A Secure Business Plan: Chimera Integrations talks the future of security
The Press Republican
by Carly Newton
PLATTSBURGH, NY — Greatness can only be achieved when the heads of many perform as a body of one.
That’s the slogan for Syracuse-based technology company Chimera Integrations, which brought their services to the North Country last summer.
The company bought out Mac’s Safe and Lock in August and moved into that space, located at 373 Route 3 in the Town of Plattsburgh.
THE FUTURE OF ‘SECURITY CAMERAS’
Chimera Integrations, including their Plattsburgh office, has five offices across the state that they say are working to push New York forward into a brand new world of smart technology and security.
A world where camera systems will remember faces, license plates, heat maps and even analyze audio to detect specific noises like gunshots, screams and glass breaking.
Justin Stearns, an innovation specialist at Chimera Integrations’ Plattsburgh location, said Upstate New York, in general, is about 10 years behind major cities like New York City, as well as the rest of the country, when it comes to smart technology.
“It’s truly our mission to just bring all of our communities up to that standard of living,” Stearns said.
“There’s something that’s happening with Chimera that’s ridiculously exciting and undeniable, to be at the forefront of this technology evolution and to actually see the change we are affecting in our communities.”
SECURITY IN HIS BLOOD
Stearns, who previously owned Mac’s Safe and Lock from 2010 to 2018, had been in the locksmith and security business for most of his life before teaming up with Chimera Integrations.
“It’s kind of in my blood,” Stearns said.
“My dad was a locksmith and owned an alarm company in the ‘90s. I bought him out in 2010 and prior to that, I was cracking safes for the Department of Defense in Colorado. I worked for a major safe company in Florida, and I also worked for an alarm integrator in Albany.”
Since Stearns first got into the security and technology business, it has evolved rapidly.
While Chimera still offers the traditional services of a regular locksmith like Mac’s Safe and Lock once did, it has expanded their available products and services to help the community in bigger ways, Stearns said.
“At Mac’s, we did card-access control, safes and vaults, and door hardware,” he said.
“With Chimera, we helped a liquor distribution warehouse where liquor was getting stolen all the time. We trained the cameras with the AI (Artificial Intelligence), that if a human with a box or a backpack approaches a door, it automatically locks the door and notifies the supervisor. Which is crazy, and it’s a fine line between big brother and ethical security, but we don’t cross that line, we are very conscientious of it.”
MOM AND POP SHOPS
Beyond stopping potential robberies, Chimera’s camera systems also help retail stores learn more about their business and their customers through the analysis of heat maps.
The heat given off of a human body shows up on the camera’s, and they can tell where customers in the stores walked.
“I hit this button here, and it shows me heat maps. I can do it for people and it will show me the mustering of traffic, so I can study the traffic flow in a small retail setting, so I know if people aren’t paying attention to my displays,” Stearns said.
“For small mom and pops, who are obviously a huge part of our community, we can help them elevate their business without them really having to do anything.”
As well as their camera systems, Chimera has thousands of products available to help commercial, industrial, retail and municipal sites around town, like pro-sound speakers, temperature-monitoring stations, visitor management systems, and smart-water meters.
SMART APARTMENTS
The company has also helped turn regular apartments into smart apartments through the use of their smart apartment technology.
“I can control the locks, leak detection, water shut-off valves, that light, outlet, all from my phone,” Stearns said about the smart technology he has set up at Chimera Integrations’ office.
“Landlords can also use this, so they don’t have to meet with people to let them into their building and give them a tour of the apartment they want to rent. Because the camera system and the smart apartment talk, they can be on the phone with the client, watch them go into the building, unlock door one, unlock door two, then lock them again behind them.”
Chimera Integrations plan to hold a grand opening of their business in late April or early May.
Stearns said as Chimera looks to the future, he had one thing to say.
“We’re just getting started.”
