Discipline
Intrusion alarm
An alarm is not a siren. It is a question about whether anyone finds out, and how quickly. Plenty of alarms stopped reporting years ago, or never reached anybody in the first place. This is how we specify one, and what we check before quoting. We supply installers and consultants, and we install directly when a client prefers that.
What a system is made of
Four parts. The last one is the one most quotes never mention.
Hub or panel
Holds the rules, watches every device, and decides what happens when one triggers. Sized by device count and by how the site is divided.
Detectors
Chosen for where they sit. Shell and perimeter detection first, interior movement second, because you want to know before somebody is standing in the room.
Sirens and the path to a person
A siren tells whoever is nearby. The notification path tells whoever can do something. Both get designed, and we agree who is on the end of it before quoting.
We choose models once we know the building. Wall construction, door and window count and whether cable can be run all change the answer.
Four things we do differently, and why they matter
Each of these is decided before we quote. Together they are the difference between an alarm that gets someone moving and one that only makes a noise.
The panel has to know when a detector stops talking
Wireless is not less reliable than wired, and wired is not automatically safe. What matters is supervision: whether the panel checks in with every device and raises an alarm when one goes quiet. An Ajax hub polls every device and reports one that stops answering, a cover being opened, radio jamming and a lost mains supply. An unsupervised detector that failed last year is a hole nobody can see.
Detection at the wall and the windows, before the room
Knowing somebody is over the wall or at a window is worth more than knowing they are already inside. Perimeter and shell detection comes before interior movement, which is the opposite of how most systems get sold. Where a compound already has an electric fence and its energiser has an alarm output, it can report onto the same system through a wired input module.
The alarm has to reach a person
A siren in a compound where nobody responds is noise. Before we quote we agree who gets the notification and what they are expected to do. The hub sends app alerts, text messages and phone calls over its own SIM, so the alarm still reaches a person during a power cut or when the internet is down, and it can report to Urban Eye PRO Monitoring. If the honest answer is nobody, the system needs a different design.
A wired system does not have to be ripped out
Working wired detectors can often be connected to an Ajax hub through MultiTransmitter, a wired input module with 18 zones, quoted separately, instead of refitting the building. The client gets a current system and an app that is still maintained, and the old detectors are replaced as they fail rather than all at once.
What each person actually gets
Three people live with an alarm and they want different things from it. If you are specifying it for a client, the first column is yours.
Installer or consultant
If you are specifying or installing this for a client.
- Device count and detector types agreed against the building before you quote
- Radio coverage and hub sizing checked rather than assumed
- Takeover of an existing site without asking the client to fund a full replacement
- Supply only, or supply and install, whichever suits your contract
- Pricing that varies by volume and project type, not one fixed trade rate
Building or facilities manager
The person who gets the call at two in the morning.
- A system that reports its own faults instead of being tested by hand
- Arming and disarming by area, so one part of a site can be live while another is in use
- A record of who armed, who disarmed, and when
- Notifications that reach a named person, agreed before installation
- Fewer false alarm callouts, because detectors are chosen for where they sit
Residents or staff
The people who have to live with it every day.
- Arming from a phone or a keypad without a code nobody remembers
- Detectors that do not trigger on a pet in the house or a curtain in a draught
- Their own access rather than one shared code for the whole building
- An alarm somebody actually responds to
What this changes on the running cost side
We do not publish payback figures. These are the categories an alarm that reports properly moves. Put your own numbers against them.
- False alarm callouts, which fall when detectors suit the position
- Guard response hours spent checking a site that can report its own state
- Loss from areas nobody was watching outside working hours
- Insurance conditions that depend on a working and monitored alarm
- Manual testing time, replaced by a system that flags its own faults
- Full replacement cost avoided where existing detectors can be taken over
None of these are guaranteed savings. They are the lines an alarm touches, and the ones worth measuring before and after.
A worked example
One of our defined systems, with what is included, what is excluded, and the assumptions behind it. Your site will differ, and the scope changes with it.
Tell us about the building
Whether you are quoting this for a client or the alarm is for your own site, start the same way. Tell us what the building is and who needs to know when it goes off.
Quoting this for a client?
A trade account gets you project pricing, a check on your specification before you order, and support during commissioning.
What a trade account includes →