How effective is your security alarm?
February 1, 2009
Filed under Articles, Fire, Security Alarms . Leave a Comment
- Do you have valuable stock, plant and assets on your site?
- Is your building out of sight or on a quiet industrial site?
- What impact would a break in have?
- How long would it take your business to recover?
- Do you want the police to respond as fast as possible?
Many assume that by having an alarm they are fully protected. An alarm system that looks modern with a company name on the bell will be a reasonable deterrant, but the truth of the matter is that unless it is being monitored, it may not be heard and can simply be ignored.
By law, alarm systems have to silence after 15 minutes, quite often they will not re-arm and may have been vandalised to prevent them from working properly.
ALARM TYPES
BELLS ONLY
The most common type of alarm is a bells only (Grade 2 X) and as the name suggests is an alarm which when activated just sounds a bell/siren for up to 15 minutes, in some cases it will re-arm and retrigger, but quite often will just silently flash a strobe and wait to be reset.
SPEECH DIALLER
A speech dialler is a “passive” device which connects to the alarm and a telephone line, at the same time the siren activates it makes a call and plays a recorded message to a predetermined list of numbers to alert them. A useful device as long as the telephone line is ok and not in use, the numbers are correct and the person notified can respond.
DIGITAL COMMUNICATOR
Digital communicator is where your alarm system is set up to send data to an alarm receiving centre (ARC) via a standard telephone line. When an alarm is triggered, the ARC receives notification and calls the relevant emergency service and or keyholders. A dedicated phone line is recommended, like the speech dialler if the call cannot be made then the alarm signals will not go through.
DUAL PATH SIGNALLING
Dual Path Monitored signalling is one of the most secure forms of alarm monitoring available, provided by CSL Dualcom and BT Redcare GSM. It uses two seperate communication paths (Landline and priority mobile network) and is capable of sending a ‘confirmed activation’ to ensure a response from the emergency services, even if the telephone line is cut or damaged. If either path is tampered with, or goes faulty, the ARC will be alerted and the relevant emergency services, or your authorised keyholder, will be called.
