HiveWatch - Experts & Thought Leaders

PPLD serves El Paso County across multiple branches — from busy urban libraries to new rural buildings. Its security program, built on systems dating back to the late 1980s, had to keep pace with a fast-growing footprint. “I don’t know that we would have been able to get to the point where we had everything we wanted deployed if we didn’t have tech like this,” said Michael Brantner, Chief Facilities & Security Officer, Pikes Peak Library District. Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) is one of Colorado Springs’ most-used public institutions, serving the El Paso County community across multiple branches with 780 cameras and more than 150 doors under active monitoring. Their physical security program had been trying to keep pace. Legacy systems dating back to the late 1980s. Cameras and access control systems that didn’t talk to each other. A small team buried under too many alarms. The model was reactive, and it was overdue for a rethink. Legacy security technology The challenge - PPLD’s footprint was growing in a few ways, through new construction and the addition of more rural buildings under its umbrella – and Chief Facilities & Security Officer Michael Brantner needed more visibility across all of the buildings. Combining the systems in place to protect these locations, plus the new ones, required a new approach: bring decades of legacy security technology into a unified, modern operation that could scale alongside the district’s growth. PPLD wanted to centralise the management of the district’s security function, which led Michael to explore the creation of a new security operations center (SOC). “We had a lot of technology that didn’t talk to each other,” Michael said. “We wanted to be able to consolidate it into one place where we can manage what’s happening across our sites.” Consolidate disconnected systems When he started building PPLD’s SOC, the mandate was clear: bring decades of legacy security technology into a unified, modern operation that could scale alongside the district’s growth. But he also needed to consolidate disconnected systems, prove ROI to the C-suite, and staff and train a team that could actually move the program forward. At the time, PPLD’s setup was a patchwork: Cloud-based cameras and access control sitting next to legacy equipment, with no shared view across them Operators who were refreshing screens to see new alarms Panic alerts, door alarms, and intercom calls each requiring a different screen, a different workflow, and a different response Notifications were inconsistent Response times couldn’t be measured No centralised SOC to manage alarms cohesively Residents experiencing homelessness Most incoming alarms generated by PPLD’s ACS were false: held-open doors, cleaning crews, and after-hours trip alarms. But every single alarm still demanded a response from someone on the team, even if there was no safety issue. The complexity was real. PPLD’s branches serve a diverse community that includes families, students, and residents experiencing homelessness across locations with very different security profiles. Some deal with routine access events. Others face behavioural incidents, policy enforcement issues, and higher alarm volumes. Across all of them, public spaces had to stay public, and private staff areas had to stay private. Those boundaries need to be enforced, all day, every day. Access control systems The solution - As Michael stood up PPLD’s new SOC, HiveWatch stood out as a way to centralise the security program and allowed the growing team a single, active view of every incident across every system. The platform connected directly to PPLD’s existing cameras and access control systems. This meant operators were able to view door alarms, access events, video clips, panic alerts, and environmental sensors (including vape and smoke detection) in one single incident list in a web-based browser. Instead of refreshing screens and guessing at what they might have missed, operators could see every active incident and incoming alarm the moment it surfaced and respond from the same place. Killing redundant alerts Alarm deduplication cut volume on day one, killing redundant alerts before they hit an operator. Noisy doors became easy to spot and fix. When specific issues surfaced, like a flood of DHO alarms, for instance, the system helped the SOC adjust alarm timing. That adaptability, tuned to actual door and user behaviour without loosening security, kept the program compliant and cut the alarm load the SOC had to manage. Operators, along with field officers, made use of the mobile app, too. The team’s ability to acknowledge, investigate, and resolve incidents from anywhere in the building was a huge benefit. Security triage stopped being tied to a desk. Response became coordinated, in real time, across every location. Standard operating procedure But the shift went beyond operations. For the first time, PPLD’s leadership had detailed data on its security program: response times, alarm volumes, and incident trends. Michael could walk into a leadership meeting with numbers that proved the program’s value. He could spot which operators were hitting targets, which branches were generating outliers, and where more operator or officer training was needed. “We aren’t just operators staring at cameras anymore. HiveWatch lets us cut through the noise, focus on what matters, and actually expand what our team can do,” said Joe Vickous, SOC Supervisor, Pikes Peak Library District. Single active queue Every shift, PPLD’s operators manage a single active queue. Door forced at a branch. Vape detection in a restroom. Held-open back door after a cleaning crew shift change. An intercom call from a side entrance. All surfaced in one view without screen-refreshing or system-hopping. When an access control alert comes in, the response is immediate. The operator sees the alert with the connected camera feed in the same view, follows the built-in standard operating procedure (SOP), and, if warranted, dispatches the field officer with full context from within the platform. Audible alerts mean the SOC can run HiveWatch in a single tab without sacrificing a full monitor, freeing operators to handle more important work like footage pulls, door testing, and badge creation between incidents. Badge creation between incidents “HiveWatch makes the operators more flexible and makes them more versatile, as well,” Michael said. “They’re able to focus on something else and it will prompt them and say, hey, pay attention. We have to interact. They can check it out, dispatch somebody, and then go back to what they’re doing.” And when something crosses the public-private line, such as a patron drifting into a staff-only corridor, the platform surfaces it in real time. The operator sees it, the field officer responds, and the boundary holds. Public stays public. Private stays private. No guessing. No discovery after the fact. Incidents are caught early, handled according to protocol, and documented with a full record attached. “The biggest benefit for us is having the tool that sorts through the noise and focuses the operators on the notifications that are actually coming in that need attention,” Branter said. Standard operating procedure The results: Median time to acknowledge incidents of 21 seconds and median time to resolve of 28 seconds using HiveWatch. Scaled the SOC from 2 operators to 6 plus a manager, with the platform absorbing the workload increase. Extended the SOC beyond the control room with mobile triage and response for field officers and operators. Equipped leadership with real-time data on acknowledgement and response times, and alarm trends, turning a reactive program into a proactive, measurable one. Positioned the program to absorb 800 additional cameras and access points without proportional headcount growth.

