Farsight Security Services was founded as a Remote Video Response Centre over 30 years ago — video monitoring has been its speciality from day one. Senior Operations Manager Malcolm O'Shea-Barnes explains why Farsight stays independent from installers, how every video alarm gets human verification, and how live audio talk-downs stop incidents before they develop.
Three decades of video-first monitoring
Q: Tell us a bit about Farsight — who you serve and what your monitoring operation looks like today.
Farsight Security Services has over 30 years of experience monitoring security systems across the UK and internationally. We work across a wide range of sectors, but we have particular experience in challenging environments where traditional security approaches are not always enough. This includes open-access sites, vehicle dealerships and forecourts, solar farms, unmanned petrol stations and high-security locations.
These sites can involve everything from members of the public and authorised visitors to wildlife, unusual activity and genuine security threats, so effective monitoring requires experienced operators who understand the environment they are protecting.
Q: What makes Farsight different from other monitoring stations? When a customer chooses you over a competitor, what's usually the deciding factor?
Farsight was originally founded as a Remote Video Response Centre (RVRC), with video monitoring at the heart of the business from the very beginning.
This is quite unusual within our industry. Many Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs) began with intruder alarm monitoring and later added video as an additional service. At Farsight, video has always been our speciality. With over 30 years of experience in remote video monitoring and event-driven alarm management, we have developed our processes, technology and operator training specifically around video-based security.
Another important difference is our independence. Farsight provides monitoring services only. We do not sell or install security systems, so we are not competing with the installers and security companies we work with. We recognise that the end user belongs to our customer, and our role is to support and strengthen that relationship.
As part of the Optex Group, we also have the backing of a global leader in sensing technologies while retaining our independence as a monitoring provider.
Human verification remains an important part of our service. Every video alarm is reviewed by a trained operator as standard. We can use AI filtering solutions such as Calipsa, DeepAlert and Actuate where appropriate and agreed with the customer, but we do not believe technology should automatically replace human judgement. AI can be very effective at identifying people and vehicles, but there are situations that require a person to understand what is actually happening on site. Combining technology with experienced operators gives us a strong balance between reducing unnecessary alarms and making sure important events are not missed.
Q: Who is your ideal customer, and what do you do best for them — the thing that keeps them with you?
We provide monitoring services to a wide variety of customers across the UK, so there is not necessarily one single ideal customer.
Our video monitoring service is particularly well suited to open areas and sites containing high-value assets, such as vehicle dealerships, unmanned petrol stations, solar farms and remote or unoccupied properties. What we do best is provide reliable, professional video monitoring that helps prevent loss, reduce unnecessary alarms and deliver a fast, informed response when something happens.
Our customers value our specialist video monitoring experience, knowledgeable operators and the consistency of the service we provide. For installers in particular, we see ourselves as an extension of their service, helping them provide a complete security solution while protecting the relationship they have with their end user.
Response and resolution
Q: From the moment an alarm is triggered, what's your typical response time — how fast does an operator actually start acting on the signal?
Rapid response is at the heart of effective remote monitoring. From the moment an alarm reaches our monitoring centre, our operators are focused on assessing the event and taking the appropriate action as quickly as possible.
For operational and security reasons, we do not publish specific internal response-time data. However, our control room is structured to ensure alarms are prioritised, assessed and actioned promptly, with performance continually monitored to maintain a high standard of service.
Q: And how about resolution — from alarm to a handled/closed incident, what does a typical timeline look like?
There is no single resolution time because every alarm and incident is different.
A routine activation may be assessed and resolved quickly, while a genuine incident can require our operators to remain involved for much longer. Our focus is not simply on closing an alarm as quickly as possible. It is about making sure the correct action has been taken.
For higher-priority incidents, this can include contacting emergency services or nominated keyholders, continuing to monitor live cameras, providing updates as a situation develops and maintaining communication with responders where required. We remain involved until the incident has been handled appropriately in line with the customer's agreed response plan.
Video, cameras and false alarms
Q: How easy is it for a customer to add active deterrence (e.g. audio talk-down / warnings) to their service?
Active deterrence is straightforward to include as part of a compatible video monitoring system, and it is something we strongly recommend where appropriate.
