Acqua deploys GeckoWatch camera into SPA

In order to provide better control for Acqua’ Spa management/ownership, the Spa has signed up for GeckoTech’s GeckoWatch managed service. GeckoWatch is service that allows installation of 1 or more IP video camera(s) that records to a centrally located recording server. The beauty of GeckoWatch is the economy of scales that are afforded to each subscriber that might only want/need a single camera. This is because multiple subscribers share the same infrastructure thus lowering setup costs significantly. Cost for the GeckoWatch service is $200 setup and $20/mo for ongoing managed service and support. With GeckoWatch the cameras can be viewed real-time and historically from an iPad, iPhone, Android or PC.

GeckoEye deployed to Las Lomas

Heradura’s gated community, Las Lomas, has a number of single family dwellings. Most of these houses are privately owned by foreigners. Recently GeckoTech was contracted to provision the GeckoEye energy management service for one its owners. The primary purpose for the GeckoEye installation was not “energy savings” as is normally the case. Rather the unit owner decided to subscribe to GeckoEye because of GeckoEye’s by-products. Specifically, the ability to control locks, monitor activity in and around the property, and record video (in the form of snapshots) to a cloud service. The GeckoEye will allow owner to program the access control for Staff and Guests as well as reporting on when and how the property was used. It is expected that this unit owner eventually adds more sensors, lighting control and climate control. From his iPad, the unit owner is able to login to the GeckoEye automation computer and lock/unlock doors, as well as review video and property state.

Monaco upgrades voice/data infrastructure

Monaco, one of Jaco’s finer condominiums, recently upgraded its ailing voice and data infrastructure. Specifically its cabling backbone and distribution topology. The new and improved cabling, provided by GeckoTech, will improve overall guest experience relative to both voice and data service. The project has been in the works over the last 3 months, and was finalized in early August. GeckoTech provided engineering and oversight services, while the actual cable installation was provided by Tekna Constructores. Project was on time and on budget.

Jaco Muni gives go ahead on City Wide Video Surveillance Pilot

The Jaco Municipality has given GeckoTech the “go ahead” to deploy the first four GeckoWatch cameras.   This project has been in the works for over 3 years.  The pilot project leverages the networking and video surveillance expertise of GeckoTech.   The first four cameras will be online and operational by September 1, 2012.

The premise behind GeckoWatch is to allow small businesses to subsidize the installation of public video cameras that will then be monitored by Jaco’s Municipal police.   The model allows the city to install a very expensive system at a fraction of the price.

GeckoTech is working with local developer, Brad Sanson and the Vista Las Palmas group to secure a central hub for the system’s wireless backbone.  The wireless network will allow GeckoTech to distribute cameras across the city, giving the Municipal police “eyes everywhere.”

GeckoTech is not able to disclose the location of these first four cameras, but rest assured that the camera location will add security to Jaco’s public areas from the moment they are put into operation.

 

Los Altos GeckoEye Pilot already generating savings…

Over the past few years the management/development team of Manuel Antonio’s Los Altos Beach Resort have started to appreciate the significant recurring operational costs associated with energy consumption.  To compound the situation, each elegant and spacious units has a floor plan that invites the renter to open balcony doors. To be specific, each of the 24 units has 4 large lanai (balcony) doors.  These balcony doors are a burden to the air handlers when they are left open during air handler run time. Each minute that these balcony doors remain open, with the AC running, represents huge loss. That loss quickly adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual operational costs as it relates to cooling requirements for the rental units.

Starting in May, GeckoTech introduced its GeckoEye energy management system to two pilot units. Each GeckoEye system included one automation computer, 6 door sensors, and 4 motion sensors. From day one, the GeckoEyes were generating savings by simply stopping the AC from running when balcony doors were left open for more than a few minutes. Further savings are realized through “temperature setback” when the rental units are unoccupied for more than few hours.

The engineers at GeckoTech as well as the Los Altos management staff are anxious to analyse the ICE facturas in the upcoming months. The question is not “is GeckoEye saving Los Altos money?” but rather “how much money is GeckoEye saving the property?”

It is expected Los Altos moves forward to install GeckoEye in the remaining 22 units before the beginning of high season 2012.