BuzzFeed, Inc. is one of the most recognisable names in digital media, with 500+ employees, a newsroom and operations across Los Angeles and New York, and a brand built on being fast, scrappy, and ahead of the curve. Their physical security program was trying to keep pace. BuzzFeed was spending more on physical security, not technology, to manage security. In-person guards. Long shifts. Weekend coverage. Manual paper reports. The model was expensive. It wasn’t scalable. And it was overdue for a rethink. Heightened public scrutiny The challenge - When Chandler Bondan, BuzzFeed’s Chief People Officer, started evaluating options, the criteria were clear: reduce costs without reducing protection. She needed a partner who could handle 24/7 monitoring remotely, design and build out a camera system that actually covered their footprint, and communicate with BuzzFeed in the way her team actually works, in Slack. At the time, BuzzFeed’s camera coverage was limited and inconsistent: a patchwork of built-for-consumer cameras with significant blind spots across critical buildings, entrances, exits, and parking lots. For a media company operating in an era of heightened public scrutiny, that wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was a duty-of-care issue. People needed to feel safe. Entrances needed to be covered. And the privacy of employees moving through the building had to be respected, not just assumed. Physically verifying identities On the operations side, BuzzFeed ran an in-house GSOC staffed by guards — 5 to 7 on at any given time in LA alone — that functioned more like a dispatch centre than a true strategic security operation. Guards calling guards. Human patrols covering the floor. On-site personnel physically verifying identities and manually letting people into the building. And through all of it, every alarm, every incident, every access event was being documented by hand. Most of those alarms were false. But they all got a report anyway. There was no way to identify patterns, flag problem devices, or actually improve the program over time. Just an endless cycle of alerts, paperwork, and noise — and a security team spending its time reacting instead of strategy planning. Flag problem devices “Security used to be a line item. Now it’s a lens. The data HiveWatch gives us about people, how they move through our buildings, which spaces are actually being used… has become part of how we think about our footprint, our real estate decisions, our expansion plans. It’s not just keeping people safe. It’s helping us run a smarter business,” Chandler Bondan, Chief People Officer, BuzzFeed. The complexity was real. BuzzFeed’s LA headquarters spans multiple buildings they occupy entirely, along with a variety of parking lots that needed coverage. Their New York office sits on a couple of floors of a shared building. After-hours access, by team members and contractors alike, happens regularly but unpredictably based on production schedules, talent on site and equipment pickup and dropoff. All of it managed by boots on the ground, around the clock. Filtering false positives The solution - HiveWatch started where BuzzFeed needed it most: the infrastructure. Working with BuzzFeed’s LA and NY office managers, the HiveWatch team designed and built out a full camera system from the ground up, replacing the ad hoc camera setup with deliberate, professional coverage. Every entrance, every exit, every parking lot. Blind spots were eliminated, and for the first time BuzzFeed had a camera system that was designed for duty of care. Then HiveWatch took over 24/7 virtual monitoring across all locations. The in-house GSOC — guards calling guards, reacting to noise — was replaced by the HiveWatch® GSOC Operating System, powered by AI, that handles the work no human should have to: triaging alarms, filtering false positives, and reviewing camera footage before an operator ever gets involved. When something real surfaces, a GSOC operator is there to make the call. The result is a security operation that runs autonomously and, in large part, remotely. It handles incidents in real time, verifying identities via technology, and communicates exactly where BuzzFeed’s team already is: Slack. Compliance-ready documentation Two dedicated channels were set up from day one: one for daily incident reporting, one for after-hours access requests. The after-hours process got a complete overhaul. Instead of a guard physically verifying someone at the door, access requests are now handled proactively through Slack — submitted before the person even leaves for the building, reviewed against approved SOPs, and resolved before they arrive. No waiting at the door required. But the shift went beyond operations. Because Chandler’s role sits at the intersection of people and security, the data HiveWatch surfaces matters as much as the monitoring itself. The platform gives BuzzFeed a full audit trail and compliance-ready documentation as a baseline. Beyond that, the people insights — how employees move through buildings, which entrances see the most traffic, how office utilisation shifts over time — have become a real input into decisions about space, expansion, and how BuzzFeed thinks about its physical footprint going forward. Security went from cost centre to business intelligence. Daily incident report “HiveWatch doesn’t just monitor for us, they work with us. Having that expertise in our corner, especially for a team our size, has been invaluable,” said Maritza Bocks, Director of People Operations & Compliance, BuzzFeed. Every morning, BuzzFeed’s team wakes up to a daily incident report in Slack. Virtual patrols conducted. Calls made. Access granted, access denied. Door events flagged, validated, and cleared — all through the HiveWatch Operating System. Critical infrastructure room But it’s not just routine monitoring. HiveWatch has flagged things like usual activity near BuzzFeed’s property and a water leak developing in a critical infrastructure room. All during overnight virtual patrols, HiveWatch alerted staff to security and property concerns. All before BuzzFeed’s team started their day. In each case, the same playbook: captured in real time, the right people notified according to SOPs, and the situation monitored and documented until it was fully resolved. No scramble. No discovery after the fact. Vulnerabilities and incidents are caught early, handled according to protocol, and handed off with a full record attached. After-hours access runs asynchronously as well. An employee heading in late for a production shoot sends a Slack message before they leave. HiveWatch reviews it, approves or denies against SOPs, and the answer is waiting for them before they reach the door. No one needs to be there in person 24/7. No one waits outside. It’s been a game changer for BuzzFeed’s team. As Ryan Schonfeld, HiveWatch Co-Founder & CEO, recounts: BuzzFeed’s security leader told him unprompted how much her team enjoys the Slack reporting and how well HiveWatch is performing. The quote from BuzzFeed’s HQ manager on a recent check-in said it all: “Nothing to go over. We figured it out, guys,” said HQ Facilities Manager, BuzzFeed.

