Study: 76 Percent of Smart Smoke Detector Owners or Purchase Intenders Would Pay $5 per Month for a Professional Monitoring Service

Study: 76 Percent of Smart Smoke Detector Owners or Purchase Intenders Would Pay $5 per Month for a Professional Monitoring Service

Parks Associates recently released the new whitepaper “The Value of Professional Monitoring,”developed in cooperation with Rapid Response Monitoring, which finds the industry for professional monitoring grew by 5% from 2018 to 2019, a significant increase on a rate that had previously stayed flat. The first half of 2020 has held those gains, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty, indicating a widening consumer base for monitoring services and related smart home devices.

“As more aspects of daily life get connected, professional monitoring services will see new opportunities emerge beyond security to deliver a variety of new benefits to today’s connected consumers,” said Brad Russell, Research Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates. “As adoption of smart products such as lights, locks, detectors, and thermostats increases, they will create more use cases for monitoring services. For example, 57% percent of consumers planning to purchase a smart smoke detector in the next year would pay $10 per month for a monitoring service for critical events such as fire and smoke and carbon monoxide detection. The safety, security, and peace-of-mind benefits that come with these services are powerful drivers among US households.”

“Professional monitoring has existed for decades, and we believe it is here to stay,” said Spencer Moore, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Rapid Response Monitoring. “It’s already in more places than you probably realize, and it continues to grow. As technology companies we need to accept this reality to be successful in the future.”

The whitepaper highlights the concerns companies and consumers have—beyond the protection of their assets—that can benefit from professional monitoring services, including energy consumption, risks from flood and fire, health of aging relatives, and safety of package deliveries.

The emergence of connected health products and monitoring services also gives a new opportunity to serve consumers at home. Security providers can diversify their customer base by providing security-related packages with connected health and independent living solutions designed for protecting loved ones.

“Among the 7% of US broadband households that report using personal safety or panic button technology, their top five main service features include professional monitoring,” Russell said. “The integration of connected health solutions with monitoring services creates an opportunity for a source of recurring revenue.”

The whitepaper is available here.

Featured

  • Empowering and Securing a Mobile Workforce

    What happens when technology lets you work anywhere – but exposes you to security threats everywhere? This is the reality of modern work. No longer tethered to desks, work happens everywhere – in the office, from home, on the road, and in countless locations in between. Read Now

  • TSA Introduces New $45 Fee Option for Travelers Without REAL ID Starting February 1

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today that it will refer all passengers who do not present an acceptable form of ID and still want to fly an option to pay a $45 fee to use a modernized alternative identity verification system, TSA Confirm.ID, to establish identity at security checkpoints beginning on February 1, 2026. Read Now

  • The Evolution of IP Camera Intelligence

    As the 30th anniversary of the IP camera approaches in 2026, it is worth reflecting on how far we have come. The first network camera, launched in 1996, delivered one frame every 17 seconds—not impressive by today’s standards, but groundbreaking at the time. It did something that no analog system could: transmit video over a standard IP network. Read Now

  • From Surveillance to Intelligence

    Years ago, it would have been significantly more expensive to run an analytic like that — requiring a custom-built solution with burdensome infrastructure demands — but modern edge devices have made it accessible to everyone. It also saves time, which is a critical factor if a missing child is involved. Video compression technology has played a critical role as well. Over the years, significant advancements have been made in video coding standards — including H.263, MPEG formats, and H.264—alongside compression optimization technologies developed by IP video manufacturers to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality. The open-source AV1 codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media—a consortium including Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and others — is already the preferred decoder for cloud-based applications, and is quickly becoming the standard for video compression of all types. Read Now

  • Cost: Reactive vs. Proactive Security

    Security breaches often happen despite the availability of tools to prevent them. To combat this problem, the industry is shifting from reactive correction to proactive protection. This article will examine why so many security leaders have realized they must “lead before the breach” – not after. Read Now

New Products

  • Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden CV-7600 High Security Card Readers

    Camden Door Controls has relaunched its CV-7600 card readers in response to growing market demand for a more secure alternative to standard proximity credentials that can be easily cloned. CV-7600 readers support MIFARE DESFire EV1 & EV2 encryption technology credentials, making them virtually clone-proof and highly secure.

  • AC Nio

    AC Nio

    Aiphone, a leading international manufacturer of intercom, access control, and emergency communication products, has introduced the AC Nio, its access control management software, an important addition to its new line of access control solutions.

  • Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.

    Connect ONE®

    Connect ONE’s powerful cloud-hosted management platform provides the means to tailor lockdowns and emergency mass notifications throughout a facility – while simultaneously alerting occupants to hazards or next steps, like evacuation.