SIA New Member Profile: Ai-RGUS
New Security Industry Association (SIA) member Ai-RGUS offers artificial intelligence (AI) software to manage security camera systems efficiently. The company is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, with regional sales managers in different parts of the United States and clients throughout North America and abroad.
Ai-RGUS was recognized by SIA as an award winner at the 2023 SIA New Products and Solutions (NPS) Awards, the flagship awards program presented in partnership with ISC West recognizing innovative security products, services and solutions. Ai-RGUS was selected as the 2023 winner in the Managed Services category for its artificial intelligence software and honored on March 29 during an award ceremony on the ISC West show floor.
SIA spoke with Joelle Grunblatt, chief marketing officer at Ai-RGUS, about the company, the security industry and working with SIA.
Tell us the story of your company.
JG: Ai-RGUS is AI software that was originally developed at Duke University to automatically verify that security cameras continue to produce their intended video to improve safety and security on premises. The need was identified by Tracy Futhey, Duke University’s chief information officer and chief of police, who recognized an unmet need for 2,000 cameras covering student housing, retail outlets, transportation terminals and other mixed-use areas.
Tracy Futhey and her team were spending at least four hours each day on just manually verifying that the cameras are showing the correct view. She approached Daniel Reichman, our CEO, for a solution, as he received his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from Duke, and the university funded the initial development of this solution.
Ai-RGUS delivered a solution to automatically uncover such “quiet failures” of the cameras before they happen. Duke has been using Ai-RGUS to automate their camera inspection since 2017. Now it takes the security team on average five minutes a day to verify the performance of their system.
What solutions/services does your business offer in the security industry? And what makes your offerings/company unique?
JG: Ai-RGUS is subscription-based AI camera system software. Designed for system integrators and managed service providers, it helps simplify monitoring so that clients’ camera systems are working as intended. It verifies camera liveness, image clarity and correctness, recording availability and alerts the security team otherwise. Ai-RGUS also enables keeping systems cyber-secure with its password and firmware version management tools. For systems integrators who perform off-site monitoring, Ai-RGUS is a recurring monthly revenue opportunity to continually serve customers best by being proactive about their camera system maintenance. End users finally have a solution to the problem of making sure that their security cameras are fully operational, so that they have a clear image for each one of their cameras, including the recordings they expect to have.
What is something we might not know about your company – or something new you are doing in security?
JG: Ai-RGUS sets the standard for a responsible security camera system design. The software is purpose-built to monitor any problems with camera systems, including the correctness and clarity of camera views, the retention requirements for camera recordings and other camera specific issues. Including Ai-RGUS in the sale of a video surveillance system combines functionality and performance monitoring so that the end user receives the most out of their system and knows that if something goes wrong, it will be identified and fixed in a timely manner.
What is your company’s vision, and what are your goals for the security industry?
JG: We expect that in the future, every video surveillance system has Ai-RGUS to ensure that usable images are captured properly and are usable as the end user expects.
What do you think are the biggest opportunities in the security industry right now?
JG: Some of the biggest business opportunities right now are in helping clients realize how AI works in our field and how it can impact the functionality of day-to-day operations.
What does SIA offer that is most important to you/your company? And what do you most hope to get out of your membership with SIA?
JG: The opportunity to engage with and learn from other security professionals. Our purpose is to make camera system management easy and complete; therefore, learning about current practices and new challenges as they arise is mission-critical for Ai-RGUS.
How does your organization engage with SIA? What are your plans for involvement in the next year?
JG: We look forward to publishing articles, participating on panels and attending sessions. We would like to be a resource to SIA and the SIA community. Please let us know how we can be helpful.
The views and opinions expressed in guest posts and/or profiles are those of the authors or sources and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Security Industry Association.