Category Archives: Intruder Alarms

CCTV installation,before Xmas,lets wait and see

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CCTV for Xmas?


How things turn around. For the last 18 months the CCTV security industry has been eerily quiet. The reasons are obvious. The recession has driven many areas of business to cut back and one of the casualties of this has been the security budget. A make do situation arose where by end users were happy to cancel service agreements and ignore faults that would have normally been rectified as matter of urgency. However the last 2-3 months has seen people seriously considering their security needs again.

CCTV installations start to grow.

CCTV installations have picked up slowly as the economy starts to grow again and there is now signs that with the many bankruptcies that occurred to security installers means there may be a shortage of good installing companies left out there to meet demand.

Can we get installations on the wall before Xmas?

Now it is always the same, Xmas seems to bring mass panic and everyone wants their intruder alarms and CCTV working, upgraded or installed for the holiday period. There are rumours that the “big boys” are already telling their clients that they can’t meet the deadline and intruder alarm and CCTV camera manufacturers are suddenly quoting 2 week lead times for delivery where we have all been used to next day for last couple of years.

Buy cheap buy twice!

So the moral of this story seems to be if you have a fault , fix it sooner rather than later. If you need an installation don’t expect miracles from installing companies who have had to cut staff and prices just to stay in business. And finally those who stuck by their favoured , reliable installing companies instead of shopping around for cheap inadequate replacements, will find that they will have their CCTV and security systems working for Xmas while others are left woefully exposed to crime. It will be very interesting to see how this one pans out.

Policed intruder alarms

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Most insurance companies insist on an intruder alarm that is policed. This is obviously to minimise their risk and ensure that the end user installs a system that is from an accredited company such as an NSI installer.

The Police however have had a gutful of of call outs that have been generated as a result of false alarms and have therefore insisted on strict critera before they will attend any alarm call.

Confirmation is the main item they insist on and this can take one of 3 formats

Sequential confirmation

Audible confirmation

Or visual confirmation

Each of the above use a technique that ensures there are two factors involved in the process of signalling before the police can be called.

By far the most common form of of confirmation is sequential.This is a method whereby the alarm panel will need to process two signals from two separate devices within the building before sending a code to the central station that confirms movement in the premises .The number of  false policed alarms has reduced dramatically since this technique has been enforced.

Another factor insurance companies look for is secure  dual path signalling. This is where the panel is connected to a Dualcom or Redcare or Emizon. These signalling devices provide two paths to the central station the first over the phone line the second over GPRS or GSM. Each of the above have their own particular features but in essence all provide the dual path signalling that insurance companies insist upon.

If a premises loses policing or has not had policing in the six month previous a new application to the police must be sought .This often causes problems as many systems will need an upgrade to the latest European regs  in order to comply .

So if your premises requires a policed response please contact us and we can fill you in on all the critiera you will need to ensure you can get police cover.

Panels that are commonly used to ensure a policed response incude

Risco

Castle

Galaxy

Pyronix

Europlex

Dual path IP signalling for CCTV

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Emizon.

Dual path IP signalling is a prerequisite now in all intruder alarm scenarios, for many years now insurers have insisted on it and it is one of the most important security measures employed within the industry. Also one that gives early warning of a potential break in and is crucial in limiting losses.

Emizon TCD

It is strange therefore, that CCTV systems do not seem to have the same level of security applied to their signalling path to a central station. Most CCTV systems rely on an unmonitored ASDL line, this seems totally inadequate when you consider what CCTV systems are expected to protect in the way of value, especially when being used to confirm external intrusions into compounds and other external areas where goods of high value are stored.

With the IP CCTV revolution currently underway, Emizon 21 have an ideal answer to any line cuts that may occur. They do this by providing dual path signalling using the broadband telephone line and a secondary GPRS route. Using the first secure  IP monitoring solution on the market, Emizon have shown innovation and an insight into the future of IP communication.

So with most telephone lines now going over to broadband , Emizon can provide excellent value for any dual path signalling solution, whether they be for existing, new intruder alarms or CCTV

Dual path IP monitoring

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Dual path IP monitoring.

It is clear to see the benefits that a dual path monitoring system can
bring to any security system. Peace of mind for the customer and
almost always a prerequisite of the insurance company, it is obvious
two paths are better one.

Line cuts.

In the not too dim and distant past single path monitored phone
connections were all too common. On many occasions an engineer would
turn up after a break-in only to find that all the incoming lines had
been cut often at the top of the telegraph pole. The perpetrators
would then have simply disabled the bell box and helped themselves.
The central station, Police and the customer, none the wiser!

Insurance.

Insurance companies soon wised up to this and driven by the need for a
solution, products were developed using mobile phone technology to
send a secondary signal out via the mobile network to the waiting
central station. The dual path monitoring solution was born and has
been an unqualified success ever since its inception.

IP broadband monitoring.

Legacy signalling providers obviously designed their services around the old PSTN infrastructure. One company however thought beyond this legacy infrastructure and planned their product around what was
inevitably to become the future. The future is Broadband and the
future is fibre.

Emizon lead way!

Emizon have designed their service to support installers take advantage of the IP environment including fibre and next generation networks. As a result they are leading the way in cost effective, secure dual path signalling and Emizon IP is now being specified as
standard by many installers. The benefits include on line access to enable a remote maintenance and remote programming which is enabled via a serial port integrated into the TDC. Installers can use this service to make changes to channel inputs and check the signal strength remotely.  In addition, using an on-board set of relays, DVRs can be given a
reboot often all they need, saving engineer time on a site visit.  And as an IP service integration with other building services is also that much easier to achieve.

Secure IP monitoring over broadband.

However most importantly Emizon has been specifically designed for the
broadband era and is secure and easy to use as a result. No unexpected phone
bills either to explain away. But how does it compare price wise to
other products? Well very favourably. Central stations have seen the
future and keen pricing will encourage installations. The unit is not
site specific so engineers can carry the TDC in their car and fit a
unit on the day whatever the signalling grade required, panel or GPRS network is available and with either dynamic or static IP addressing. With pstn connectivity being added later this summer and meaning that the same Emizon TCD can be deployed whatever the engineer is faced with on site. Simple.

No other way forward.

When we look to the future it is hard to see that fibre and broadband
are going to be superceded by a new technology soon. So with Emizon
exploiting broadband so cleverly, it hard to see a dual path
signalling product that is really capable of matching the benefits
Emizon can provide.

International Security Exhibitions

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We may be based in the UK, but we always like to follow some of the up and coming International Exhibitions!

Volcano ash permitting, we are looking to bring good information on emerging technologies from the following exhibitions in 2010

ESSEN – Essen, Germany 5th to 8th October

ASIS – Texas, USA 12th to 15th October

ISC EAST – New York, USA 3rd and 4th November

more to follow!