GeckoTech introduces mobile viewing services for Video Surveillance

GeckoTech is proud to announce availability of a mobile viewer for Video Surveillance. This add on service allows any GeckoTech client to view their video security cameras from iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices. The ability for property managers, property owners and developers to view their assets remotely using their private mobile devices is a huge boon to asset management and security. Vista Las Palmas has recently signed up for the service and designated support staff now have access to any video camera 7×24 using their personal communication devices. They are able to view real time (and historically) video imagery while “on the go”. Wow!!

Live Video stream deployed to Jaco’s most recognized brand

Live video streaming in Costa Rica (especially in outlying areas to SJO) represents unique challenges. Unreliable internet, low bandwidth, high latency, climate/humidity issues, power grid delivery, etc.. will have a negative impact on video streaming. After 1.5 years evaluating/testing various streaming technologies GeckoTech has deployed a live video feed for Jaco’s most recognized restaurant. This stream leverages the ubiquity of Adobe’s flash players as installed on most of today’s desktop, laptops and mobile devices. The live video stream http://www.losamigosjaco.com/webcam is available and active during the restaurant’s normal operational hours. The stream has been “fine tuned” to ensure maximum uptime and quality given the constraints imposed by the Costa Rican’s internet service providers. To some, the the solution may seem quite trivial, but deploying a system capable of unattended operations and recovery on the local Costa Rican Data network was no small feat. Check it out, and give us your feedback/comments.

GeckoTech moves more services to Amazon Cloud

In an effort to increase system/service reliability (five 9s of uptime) GeckoTech has moved additional services into the Amazon EC2 cloud. These services include the following:

* GeckoEye Energy Management – GeckoTech has moved its GeckoEye energy management data gathering portal out of its Jaco offices into the Amazon cloud to ensure end to end delivery of all Energy related events for rental properties.

* Milestone NVR Management – GeckoTech has more CCTV cameras deployed in Jaco than any other vendor. The cornerstone of GeckoTech’s Video Surveillance deployments is Milestone. Commercial subscribers to GeckoTech’s video surveillance systems will now use servers in the Amazon cloud to authenticate and gain access to their cameras. This will ensure that as long as there is internet service to the property’s cameras, the user will be able to access using the authentication servers hosted in Amazon’s cloud.

* Network Monitoring – Prior to the migration of GeckoTech’s Network monitoring services into the cloud, GeckoTech’s monitoring software was hosted its Jaco offices. This meant the network monitoring services were subject to the regular power and internet outages that Jaco experiences. Now, with its network monitoring services in the Amazon cloud, GeckoTech can provide metrics that are an order of magnitude more accurate than in the past. This migration also allows for better “real-time” alerts of impending outage through SMS and eMail delivery to GeckoTech technicians.

* Reporting Services – GeckoTech is leveraging Amazon’s robust infrastructure to deliver reports from various JacoPOS (Point of Sale) Servers installed at various client sites on the central pacific. The idea is that this On Demand reporting server will deliver necessary operational reports on scheduled basis without reliance on ICE’s network.

GeckoTech’s management is confident that the ROI for migration will be less than two months. More importantly GeckoTech can boast a service level that is unsurpassed in Costa Rica.

Content (Movies) on Demand Services for Rental Properties

As the “Movies on Demand” market continues to gain momentum in Latin America, there are some fundamental issues that owners of Rental properties need to take into consideration before deciding to use a specific service (Netflix or BlockBuster for example) for their rental property(s):

1) Do you have sufficient bandwidth to stream the movie realtime standard definition? (High Definition content consume far more resources than are currently available on the Costa Rica network)
2) If you make your subscription available to renters, how do you preclude them from consuming “premium” services thus “running up” your monthly subscription costs?

If you have more questions about how to successfully leverage “digital streaming content” in your rental property please feel free to contact one of GeckoTech’s sales engineers.

JacoPOS Deployed to Bar in Lansing Michigan

Yes, everyone thinks of GeckoTech as a regional company. Believe it or not, we do have clients that not only enjoy our professional service offerings here in Costa Rica for their locally owned businesses, but they also take advantage of these same services for their off-shore businesses.   One such client, Chris Petrick, owner of Bohio Grill (long time GeckoTech client) has contracted with GeckoTech to provide similar Point of Sale services for his bar in Lansing Michigan.  Chris wanted to keep his operational process the same (as it relates to point of sale) across all of his dining/bar venues. In this case it made perfect business sense to work with the same solution provider for his US concerns that he uses in his Costa Rica venues.