Case study · Site security
SiteStream
Hardware and software Product Architect for a solar-powered surveillance platform, replacing the third-party system SiteStream had been renting.
Player 1 · RedSky · Stage 2
Final score
Run for SiteStream
- 1 Third-party licenses The third-party monitoring software was removed entirely. SiteStream now owns its stack top to bottom.
- 0
- 2 Fleet migrated Units already deployed in the field were moved across, not just new builds.
- 100%
- 3 Initial build Scoped and delivered at a fixed price, then extended into ongoing feature work.
- Fixed-bid
- Hardware integration
- Software development
- UX/UI design
The run
Two worlds. One boss.
World 1 · Stage 1 · The vision
A partnership platform, not a product SiteStream has to monitor itself
SiteStream’s business is not selling cameras. Security firms rent its skids and take on the monitoring themselves, each inside its own scope and under its own brand. That model only works if every partner gets a real administrative environment of their own, not a shared login to somebody else’s dashboard. The software had to become the product.
World 1 · Stage 2 · Boss · The challenge
The platform they were building on could not support the business they were building
SiteStream ran on third-party monitoring software added on top of each unit. It was slow, it was awkward to operate, and it was missing the capabilities the partnership model depended on.
There was no partner-scoped admin environment, no unit-level billing, and no way to schedule motion zones. Every feature SiteStream wanted to sell waited on somebody else’s roadmap. Enter RedSky Engineering.
World 2
How RedSky delivered
Product Architect across the full stack: field hardware, a monitoring platform built to replace a third-party system, and native clients on iOS and the web.
World 2 · Stage 1
Architect
RedSky opened on the constraint that governs an off-grid unit: it has to stay alive, outdoors and unattended, through a Utah winter. Units were losing power in the cold, and short winter days left the solar array unable to replace what the batteries gave up overnight. RedSky specified the compute, battery, and connectivity hardware around cold-weather survival rather than peak performance, landing on lithium batteries.
World 2 · Stage 2
Build
RedSky built the monitoring platform SiteStream runs on today and the two clients that reach it: a native iOS app and a browser-based admin console. The rebuild was an expansion rather than a port, adding motion zones that follow a calendar and an hourly schedule, motion and sound triggers, per-unit billing, and the partner-scoped access the rental model depends on.
World 2 · Stage 3
Deliver
The previous software was retired rather than left running alongside the new platform, which meant migrating the units already in the field, not only the ones still to be built. RedSky delivered the initial platform on a fixed bid and has continued building features since, while SiteStream stands up a team of its own.
Boss down 3 hits · SiteStream cleared
The outcome
A monitoring platform SiteStream owns outright, and the partnership model it was built to run
Security firms now rent SiteStream skids and monitor their own sites through their own scoped admin environment, billed per unit. None of that was possible on the platform SiteStream started from.
The third-party software is gone from the stack, including from the units already in the field. RedSky continues to develop the platform while SiteStream builds the internal team that will take it on.
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