"Thank you, sweetie. Any other time and I would climb on your lap and we could play love games. But, not right now. There are still some things you need to know, one of which is the security system that was mentioned yesterday. You don't know it but we are being recorded as we sit here. Oh, don't bother looking around; you probably won't see the cameras. Get your coffee mug and take a walk with me and I will explain."
As we walked out of the kitchen Karen explained, "I have security cameras in every room of the house, several common areas of the house, and covering selected portions of the grounds. I tape everything in those areas 24 hours a day. The cameras automatically switch to EAL mode (Enhanced Available Light) when it becomes too dark in a room or outside as the light fails. You will be amazed at the quality of the video these cameras can produce." She turned to look at me, "Right now you are thinking, was everything we did over the past two days recorded? It was."
We walked through the lounge, down the hallway into the new wing and into Kate's office. She crossed over to her desk, opened a panel on the top and made an entry on a keypad. Behind her desk a lock clicked and a door popped open a crack. The door had nothing on it to indicate that there was anything special behind it but perhaps a storage closet. She straightened up and said to me, "This is the door to the security office. It can only be opened by entering a coded number sequence into that keypad on this desk or on one I have concealed in my suite." She opened the door fully and indicated that I was to go in.
I had only been in Kate's office and the studio a couple of times over the years but you would think that I would notice a 9x12 room appended onto the rear of her office. Inside the room there were no windows and no other door. This was the only entrance. As Kate dialed up the lighting I saw along the left wall a bank of recorders several of which were outlined in red. The wall facing the door was covered with monitors that were not turned on, 10 of the monitors were also outlined in red. The right wall contained storage racks with what appeared to be several hundred oversized videocassettes of a type I had not seen before. The wall containing the entry door had four heavy-duty cabinets, two on either side of the door.
Approximately 5 feet into the room in the center of the floor facing the monitors was a large U-shaped desk that had a partially recessed monitor in the center section with a keyboard, a mouse and a joystick. On the left wing of the U was a bank of push buttons that I found out were used to control the functioning of each recorder. On the right wing of the U was a double bank of push buttons used to control the functioning of the cameras and monitors. Also in the room, pushed off to the side were four rolling storage carts designed to hold fifty of the oversized cassettes. This was not your run of the mill domestic security system. This was a serious system that had the appearance of being a tailored custom system.
Kate explained that for each camera there was a recorder and a monitor but that 10 of those recorders outlined in red were additional, backup recorders. At the time it was installed, Kate had cameras operating in every room and area in the house, bathrooms and bedrooms included. However, she had switches installed in those two areas permitting anyone who knew about them to turn the cameras off for privacy. Several years later, Kate also had a monitored alarm type security system installed as well and she disabled the cameras in the bedrooms and bathrooms although the cameras and kill switches were still operable if she chose to reinitialize them.
Kate pointed out that everything was labeled with a one, two or three letter and two number designations. The letters indicated which room or area the cameras were surveilling and the numbers indicated the number of that camera in that room or area. L01 = Living room camera 1, K02 = Kitchen camera 2, LO04 = Lounge camera 4, ST09 = Studio camera 9, etc. All in all, the operation of the system was fairly simple and straightforward. The letter/number designation applied to the cameras, monitors and recorders. She sat down at the desk and using the computer turned on the monitors and indicated those that served the four cameras in the lounge. She called me up to the desk and activated the monitor on it and then using the keyboard typed in the designation of a monitor on the wall. The master monitor screen on the desk displayed what was also being shown of the monitor on the wall. She explained that audio was also available for each camera but since the audio was sound actuated and since no one was in the lounge, we wouldn't hear anything.
Kate entered some keystrokes on the keyboard and picking up the joystick, showed me how it was possible to swivel the cameras in a limited range up (only the ceiling was visible), down (about a 50 degree angle) right and left (almost 90 degrees each) and zoom in and out. In most of the rooms each camera's view overlapped at least one other that guaranteed a full 360-degree coverage of the room. When the system was in full automation and not being directed by a human being, each of the cameras was zeroed in to a specific point in the room or area calculated to permit maximum surveillance of that room or area and automatically returned to that zero point.
