Sun Community News
by Talia Perrea

PLATTSBURGH, NY — A Chimera, according to Greek mythology, is a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature.

In pop culture, Chimera’s can refer to any creature that is a hybrid. As a result, the Chimera usually represents the most dangerous beast the human imagination can conjure.

“I think it’s important to understand what Chimera is. So from a mythological perspective, ‘From the heads of many, we perform as a body of one.’ So the three-headed beast, right? Which ties into us being secure, proactive, and protected,” Justin Stearns, an innovation specialist with Chimera Integrations, explained.

Chimera Integrations was founded in 2017, by Casey White. In the five years that Chimera Integrations has been opened, it has expanded to five locations around New York.

In August Chimera Integrations bought Mac’s Safe & Lock, which was opened by Stearns' Father in 2003, to open its Plattsburgh location.

Now Chimera Integrations has locations in Syracuse, where the main office is; Binghamton; Watertown; and Potsdam.

“What Casey White has built is just a family among communities. So when he opened an office in Watertown and Potsdam and Plattsburgh he didn’t just go there and say ‘Hey, we’re in town.’ He went there and hired local people and allows them to run it from a local perspective. I have full control over what we do in Plattsburgh and I get to do things to take care of my customers the way I always have and that’s what Casey wants because that’s how Casey takes care of his customers…,” Stearns explained.

MORE THAN JUST SECURITY

In addition to offering all the services that Mac’s Safe & Lock offered, Chimera Integrations offers a diverse range of products to keep everyone secure and protected as well as being proactive.

“You deal with IoT every day but nobody really, not nobody, but not many people use the term IoT,” Chimera Integrations Marketing Director Damian Battinelli said.

IoT stands for Internet of Things and is essentially physical objects that have sensors, processing abilities, software, and other technologies. Smartwatches, wireless inventory trackers, and air quality sensors are just some examples of IoT.

“IoT allows us to monitor waste bins around the city, so it will tell the city when the garbage is full, so they don’t have to pay somebody to go around and check them all and the garbages never overflow…,” Stearns added, “So IoT is a real game-changer. New York State, historically, is like ten years behind, Upstate New York is 10 years behind in technology always, right? So, Chimera, our goal is to change that.”

With IoT the capabilities are endless. From smart mousetraps that send out a notification when they’re full to monitors that allow family members to check in on their loved ones while they’re in the hospital.

Chimera Integrations even sells a sensor that can save local manufacturers around here thousands of dollars.

“They have these huge machines that are in production, they got motors all over them. Those machines pump out a couple million dollars of product a year. How much is it worth when a machine goes down for a day or a week? That’s a lot of money,” said Stearns.

The sensor offered through Chimera Integrations is magnetic and attaches right to the motor. Once on the motor the sensor will study the vibrations and temperature of the motor and send out a notification the second it detects an anomaly.

“So we can stop major catastrophic failure of critical devices from failing before they fail. Now maintenance can go in there, do what needs to get done, take a look at the anomaly and keep the machine running. So now you’re down maybe an hour instead of a week and not having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fixing a machine, that’s everything,” explained Stearns.

Chimera Integrations doesn’t just sell you products that will save you money Battinelli said, “You have a piece of our equipment, we’re going to take care of you.”

CUSTOMER BASE

With such a diverse range of products, Chimera Integrations has something for everyone, as businesses and municipalities in the area are learning.

White Rainbow Regenerative Yoga Farm, a locally owned business in Peru, is just one of the customers that Chimera Integrations serves.

“Whereas this technology used to only be available at an enterprise level, now this is at a, I say consumer level, small businesses can afford this and elevate them to enable them to compete against the big box stores and do big things with business,” Stearns said.

This technology is the way of the future Stearns mentioned, “All this industry in the area and it’s growing, and Plattsburgh is the hub for manufacturing in this area, the issue is with recruitment. When you’re trying to get high-level employees to come to the area one of the first things they look at is, is smart technology available? Are we in the stone ages or am I going to move to a city that’s forward-thinking… on all levels from living to shopping to the city itself it just makes it more appealing and allows for us to all have a better community.”

PROVIDING SECURE SECURITY

While the IoT is beneficial in a lot of ways, with more and more stories coming to light of nanny cameras being hacked, it raises the question: are these products secure?

“When you put a wifi lightbulb in your house, wifi is such an unsecured frequency. The frequency that it’s on, that it becomes the security risk. You can hack into your lightbulb and then get into the rest of your network through that. What we do is build a parallel network on a completely different frequency called Lorawan,” stated Stearns.

Lorawan technology allows them to send the single farther but since it’s on a parallel network there’s no way interference can happen.

Stearns also reassured that there are compliances manufacturers have to meet before they can join Chimera Integrations' product portfolio.

Stearns said, “If it’s rated for the DOD, then we’ll use it.”

Chimera Integrations also offers IoT products that communicate with emergency services.

For example, one of the systems Chimera Integrations sells is called Ava Aware. If this smart camera hears glass breaking, gunshots, or alarm sounds, it will notify the police and give them access to the video feed. Which can be very beneficial in an emergency situation.

A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE

By the end of 2022 Stearns hopes that Chimera Integrations has opened at least one more office in New York to help serve their coverage area of Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania in addition to their contracts with big companies in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado.

“In five years, not only will the City of Plattsburgh know who we are, but they’ll have multiple devices of ours installed, and then we expand it out into the neighboring cities and towns,” Battinelli stated.

As for Stearns, he's planning how to succeed he said, “Just make small gains every day in the community, in my job, in my family that’s how we succeed.”

Not only are Battinelli and Stearns looking towards the future, but they’re also working in the present as well.

The former Mac’s Safe & Lock space is scheduled to undergo renovations to redo the existing office area and build more office space, a meeting room, and a tech lab.

Battinelli and Stearns are also getting the gears rolling on starting a vodcast, a video podcast, as well as offering free training sessions for schools and facilities.

“Education right now is our goal, cause if we can educate our communities on what we’re offering and how they can solve their problems that’s the name of the game right there,” explained Battinelli.

At the end of the day, the IoT is an invaluable tool that can be used for many things, and in the hands of Chimera Integrations, the North Country is looking at a very secure and proactive future.

The Plattsburgh office of Chimera Integrations is working hard to not only provide reliable services to the community but to elevate the community as well Stearns said, “We really strive to raise the standard of living on every level.”

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