Human eyes on your
business. 24/7.
Cameras alone don't stop crime — people do. Our trained operators watch your feeds around the clock, intervene in real time, and dispatch authorities before damage occurs.
Our Monitoring Centre
Certified operators. Real equipment.
Not an automated system.
Every feed is watched by a real person trained to distinguish genuine threats from false triggers — and to act immediately when it matters.
Seamless protection from day one
We Connect to Your Cameras
Our team integrates with your existing IP camera system or installs new 4K commercial cameras. Feeds are encrypted and streamed directly to our monitoring centre.
Operators Watch in Real Time
Certified monitoring operators observe your site around the clock. Using AI-assisted motion detection, they focus on genuine threats — not false alarms from shadows or animals.
We Intervene Before Damage Occurs
When suspicious activity is detected, operators use two-way audio to warn intruders, alert your contacts, and dispatch police or security personnel — all within seconds.
Everything in one monitoring plan
24/7 Human Operators
Certified professionals monitoring your feeds every hour of every day — including weekends and holidays.
Two-Way Audio Deterrence
Operators speak directly to intruders through onsite speakers, deterring crime in progress without police escalation.
Direct Police & Security Dispatch
When intervention is needed, operators contact authorities directly — no time lost waiting for you to call 911.
AI-Assisted Motion Detection
Smart analytics filter out false triggers, so operators focus only on genuine threats — reducing alarm fatigue and missed incidents.
Detailed Incident Reports
Every event is documented with timestamps, screenshots, and operator notes — essential for insurance claims and legal proceedings.
Video Evidence Retention
Recorded footage of incidents is securely stored and available for up to 90 days, exportable for law enforcement or insurance.
Most police services in this region stopped responding to unverified alarms
Toronto, Hamilton, York, Durham and Waterloo all now require an alarm to be verified before police are dispatched. Not because alarms stopped mattering, but because of what the numbers looked like.
of alarm calls to Peel Regional Police in 2024 were valid on arrival
Peel Regional Police, Five-Year Statistical Summary 2020–2024of Toronto alarm activations in 2016 were false — the finding behind verified response
Toronto Police Service, reported by CBC News (2018)alarm requests Peel police handled in 2024, up from 10,711 in 2020
Peel Regional Police, Five-Year Statistical Summary 2020–2024What an unverified alarm costs you
Every police service we work in charges for false alarms, and the charge usually lands on the monitoring station rather than on you directly — which is exactly why a monitoring company that cannot verify has an incentive problem. Peel also suspends police response outright to premises with a history of false alarms.
| Police service | False alarm | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|
| York Regional Police | $240 + HST | $140 + HST |
| Halton Regional Police | $197.75 | — |
| Durham Regional Police | $175 | $100 |
| Peel Regional Police | $173 + HST | $173 + HST |
| Hamilton Police Service | $169.50 | $84.75 |
Fees as published by each service. Toronto and Waterloo require verification but we have not confirmed a current published fee — we will check yours before quoting.
What counts as verification
The accepted methods are consistent across Toronto, Hamilton, York, Durham and Waterloo: audio, video, multiple-zone activation, or an eyewitness on scene. Panic and hold-up alarms are exempt everywhere — those still get an immediate response.
This is the practical reason live video monitoring outperforms a bare alarm in this region. An operator watching the feed is the verification, so the call that reaches police is one they will act on.
How live monitoring handles verificationThree people call us about live monitoring. All three have the same 3am problem.
Cameras record. Recording is what you look at afterwards, once the damage is already done and the cost is already yours. The people who call us about live monitoring have usually just had a very specific realisation about that gap.
The operator already paying for a guard
- What brought you here
- You've got a body on site overnight, and the invoice reflects it. You've also noticed the guard can only be in one place, the shack is at the front while the fence gets cut at the back, and last month's incident happened while someone was on their break.
- What you're actually worried about
- That you're spending real money every month for coverage of one spot, and that cutting it entirely leaves the site wide open — so you keep paying and keep hoping.
Monitoring covers every camera position at once for a fraction of a guard's fully-loaded cost, and it doesn't take breaks. We'll also tell you where a guard is still the right call — a site that needs someone to physically open a gate, escort drivers, or respond hands-on isn't a site we'd tell you to strip.
The yard or lot exposed overnight
- What brought you here
- Trailers, equipment, vehicles, copper, or catalytic converters sitting on an open lot from 6pm to 6am. There's a fence and there are cameras, and every few months somebody walks through both and you find out in the morning.
- What you're actually worried about
- Not just the loss — the downtime. A cut fuel line, a stripped trailer, or a machine taken apart in the dark costs you a week of work, not just the parts.
Overnight-only monitoring is built for exactly this window. Operators pick up movement on the lot when nobody should be there, challenge it over speakers before anything is cut or loaded, and dispatch while the person is still deciding whether to keep going.
The owner whose cameras record and nobody watches
- What brought you here
- You spent real money on a camera system. It works. And every incident still follows the same script: something happens, you find out hours later, and you spend an afternoon scrubbing footage to produce a clip that shows exactly how it happened and does nothing to stop it.