HiveWatch, a physical security software company reimagining how organisations keep their people and assets safe, releases The State of Physical Security Operations in 2026, a new benchmark report examining how enterprise physical security programs actually perform when measured against operational realities, including alarm volume, SLA attainment, operational maturity, and AI adoption. Commissioned through independent research firm Censuswide, the report surveyed 300 U.S.-based professionals responsible for physical security operations at organisations with 500 or more employees and at least $5 million in annual revenue. The findings reveal a striking disconnect between confidence and operational effectiveness across modern security operations centers (SOCs). Lower-maturity programs “At a time when security teams are being asked to manage more devices, more alerts, and more operational complexity than ever before, many organisations still lack the visibility and operational benchmarks needed to understand how effectively their programs are actually performing,” said Ryan Schonfeld, Co-Founder and CEO, HiveWatch. “This report highlights the growing gap between perceived readiness and measurable performance, while also showing how AI and automation are beginning to separate mature security operations from those struggling to keep pace.” Among the report’s key findings: Large enterprises report false alarm rates approaching 44% Nearly 30% of organisations still rely on manual device health checks instead of fully automated monitoring systems 97% of respondents are either currently using AI or actively evaluating it for security operations AI adoption reaches 75% among organisations that rate themselves at the highest maturity levels, compared to 43% among lower-maturity programs The report also identifies a growing “automation deficit” across the industry, with operators spending significant time on repetitive administrative work such as manual alarm triage and routine notifications instead of higher-value threat analysis and response. Making meaningful progress “The physical security industry has spent years talking about technology adoption, but the more important question is whether security programs are remaining operationally effective as complexity scales,” said Jordan Hill, Co-Founder & Head of Product, HiveWatch. “The organisations making meaningful progress are the ones operationalising AI and automation to reduce noise, improve response, and give operators the ability to focus on actual threats.” The report combines independent survey data with operational benchmark insights from HiveWatch customer environments to provide security leaders with comparative data across operational maturity, AI adoption, device monitoring, alarm management, and SOC structure.

If AI is the dominant buzzword in the physical security industry, it is the second letter (I for intelligence) that is having the biggest impact. Simply put, intelligence transforms computer systems, including those used for physical security, from rigid, rule-following calculators into adaptable, problem-solving partners to human operators. We asked our Expert Panel Roundtable: What is the changing role of intelligence in physical security?

Data overload is real. Sometimes it seems we are bombarded by the sheer volume, velocity, and variety of data available in our personal lives, and in our work lives. The solution is to figure out how to make sense of the data and transform it into real information we can use. In the case of physical security systems, new opportunities are emerging every day to utilise data to make our businesses safer and better managed. We asked our Expert Panel Roundtable: What is the expanding role of data in physical security systems? Why does it matter?

A system's lifecycle is the journey it takes from planning and design through to decommissioning. Considering the entire lifecycle of a system can encourage integrators and end users to embrace higher-quality technologies with an eye toward maximising their value over time rather than focusing on lower-priced equipment. For additional insights, we asked our Expert Panel Roundtable: How does consideration of system lifecycles impact the choice of physical security technologies?