Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wireless Eyes May Be Watching

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 18:23:35 -0400

Wireless Eyes May Be Watching
Source: Arkansas Business
Publication date: 2004-05-24
Arrival time: 2004-06-14

EVEN IF YOU LOOKED right at Steve Wheeler's handiwork, you might not
notice.
And that's how he likes it.

It may seem like an unusual feeling for a retail business owner to have,
since most typically want their products to be eyecatching. Out of
sight, out of business, after all.

But for Wheeler, who founded Surveillance Plus Inc. of North Little Rock
in 1992, out of sight means good business. That's the key business
truism when your wares include wireless cameras in teddy bears and
neckties with batterypowered wireless pinhole cameras.

"I've done some crazy stuff," Wheeler said. "Once, I (installed wireless
pinhole cameras) on a coffee pot and a Christmas tree."
The digital and wireless revolution have made cameras and surveillance
technology more accessible and less difficult to manage. Costs are down
- for instance, a clock radio with a wireless camera costs about $500 -
and more everyday people are making wireless surveillance purchases,
Wheeler said.

A recent survey by the Custom Electronics Design and Installation
Association showed security concerns were the top reason customers
wanted wireless products. In fact, 31 percent said a centralized home
security system was the most important home networking system.

Home theaters were second at 19 percent.

"Probably for a lot of businesses, using the cameras has a lot to do
with preventing inventory shrinkage. And then the second most popular
'use is probably a domestic situation like a husband-and- wife tiff or a
divorce," Wheeler said. "And it's not just the white- collar employer
anymore. Now it's Joe Blow coming in for surveillance tools.
"It used to be out of their grasp, but it's a low-cost big deal now."

Private investigators are also good customers, he said. During one nasty
custody battle, he set up cameras to capture the wife's parenting
practices. The setup cost $3,500, and the recorded images were used in
court.

Business is good, said Wheeler, who declined to reveal sales figures. He
did close a west Little Rock shop on Bowman Road in summer 2003, but he
blamed it on the stress of having two operations and maintaining quality
customer service and a well-trained staff.

"West Little Rock did pretty good, but it was more work than it was
worth," Wheeler said. "It's a very personalized trade. People come in,
tell you their problems, and then you piece together what they need."

Attention

With a big roof sign advertising the "Spy Shop" greeting southbound
motorists on Interstate 30, Wheeler's business is bound to get some
attention. But at ground level, the shop is in a nondescript building on
17th Street at North Little Rock. Behind dark tinted windows on a glass
door, a small retail shop offers a buffet of surveillance options.

Wheeler or manufacturers can install one of the cameras with tenses of
just a few millimeters in diameter in just about anything. Shoppers can
choose from buttons, eyeglasses, cell phones, purses, thermostats,
pagers, wall clocks and books, just to name a few. It can take just a
few hours to install a camera in a radio or a clock.

Wheeler prefers to keep the hightech stock at a minimum and order from
wholesalers and manufacturers as business demands. There is a high
degree of specialized customer service, Wheeler said, because customers
have different goals and unique challenges for installation of equipment
that he rents or sells.

The cameras produce color or blackand-white images and offer
high-quality resolution without sound. Sound surveillance is a federal
wiretapping offense in non-public areas without posted notification,
according to Wheeler and others in the industry.
"That's a no-no," said Douglas Walker, vice president of Relay System
Corp. of Little Rock, which covers a multistate area with closed-circuit
television and wireless monitoring services. "You can go to jail."

The cameras have a short broadcast range of 50 feet to a few hundred
feet, but the range can be enhanced to two or three miles with proper
equipment, said Bill Powers, president of Complete Security Inc. of
Little Rock.

Wheeler retails pinhole cameras about 1-inch wide including casing at
just over $200 for color and $120 for black-andwhite. Transmitters send
signals to receivers that then, either record the images onto VCR tape
or digital recorders, or transmit to television monitors without
recording.

Cameras can be activated by motion detectors.

VCR equipment prices have plummeted with the advent of digital
equipment, Powers said. Wireless cameras transmitting to digital
recorders with more than 120 gigabytes of storage space - are popular
for efficiency and small size.
A few black-and-white cameras and a recorder can run about $1,000. A few
years ago, one camera could cost $1,200$1,500, Wheeler said. Of course,
the smaller the device, the more it costs. Still, a fullcoverage,
16-camera, wireless operation with storage for images can still cost
under $30,000, Wheeler said.

"It's crazy now," Wheeler said, referring to the relatively low cost.
Walker said the less cumbersome equipment is also userfriendly.

"Because of the electronics, it's a lot easier to use than before,"
Walker said. "It's more friendly than ever."
Wheeler said he's noticed that customers tend to want a limited number
of cameras with wide areas to cover. But the technology and the lower
costs allow for a multitude of cameras.

"It allows you to cover more area and be more versatile, although people
often decide they need fewer cameras, which defeats the purpose,"
Wheeler said. "(But) you want to see faces. That's what you want. That's
how you catch people."
Walker said virtually all of the systems he sets up are custom designed.

A retail operation, for instance, might put individual cameras on cash
registers to tape cashiers. To check for "sweethearting" - when cashiers
undercharge people they know - a store could then have the text of the
register transaction added to tape footage playing on a monitor screen,
Walker said.

A check that might otherwise take a day or more could be done in just a
few hours, Walker said.

While Wheeler can "wow" customers with surveillance possibilities,
sometimes he is "wowed" by the circumstances driving them to his shop.

"Sometimes I feel like I need a psychiatrist fee," Wheeler said. "People
stay two or three hours and tell me all of their problems."

Walker stays away from residential installations that aren't about
security for the whole family.

Wheeler also sells general home security items, such as safety boxes
that resemble books, full soup cans or mayonnatse jars, as well as
martial arts weapons such as nun-chucks and throwing stars.

Do It Yourself

While improved technology can mean more business, it can also mean more
do-it-yourselfers.
A trip to a big box electronics retailer, for instance, can give
consumers less-expensive options.

Best Buy retails similar color cameras for about $100 and a
black-and-white wireless camera with a monitor at a similar price. And
any Web surfer is familiar with pop-up advertisements from X10 Wireless
Technology Inc. of Kent, Wash., for wireless cameras. Its cameras send
wireless video signals about 100 feet to video receivers hooked up to
computers and televisions. A three-camera package runs for less than
$200.

The company also offers another product that uses free software to send
live color video to computers from which digital photos can then be sent
over the Internet. A necessary USB capture adapter, though, sells for
about $70.
But, Walker said there is "a lot of cheap junk out there" and X10's
products are considered entry-level.

Other companies offer digital video recording and a Webbased server that
allow people to check recorded images stored on their home computers.

Complete Surveillance's Powers said he still does a lot of business
recording on VCRs. Prices have come down substantially with new
technology developments.

"People have a need for it. Five or six years ago, we didn't have the
need like we do, now," Powers said. "They can check out their business,
make sure employees aren't stealing from the company."

Copyright Arkansas Business May 24, 2004

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=52568825&ID=cnniw&scategory=Telecommunications%3AWireless&

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