- What you're actually worried about
- That you've bought an expensive way to document your own losses, and that the next one will play out identically.
In most cases we can put operators on the cameras you already own, so the cost is a monthly service and not a second system. We'll assess your existing cameras first and tell you plainly which views are watchable and which ones nobody could act on.
What getting a site monitored looks like from your side of it
Bringing a site onto live monitoring is mostly a design and agreement exercise, not a construction one — assuming your cameras are up to it. Here's the real sequence.
Camera assessment and exposure walk
We review each camera as a monitoring view rather than a recording view: what it sees at night, whether a person at that distance is identifiable or just a shape, how much of the scene is lit, and where the approaches to the property actually are. We check upload bandwidth and where speakers could go.
Walk the perimeter with us and show us how people really get in and out — the gap in the fence line, the neighbour's lot everyone cuts through, the gate that's supposed to be chained. Also tell us who is legitimately on site after hours, because that's what separates an incident from a wasted dispatch.
Monitoring plan, response protocol, fixed quote
You get a written plan: which cameras are watched, during which hours, what triggers an operator's attention, the exact escalation order, and what remedial work (a camera repositioned, lighting added, a speaker installed) is needed first. Pricing separates any one-time work from the monthly service.
Write the response protocol with us, and be specific. Who gets phoned and in what order, when we go straight to police, whether a delivery driver at 4am is normal here, and who is authorised to stand a response down. This document is what the operator is holding at 3am.
Fixing what stops monitoring from working
Reposition or add cameras where a view can't be acted on, add or improve lighting where a scene is unusable at night, install and test speakers where audio challenge makes sense, and make sure the site's connection can carry the streams reliably.
Approve the remedial list, and approve any signage. Sites that are monitored should say so, both because it deters and because people on your property are entitled to know they're being watched and talked to. We'll hand you signage to post.
Onboarding and a supervised first week
Your site profile, maps, camera names, protocol and contact list go to the monitoring centre. We tune detection zones against your site's real traffic and review every event from the first week — including the ones that came to nothing — to cut nuisance activity before it wears your call list out.
Answer the phone during the first week, even for the calls that turn out to be your own staff. Early feedback is what makes the difference between a service you trust and one you start ignoring.
Nightly coverage and reporting
Operators watch during your window, challenge over audio, escalate per your protocol, and write up every event with timestamps and clips. You get reporting you can hand to an insurer or a police officer without assembling it yourself.
Tell us when the site changes. A new trailer parked where a camera looks, new racking, a relocated light, a seasonal night shift, or a contractor working weekends — every one of those changes what normal looks like on a screen at 3am.
Have this ready and the job goes faster
- Your camera list — make, model, and roughly when they were installed
- Who is legitimately on site after hours: night shift, cleaners, drivers, fuel deliveries
- Your escalation list in order, with mobile numbers and who can stand a response down
- The hours you actually need watched, and whether weekends differ from weekdays
- Your incident history — dates, where on the property, what was taken or damaged
- Remote access to your recorder, and the upload speed available at the site
- Landlord or neighbour considerations if speakers or lighting face a shared boundary
Why monitoring two similar yards doesn't cost the same
Live monitoring is a monthly service, and what it costs is driven by how much operator attention your site needs — not by a per-camera sticker. These are the factors that actually move it.
The monitoring window
This is the biggest lever by a distance. Overnight-only on a site that's staffed during the day costs a fraction of round-the-clock coverage, and for most yards, lots, and construction sites overnight is the entire exposure. Weekends and holidays are the other half of that question — plenty of sites need Friday night to Monday morning and nothing in between.
Whether your cameras are watchable
A camera that produces a usable recording for review isn't necessarily one an operator can act on live. Views that are too dark, too wide, too far, or aimed at a wall of headlights have to be fixed or replaced before monitoring means anything. This is where a monitoring project can turn into a partial camera project, and we'd rather tell you that at survey than take your monthly and report nothing.
How many cameras are actively watched
Not every camera needs to be on the monitoring list. Interior views of a locked office at 2am usually don't; perimeter, gate, and yard views do. Choosing carefully is the cheapest way to bring the number down, and we'll go through your camera list and mark the ones that don't earn a place.
How much genuine activity your site generates
A sealed yard with nothing moving after 7pm is inexpensive to watch. A site on a main road with foot traffic past the fence, wildlife, trees moving in wind, or a night shift coming and going generates constant events, and every one costs operator attention. Detection zones and analytics tuning reduce this a lot, but the underlying site is the underlying site.
What you want the operator to do
Watch-and-report is the lightest service. Adding live audio challenge, a defined escalation tree, guard or keyholder dispatch, and written incident reports with clips each adds to the monthly. Audio challenge is the one we'd argue is worth it almost everywhere — it's what ends most events before anyone has to be called.
