Security System Notification Options

If you’ve kept up with our blog at all, you know how much we tout the security power of a monitored burglar alarm. These security systems create a siren response upon detecting a breach, alerting anyone on site to the danger and hopefully scaring off would-be criminals. Additionally, connecting these systems to our monitoring service also creates a central station response. This can alert you and your family to events that occur in your absence. If necessary, this can also create a police dispatch! For these reasons, we recommend that all home and business owners install this security. Today, we review the many security system notification options we provide when designing an alarm.

First, we’ll show you how we go about making sure your alarm’s sirens properly cover your property. We install a variety of different siren types to ensure that you know about an alarm activation from your current location at your home or business. Moreover, we even have options to alert anyone nearby to the danger as well! From there, we’ll review how our central station alerts you to alarm-related events. Our monitoring service creates a tremendous amount of added security to any alarm. Finally, we’ll show you how adding interactive controls to your alarm takes this security one step further! Now, let’s get started with a look at the types of sirens we install with our alarms!

Siren Alarm Notifications

As we mentioned, an alarm activation brings with it the activation of any and all sirens attached to your security system. We offer a variety of ways to connect these sirens and get you the security experience you desire. After all, we secure all different types of applications. Therefore, we must offer an equally wide array of options to create the best alarm response for your property. In this section, we show you how we create the desired audible alarm notification that best suits your needs. Let’s first look at sirens that alert those inside to potential danger.

Interior Sirens

We have a couple goals in mind when installing sirens inside your property. First, we must install enough sirens to alert every area of your home or business to any danger. As we touched upon, we also want to create enough of a racket to scare perpetrators away. To do so, traditionally we would run a wire from a main alarm panel to each and every siren location. However, wireless technology has also made it possible to install wireless sirens in areas where running wires to a main panel may prove difficult or even impossible. The advent of wireless sirens has made it much easier to ensure proper siren coverage of any property. However, in order to work, the siren must be close enough to the alarm’s main panel to communicate wirelessly. Therefore, in applications such as warehouses and larger businesses, we still hardwire most if not all sirens.

Moreover, smaller wireless alarm applications often have their siren installed in the alarm panel itself. Modern “all-in-one alarms, such as our preferred QOLSYS IQ Panel 4, have a siren built in to the main control panel, which also acts as the alarm’s keypad. This cuts down on cost and adds a great deal of efficiency to any alarm installation. All of these siren options can help achieve interior alarm-based security. Now, let’s show you how we let those outside your property know of a security breach.

Exterior Sirens

In some instances, our customers care as much about creating an external siren response as an internal one. For these customers, we offer weather-rated, outdoor sirens for exterior alarm notification. Homes in suburban areas and large businesses make great applications to add exterior sirens. These sirens often spook burglars before they even breach your property. Moreover, they also alert neighboring homes and businesses to a potential break-in.

In some instances, these sirens also contain a flashing strobe light to add even more security. This strobe can help light up your property during attempted crimes at nighttime and make a thief’s retreat even faster. Just as importantly, they also show the authorities where to go when responding to an alarm. At this point, you should have a pretty good handle on our siren-based security system notification options. Let’s now look at how our central station responds to an alarm and reaches out to you!

Central Station-Based Notifications

In our introduction, we briefly detailed our central station monitoring service. To create this added security, we partner with one of the nations premier monitoring services, Rapid Response Monitoring. For starters, Rapid Response has the backup power and phone capacity to withstand most any natural disaster. They have 3 fully redundant facilities located throughout the United States. They also have the physical personnel to quickly reach out to all of our customers whenever help is needed. Furthermore, Rapid Response has an Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL) listing for security monitoring. A UL listing for security monitoring means that the central station must meet several security-related guidelines, and pass an independent inspection. It also means that workers must go through specific, rigorous training before interacting with customers.

Upon receiving an alarm alert, a central station dispatcher picks up the phone and calls a “premise number” of your choosing. If the caller receives no answer, or if the person who does answer requests it, the operator will then dispatch the police to the premises. After this dispatch, the operator will then begin calling numbers on a call list of your creation. This can alert a family member or even a neighbor to the issue. Generally, the operator will keep calling until someone answers. If an inordinate amount of time passes without reaching anyone, the central station will reach out to us to alert us to the situation. At that point, we also try contacting our customer about the issue. This service obviously represents one of the most effective ways to secure your home or business. Let’s look at a monitoring option that makes this service even more powerful!

Interactive Alarm Notification Options

When we install a monitored security system, we prefer to use a cellular dialer for the alarm monitoring. Traditional security monitoring involves tying your property’s phone line to your alarm to communicate with our central station. Our cellular dialer, powered by Alarm.com, uses a cellular network instead. Therefore, if your phone lines fail — or if they get cut by a smart burglar — your alarm will stay monitored with no interruptions.

In addition to receiving more reliable alarm communication, our Alarm.com customers can also experience interactive security monitoring! Alarm.com’s interactive monitoring service gives you the ability to arm and disarm your security system remotely using the Alarm.com smartphone app. Additionally, it also lets you create and react to important alarm notifications that get sent straight to your phone. For example, we always set up customiable security alerts for our Alarm.com users. This means that even if you are out of earshot of your sirens, you’ll still know about an alarm event the second it happens. Additionally, you’ll have the power to either cancel the alarm or confirm it to request a police response. The combination of reliable security monitoring, remote security system control, and instant alarm-related alerts make interactive cellular monitoring one of our most effective security system notification options.

Finding the Right Security System Notification Options for You

We hope that this post helps you understand your security system notification options. Additionally, we also encourage you to contact us with any questions this post may raise for you. We will happily answer any and all of your security-related inquiries. Moreover, we also invite you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer complimentary security site walkthroughs and equipment quotes to both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address any existing security concerns that you may have. Furthermore, we can also make recommendations of our own based on our observations of your property.

Perhaps you have an alarm in place, but want to add some of the notification options described here. Or, maybe you have yet to install a security system, and want to design a new alarm from the ground up. Either way, we are here to help! We’ve worked with over a thousand customers in over 36 years of business to create complete security plans that fit their unique security needs. Together, we can design an alarm with all of the notification power you need to keep your property — and everyone on it — as safe and secure as possible.