I asked Kate about the remaining recorders outlined in red. She explained that in the production studio there were 10 cameras. The monitors outlined in red indicated those cameras and 10 of the recorders outlined in red were also for those cameras. She explained that the tapes for the studio cameras were never recorded over if it contained video of one of her commercial or private recording sessions. Every tape containing such sessions could be saved if she wished. If they were saved they were kept in one of the combination locked storage cabinets along the wall behind the desk. Under normal conditions, when there were no commercial or private sessions in the studio, the tapes would be recorded over just as any of the other tapes would be. However, to ensure that this did not happen, there was a switch in the studio that Kate could activate that would prevent the recorders from re-recording the tape. Once the switch was thrown when the designated recorders reached the end of the current tape, they would transfer the signal to one of the 10 backup recorders. The only catch to the system is that Kate must remember to remove the tapes from the recorders and replace them with fresh ones and to reset the system. Kate pointed out that unless the switch was activated, the recorders functioned exactly the same as all the others and began recording over the tapes every 120 hours. The tapes did not need to be rewound since they were on a continuous loop. The remaining 10 recorders outlined in red were backups and could be used, if necessary, to backup any camera in the house.
Continuing with her explanation of the system, Kate noted there were 111 cameras on the property. Most of the cameras were concentrated on the house, pool house, garage and pool areas but she also had cameras on the grounds in carefully selected areas to safeguard the house. Several of the outdoor cameras were capable of both image enhancement and thermal imaging.
Several years ago, when technology permitted, in addition to the camera based security system Kate also had a very sophisticated monitored alarm system installed and hooked directly into the county Sheriff's office. She paid a county assessment of $12,000 a year to have that connection to the Sheriff's office with the expected response time for an alarm between 4-7 minutes. Kate considered it money well spent since twice in the past 10 years there had been an intrusion on the property and both times the sheriff's men arrived and took the men into custody before they could enter the house. Both had been convicted based on their presence on the grounds and the film showing their entry to the grounds.
To say I was impressed would be a gross understatement. Working for a governmental agency that often handles classified projects, I have some feeling for security systems. While this did not rise to that caliber it was, nonetheless a most sophisticated system for a domestic installation. "Kate, is it really necessary to go to such lengths on a security system? Is there something you are not telling me?"
"Ken, I am worth a bit of money. However, besides us, the main thing that I am trying to protect is this property. We occupy an area that is highly desired by both local government and private concerns. I have spent a bunch of money over the past several years fighting takeovers by these people. While the local government has been tenacious, they have also stayed within bounds and tried to obtain the property legally. The private concerns are another matter. There are unscrupulous people who will do virtually anything they can to obtain what they want. The people that tried to invade my space were, not so we can prove it, working for one of these private concerns. I felt that prevention is the best way. I acquired these systems and made sure that these private concerns knew about them and how effective they are. Since I have had them installed, I have not had any more trouble from them that my lawyers can't handle. It is money well spent. I have a security consultant that is responsible for ensuring that my system is in perfect operating order and is up-to-date with the latest in technology. I trust his judgment implicitly since he is a second cousin. Keep it in the family I always say." She laughed and patted George.
"Well, if you feel that this is necessary, I guess it is. I'm sorry that you have had to go to such extremes though."
"No big deal. I spend my money as I want to and as I think necessary. Sometimes you have to use your money to protect your money. So, any questions?"
"Who has access to all of this?"
"Your mom, Karen and I have the keypad combination. Now, you will have it as well." And she gave me the combination."
"So, I can simply come down here and watch while you 'entertain' your guests," I said with a leer.
"Technically, yes. But why would you want to sit in a windowless room when the system can be accessed from my bedroom, your bedroom or the suite in the pool house?" I told you that the only way you can gain entry into this room is from the keypad on the desk in the office or the one in my suite. What I didn't tell you was that you do not have to be in this office to operate the system. It can be accessed and controlled from several places: here, my bedroom, your bedroom or the pool house. Additionally, the signal from the system can be sent to any of the large screen TV's in the house or pool house."
Kate explained that sometimes she would load in a tape of a past commercial shoot to observe what went right or what went wrong or simply to try and get ideas for another shoot. She might even send it to any or all of the monitors so that she can be doing something else in another part of the house while she watches.
Naturally I asked her if she ever just pulled tapes of previous sex sessions and watched them. She admitted she did and that she specifically saved some of the tapes from "special sessions" she had. But, she said, "Remember that these tapes record over themselves every 120 hours if no one specifically comes down here and switches the cassette over. I don't keep tapes unless there is something that I really want to save. Naturally, I asked her about the tapes from Karen's 'bachlorette' all-girl sex orgy. She took me over to the cabinets and opened one. In the cabinet were 200 cassettes many were labeled with a date and time but some were blank. She explained that by using the computer on the desk and entering the date and cassette number you could access a database with a brief summary of what was on the cassette. She pointed to one that had on it the date of the day before our wedding and a little red dot. "That's the tape. But, before you watch it, you should ask Karen's permission, your mom and I won't mind, but it would show your respect for her privacy although I don't doubt that she really wants you to see it. Just ask her first. Besides, I'll bet she wants to be with you when you are watching it."
