About

During my 6 years, I worked is almost every aspect of security as both an installer and service technician, including shift technician.
The shift tech was a shared rotating shift between 3 senior tech's, where you needed to be competent to work on any system, with no support and often in the middle of the night. This was a great learning ground because you could be thrown anything and had to work out how it worked and how to fix it, often with no prior training. (Or Google for that matter)

• Council & Public area surveillance
• Type 1 Security & Defence
• Banks
• Domestic Alarms
• CCTV
• Industrial Sites, Mining & Process Control

This is where I really started to specialise in the top end of the security market.

While I was employed to sell and support top shelf CCTV brands such as Panasonic, Kalatel & IndigoVision, I found myself getting involved in the integration of the camera systems with many other technologies such as access control, home automation, SCADA, traffic management and alarms. Initially this was via low level but as I became self-taught about the RS485 and RS232 protocols, I began writing high-level interfaces to allow much greater levels of integration.

Before long I found myself designing systems for several niche areas and going on specialist training in the UK for IP CCTV and wireless video transmission.

In 2003 I spent time working with Transport SA to improve how they managed their remote streaming of video, moving them from ISDN dial-up, to IP CCTV over long range wireless links, which you can now see on most major traffic light intersections of Adelaide. This saved them thousands of dollars in ISDN phone bills as well as significantly improving the quality of video they were able to view.

This was my first taste of security wholesale distribution and importing. I spent 6 years hear, where I became the expert on the EDM Solution panels (now Bosch) and then the CCTV specialist, training the industry how to select cameras, lenses and multiplexers for different applications.

Not a highlight of my career but still an excellent opportunity to learn new skills.

Chubb had just acquired several companies, including Sontec and MIL/DKS but all the technicians left soon after the acquisition, leaving Chubb with a bunch of technologies it didn't have experience with. As a result, a division was created with the best skilled technicians to learn on the job as we worked through the systems.

These included:

• HME Drive Thru systems in Hungry Jacks, Mc Donalds and KFC
• Austco nurse call systems in hospitals and nursing homes
• MIL access control in multi story buildings
• Public address systems in supermarkets, factories and many other sites
• Throw in the mix lots of custom boxes Sontec used to make to bridge gaps in other systems capabilities

Being offered a state managers role at Tecsound, I took the opportunity to grow my skills in a slightly different area.

While Tecsound did security and CCTV, they were more experienced in PA, AV, Fast Food Drive Thru and nurse call solutions. This did not stimulate me so after 6 months I moved back to security.

This would have to be the highlight of my career. 

IndigoVision manufacture top end IP CCTV products and at the time were the market leader for product innovation. My role was account manager for all of Australia and New Zealand, travelling every other week from my home office. I spent 3 years in this role and grew the market share by 450% through providing a high-quality solution and giving great technical and sales support to my clients. A still consider many of my clients to be my friends today.

Being part of an international company has allowed me to experience how security is performed differently around the world and provided me with a great international contact base to share ideas with.

STS was my first role of estimating end to end major projects, predominantly for government.

My flagship project was the James Nash House expansion. A highly integrated security system in a hospital for the criminally insane. This project forced me to expand my knowledge significantly to bring together multiple disciplines into a single, integrated headend.  The system had to intelligently display video, audio, vector positioned duress and alarm events through a simple operator GUI, eliminating many of the manual actions otherwise needed to action an event.

Technologies integrated:

• Gallagher Cardax access control and alarms
• IndigoVision IP CCTV
• Jacques IP intercoms
• Bosch Security Escort mobile duress
• Audio call recorders
• Interactive maps
• Visitor management

Continuing on with project design and estimation I moved onto ACG Security, which was acquired by Spotless soon after the move. I was headhunted for a position back in security distribution after just 9 months

I was headhunted for a role in what was originally known as Pacific Communication (Pacom for short) but was now under the banner of One Hills - a merger of all of Hills different technology sectors.

My title - CCTV Product Sales Specialist - unfortunately did not reflect the role it was made out to me under the original Pacom banner, where it was a true CCTV specialist working with a select range of top shelf brands with a team of people around you that made the machine tick. Instead it was a merged company with significant cutbacks in the staff (it's experience) to a box shift company, trying to sell a much wider product suite with much less staff. 
Frustration with being spread so thinly that I was not able to offer the level of customer service and product knowledge that I have built my reputation on, I left what seemed to be an impossible role to fill, bringing me to where I am now...