV recording systems in most of the cities and towns in Ireland by upgrading outdated VCR tape systems to the latest digital systems on a 3-year service and maintenance program. The enhanced systems deliver vastly enhanced picture quality, increased storage and greater recording speeds.

While the company has, like many others, had to adjust to an occasionally disrupted revenue stream and the accumulated fallout from the general economic picture, Patrick O’Connor looks to the future of ADA Security with confidence. Plotting new horizons in the 2015 landscape of Ireland, he cites the emerging sector of Tele Health as fertile ground for expansion.

“This is an area I am very passionate about and see tremendous opportunities in over the coming years,” he says. “What tele health does is use existing and emerging technologies to allow people to self monitor a wide range of conditions and illnesses from the comfort of their own home.”

Having fitted 12,000 social monitored alarms for elderly people over the past number of years, adding an extra health dimension to the existing system would reduce pressure on hospitals, provide a cost effective monitoring programme, and maintain home comfort for the user. “We have been developing software in this area over the last two years which will have massive potential for the export market. At present, Ireland is spending €15 billion per annum — half the tax take — on the HSE, but in the next decade our over 65 population is going to double, putting a further enormous pressure on the system. Tele health has huge possibilities both for possible providers like us, as well as the entire health system,” he believes.