Site count and consistency
Several sites on one protocol and one platform cost noticeably less per site than the same sites onboarded separately. If sites differ wildly in layout and hours, that advantage shrinks — tell us the whole portfolio at the start so we design once.
The assessment is free and the monthly is fixed for the term we agree. The honest framing: live monitoring is priced to sit well below what a full-time guard costs you fully loaded, but it is a recurring cost forever, and it isn't right for every site. If your exposure is really one door for two hours a day, a monitored alarm and decent cameras will serve you better and cost less — we'll tell you that rather than sell you a night watch you don't need.
Answered before you have to ask
“Why wouldn't I just hire a guard?”
Sometimes you should, and we'll say so. If your site needs someone to physically open a gate, check paperwork, escort drivers, or put hands on a problem, no camera does that. What a guard can't do is be at six positions at once, stay alert through a ninth straight night shift, or take a break without leaving a gap — and the fully-loaded cost of covering a site properly with people is far above what monitoring the same site costs monthly. The arrangement we most often recommend for larger sites isn't one or the other: monitoring covering everything, with a guard or mobile patrol dispatched only when operators see something real.
“What will your operator actually do at 3am?”
Exactly what your written protocol says, which is why we make you help write it. The usual sequence: the operator sees movement in a zone that should be empty, watches long enough to judge whether it's a person and what they're doing, and challenges over the speaker — naming the location, describing the person, and stating that police are being called. Most events end right there, because being addressed by name and description is a very different experience from a camera on a pole. If it continues, the operator dispatches police and works your call list in the order you set. By morning you have a written report with timestamps and clips. What the operator will not do is unlock a gate, guess at whether an unfamiliar vehicle belongs to you, or stand down a response on the word of whoever answers the phone unless that person is on your authorised list.
“Can you use the cameras I already have, or is this a whole new system?”
In a lot of cases we use what you have. Commercial IP cameras with reliable remote access and enough resolution to make a person identifiable at the distance they're mounted usually come onto monitoring without replacement. What doesn't work is a view nobody can act on — too dark, too wide, too far, or facing a light source. We assess before quoting and give you a camera-by-camera verdict, and if the answer is that four positions need fixing and the rest are fine, that's what the quote says. We won't take a monthly fee to watch views we know are useless.
“What happens if the internet or power at my site drops?”
The centre sees the feeds stop, and how that's handled is part of your protocol — for most sites, a loss of signal outside business hours is itself treated as an event worth a phone call, because it's also what a cut line looks like. What we won't pretend is that monitoring continues while a site is dark. That's a real limitation, and it's why we push a backup connection on higher-risk sites, put the recorder and network gear on a UPS, and pair monitoring with a dual-path monitored alarm on the buildings themselves so there's a second, independent way for a signal to leave the property.
“How long am I locked in, and who owns the equipment?”
Any hardware you buy — cameras, speakers, recorder, network gear — is bought outright and is yours, not rented back to you inside the monthly. The monitoring service is a term agreement because the centre commits staffing to your site, and we'll put the length, the notice period, and what happens at renewal in front of you before you sign rather than in a schedule at the back. Many sites start seasonally or on a short term specifically to see whether it earns its place, and we'd rather you do that than commit to a long term on a promise.
“Isn't this just going to mean constant false alarms and phone calls?”
It would be, untuned — headlights, rain, wildlife, a flag, a tree, and your own night shift will all generate events on day one. That's why the first week is supervised and why we review every event from it with you, including the nothings. Analytics filter the obvious, but the real reduction comes from setting detection zones and time windows to match how your site is genuinely used, and from your protocol distinguishing what's worth a call from what's worth a line in the morning report. If your phone is still ringing for nothing after the first couple of weeks, the tuning isn't finished and that's our problem to fix, not a cost of the service.
How it stacks up
Cameras record what happened. Live monitoring stops it from happening.
| Feature | RiowellLive Monitoring | Vs.Self-Monitoring | Vs.No Monitoring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Response time | < 60 seconds | Minutes (if you see it) | Never |
| After-hours coverage | Always on | Depends on you | None |
| Active deterrence | Two-way audio | No | No |
| Police dispatch | Direct | You call 911 | No |
| Insurance reduction | Up to 20% | Minimal | None |
| False alarm filtering | AI + Human | None | N/A |
Built for commercial properties of all sizes
Any business with after-hours exposure, valuable inventory, or liability risk benefits from live monitoring. If your cameras are just recording — they're not protecting.
“Our warehouse had three break-ins in a year before Riowell. Since adding live monitoring, we've had two incidents caught by the operators before anyone even got inside. It's paid for itself ten times over.”
Stop recording crime.
Start preventing it.
Book a free on-site assessment. We'll walk your property, review your current camera setup, and build a monitoring plan that fits your budget.
Live video monitoring in your city
Our operators work to a site-specific protocol: which zones matter, what hours to watch, and who gets called first. Those decisions are driven by the theft patterns in your area — pick your city.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to secure
your business?
Book a free on-site assessment. We'll evaluate your property and design a custom security and IT solution — no pressure, no commitment.