Our operators can deliver both pre-recorded and live audio announcements through compatible equipment at the site. Pre-recorded messages can be tailored to the customer's requirements and work particularly well in environments such as vehicle dealerships, where legitimate visitors may still be present outside normal opening hours.
When a situation requires a more direct response, our operators can also issue live audio warnings. For example, rather than playing a generic security message, an operator could refer specifically to "the person in the red jacket". That immediately demonstrates that someone is actively watching the situation in real time. In many cases, that direct intervention can deter unwanted behaviour before the situation develops any further.
Q: Do you work with multiple camera brands, or are customers tied to specific hardware? How do cameras typically connect to your monitoring centre?
Farsight is hardware-agnostic and works with a wide range of leading video surveillance and intruder alarm manufacturers. Customers are not tied to one particular camera brand or technology. This gives installers and end users the freedom to choose equipment that best suits the site, operational requirements and budget.
We use industry-leading monitoring platforms that support the majority of major VSS and alarm systems. Depending on the technology being used, alarm events, video clips or live streams can be securely transmitted to our monitoring centre for verification and response.
Our technical support team works closely with customers and installers during setup to make sure systems are correctly configured for monitoring. If a system is not already natively supported, we are also happy to explore the available integration options and identify the most effective way of establishing monitored connectivity.
Q: How do you keep false alarms down, and how much does video verification help there?
Managing unnecessary alarms is extremely important in professional monitoring.
Video verification allows our operators to see what has caused an activation and make a more informed decision about the appropriate response. This can help prevent unnecessary escalation while still ensuring genuine incidents receive the attention they require.
We also work with customers and installers when sites begin generating excessive or repeated alarms. Our support team can help identify problematic alarm inputs and work with the installer to improve the setup. Where an alarm input cannot be sufficiently improved through detection adjustments, AI filtering can also be considered to help reduce unwanted activations.
Our aim is to find the right balance. We want to reduce unnecessary alarm traffic without filtering so aggressively that genuine or unusual events could be missed.
How Farsight works with customers
Q: Can someone buy standalone 24/7 monitoring as a service? And how flexible is it — could someone get monitoring just while they're away on holiday, or is it always a longer commitment?
Yes, Farsight provides standalone 24/7 monitoring services, and we can be flexible depending on the customer's requirements. While many of our customers use Farsight for ongoing monitoring, we can also provide short-term monitoring, including additional security cover while a property or site is unoccupied or while someone is away on holiday.
We recognise that every customer, site and risk profile is different, so we do not take a one-size-fits-all approach. We work with the customer to understand what needs to be monitored, when monitoring is required and what action our operators should take if an event occurs.
This flexibility has also allowed us to develop bespoke monitoring solutions outside traditional security applications. Examples include parcel room monitoring to help combat package theft and driver fatigue monitoring designed to improve safety and operational compliance. By listening to our customers and adapting the service where possible, we aim to build partnerships that provide genuine operational value as well as security.
Advice to buyers
Q: If someone is shopping for a monitoring station, what should they look for, and what questions should they ask?
When choosing an ARC or RVRC, price is only one part of the decision. You are trusting that monitoring station to respond when something genuinely goes wrong, so it is important to understand what happens behind the scenes.
Some of the questions we would recommend asking are:
- How quickly are alarms answered?
- What accreditations does the monitoring station hold, and does it meet the requirements for Police URNs?
- Is video reviewed by an operator, or are alarms automatically filtered through cloud-based AI?
- How is CCTV footage stored and protected?
- Are operators properly trained and experienced in your sector?
- Will you be notified if there is a problem with the monitored system?
- How are alarms handled and when, if ever, are they automatically cut off?
- Are there enough operators available during busy periods and shift changes?
- Is the monitoring centre genuinely staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year?
- What disaster recovery and redundancy arrangements are in place?
We would also encourage people to look beyond the technology and ask about the people providing the service. What environment are the operators working in? How are they trained? How is performance monitored? How will communication be handled if there is an incident?
And perhaps most importantly, do they genuinely care about what happens when an alarm is activated? A good monitoring station should feel like a security partner, not simply somewhere alarms are sent.