Security and property management are the same job. Your tools should act like it.

1. Why security and property management are split in the first place

Property management companies historically outsource security. The security contract buys a guard, a patrol schedule, and an incident report template. The cameras on the property are owned by the owner, wired to a DVR in a utility closet, and nobody watches them live. When an incident happens, the guard writes a report and the property manager pulls footage days later, often after an insurance adjuster asks for it.

This split made sense when watching cameras was a full-time human job. It does not make sense now. The property manager already has operational reasons to watch cameras (pool hours, package rooms, parking compliance, vendor access). The security vendor already has security reasons. They are looking at the same feeds for different purposes, from different dashboards, with no shared event log between them.

The practical result: when a resident reports a car broken into overnight, the property manager searches footage while the guard company searches its own patrol log, and the two accounts often do not line up. Insurance claims stall. Resident trust erodes. Both teams spend hours on what should be a five minute retrieval.

2. One device, two teams: how a shared HDMI tap works

Cyrano is a small edge AI device that plugs into the HDMI output of your existing DVR or NVR. It does not replace cameras. It does not require network reconfiguration. It processes whatever the DVR is already displaying, up to 25 camera feeds from a single unit, locally on the device.

Because the device sits on top of the DVR rather than inside a vendor stack, both property management and security can be set up as users on the same system with different notification rules. The property manager gets pool hour violations and after hours amenity access. The security vendor (or the police dispatch contact) gets trespassing, loitering in stairwells, and forced entry attempts. The feeds, the zones, and the footage are the same. The alert routing is what differs.

Installation is typically under five minutes: HDMI in, power on, connect to WiFi or Ethernet, configure zones in the app. The device keeps video data on-site.

3. What property managers see vs. what security sees

The split between operational events and security events is a configuration choice, not a hardware choice. A practical division on a multifamily property looks like this:

Property management (operational alerts)

• Pool or gym access outside posted hours.
• Package room activity during overnight windows.
• Dumpster area misuse (bulk items, non-residents).
• Vendor arrivals and loading dock occupancy.
• Parking compliance in fire lanes and reserved spots.

Security (response alerts)

• Trespassing in restricted areas.
• Tailgating through secured doors.
• Loitering in stairwells or parking structures at night.
• Forced entry attempts at leasing office or utility rooms.
• Unidentified persons near resident units after hours.

Same device, same cameras, same footage. Different notification rules on the same zone definitions. When a security alert fires, the property manager sees it in the shared feed. When an operational alert fires, the security vendor sees it too. Neither team is blind to what the other is handling.

4. The shared audit trail (the part insurers care about)

The biggest operational cost of split security and property management is not day-to-day work; it is reconstructing history. Insurance claims, resident disputes, and lease enforcement actions all require a defensible timeline. When the property manager logs and the security vendor logs live in different systems, building that timeline is manual.

With a single AI device on the DVR, every detection, alert, acknowledgment, and response is logged in one place. Natural language search replaces scrubbing through hours of footage: a request like "show me all delivery vehicles in the fire lane last Tuesday" returns matching clips directly, rather than a morning of rewinding a DVR.

For insurance, this matters because the audit trail includes the detection, the classification, who got the alert, when it was acknowledged, and what footage was attached. That is the kind of evidence adjusters ask for and rarely get when two separate vendors handle different parts of the incident.

5. What it costs when one system replaces two

A typical split setup on a mid-size multifamily property looks like: a single guard shift ($3,000 to $7,500 per month), plus the property manager's time spent pulling footage (uncounted but real), plus the DVR itself (already a sunk cost). Cyrano is $450 one-time hardware plus $200 per month per device, and one device handles up to 25 cameras.

The straight cost swap (replacing a single guard shift with AI monitoring) saves roughly $2,800 per month. The less visible saving is in the property manager's time: footage retrieval that used to take half a day becomes a natural language query that takes seconds, and the audit trail is automatically attached.

AI monitoring does not replace every security function. It cannot physically intervene, escort, or perform wellness checks. For properties where those functions matter, a hybrid model (reduced guard hours plus 24/7 AI monitoring) often works better than either alone.

6. FAQ

Does the device work with any DVR brand?

Yes. Because Cyrano ingests the HDMI output of the DVR, it does not depend on camera brand, DVR brand, or firmware. Any DVR or NVR with a working HDMI output is compatible. Most systems installed in the last 10 to 15 years qualify.

How many cameras can one device handle?

Up to 25 camera feeds simultaneously from a single unit, processed locally on the device. Larger properties typically deploy one device per DVR rather than trying to centralize.

Can property management and the security vendor both be users on the same device?

Yes. Notification rules are per-user and per-zone. The property manager can be the primary recipient for operational alerts (after hours pool access, loading dock) while the security vendor or police dispatch contact is primary for response alerts (trespassing, forced entry). Both can view the shared event log and footage library.

Does video leave the property?

Processing happens locally on the edge device. Full video stays on-site on your existing DVR. Event clips and screenshots are sent to the alert recipients as part of each notification.

What happens during the first 30 days?

Most properties spend the first month calibrating zone boundaries and time windows to reduce false positives on the specific traffic patterns of that property. The system is actively detecting and alerting during calibration; tuning just sharpens the signal-to-noise ratio over time.

Does this replace a security guard entirely?

For observe-and-report guard duties, it substitutes for the camera-watching part of the role. It does not physically intervene or escort. Properties that need physical intervention often keep reduced guard hours and add AI monitoring to cover the gaps.