A couple weeks ago, we provided a guide on Upgrading Your Security for the New Year. This time of year marks a great opportunity to assess and upgrade your property’s security system. In that post, we introduced the concept of adding smart devices as part of your security upgrade. Some of these devices add security, some add convenience, and some do both. Today, we will focus on smart devices that directly address your security needs. This post will share some smart security solutions that make your alarm more effective than ever!

First, we’ll look at how we add smart security technology to your alarm in the first place. Then, we’ll share a couple ways we can add live video security to your alarm. Specifically, we’ll detail the benefits of smart cameras and video doorbells. From there, we’ll look at a couple unique smart security products that help shore up your entrances. These include options to secure both your home’s exterior doors and your garage door. Now, let’s get started with an overview of our approach to adding smart security technology to your alarm!

The Technology Behind Our Smart Security Solutions

One of the most valuable aspects of any alarm we install lies in our monitoring service. This service involves connecting your security system to our central station. In turn, this connection allows your alarm to “call” for help upon detecting a break-in. At this point, the proper authorities get dispatched if necessary. Traditionally, we create this connection by tying in a property’s existing phone lines to the alarm. However, recent years have seen major upgrades in your options for alarm monitoring.

Our preferred monitoring method involves installing a cellular dialer. These devices use a dedicated cell network connection to communicate with your alarm’s central station. Therefore, phone outages will no longer interfere with your alarm’s monitoring. Furthermore, our cell dialer powered by Alarm.com provides it own unique benefits. For example, our Alarm.com technology allows you to control your security system with your smart phone. This includes the ability to arm and disarm your system remotely, as well as receive text alerts for status updates such as alarm events and low batteries.

Several smart phones with Alarm.com apps open, showing security system and smart home controls

Interactive cell dialer monitoring, such as the Alarm.com service show here, allows you to control your alarm system, as well as all of the smart security solutions discussed in this post.

Last but not least, our cellular dialer also acts as a Z-wave smart home hub. The term “Z-Wave” refers to a mesh network providing communication between the hub and smart home devices that operate on this network. As one of the most popular smart home platforms, having a Z-wave hub in place gives you many options to add smart security devices! Let’s take a look at some of these options now.

Painting a More Secure Picture

Security systems do a great job scaring away thieves who have entered your home. However, they very rarely help anyone solve a crime. After all, the police usually show up to an empty home when responding to an alarm. Therefore, we recommend installing security that allows you to keep an eye on your property. In this section, we’ll share a couple smart security solutions that help you achieve this goal. Let’s begin now with a look at smart camera security!

Smart Cameras

Our smart camera customers experience several unique security features. Like any cameras, smart cameras provide the ability to both deter crime and to help you solve any crime that occurs on your property. Additionally, smart cameras also provide many benefits that traditional security cameras do not.

For example, these cameras can send a live video notification to your phone upon detecting motion. This allows you to check in on any issues you may experience in real time. As an added bonus, our Alarm.com smart cameras also feature the power of video analytics. This allows your cameras to recognize the difference between motion caused by a person, an animal, or a vehicle. In turn, this makes it easier for you to create effective video searches when looking to find video of a particular event. Next up, we’ll take a look at another smart video device that provides specialized security for your entrances.

Video Doorbells

Doorbell cameras add a tremendous amount of security to any entrance where you install them. For starters, doorbell cameras record motion-based clips of anyone who approaches your door, just like the smart cameras we described above. If desired, you can have live motion-based clips sent to your phone as soon as the cameras detect motion. Your video clips remain stored in the cloud for reference in case they do capture any suspicious or illegal activity. This obviously adds significant security to your property’s entry points.

Furthermore, audio-enabled smart doorbell cameras allow you to communicate with visitors who ring your doorbell. Activation of your smart doorbell will create a live video alert on your smartphone. This alert prompts you to have a conversation with anyone who rings your doorbell. The added security and convenience offered by these doorbells make them an extremely popular security addition for any application. Similarly to our smart camera offerings, we recommend installing Alarm.com video doorbell products. Now, let’s take a look at a couple different types of smart security solutions that further lock down your entry points!

Securing Your Entrances

The doors of any home or business represent a property’s first line of defense. When possible, burglars prefer to enter through doorways to make their break-in as inconspicuous as possible. Therefore, creating effective door security can greatly improve your overall security. In this section, we look at a couple ways to shore up your first line of defense! We’ll begin by sharing how smart locks may just be the smartest way that you can secure your doors!

A Schlage smart lock on a door with a hand punching in a user code

Installing smart locks, such as this model by Schlage, gives you both code-activated and smartphone-activated control over your entryways.

Smart Locks

Smart locks take the security of standard keypad locks further than ever before. Of course, key security has long remained a concern to both residential and commercial customers alike. The distribution and copying of keys that belong to any property can cause a security threat. Keypad locks can add an element of security through their use of a push-button code for operation. This allows you to grant access to users without providing any keys. Once individuals no longer need access to your property, simply delete their code. Doing so then eliminates their access, without any worry regarding whether or not they still have a key to open your doors.

In addition to this security, smart locks also allow you to remotely operate your doors’ locks! Therefore, you can now grant easy one-time access to contractors or delivery personnel without providing them with a key or a code. This combination of security and convenience makes smart locks one of our very most popular smart security solutions. Now, let’s examine one more smart device catching traction in the security market in recent years.

Complete Garage Door Control

Garage door security concerns customers for many reasons. For starters, burglars can often easily break in through older garage doors by forcing them open. Furthermore, many customers occasionally leave their property without closing their garage doors. This especially happens when residents or employees do not realize that they are the last ones to leave the premises.

Our Alarm.com garage door controller and sensor offerings tackle these security issues. These devices enable you to receive alerts anytime someone opens your garage door. Furthermore, you can also create alerts to let you know if the garage door is not closed by a certain time every day. At that point, you can simply use your mobile Alarm.com app to close the garage. Therefore, you no longer have to even worry about the possibility of your garage getting opened or being left open without your knowledge!

Smart Security and Peace of Mind

We hope that this post helps you understand your options for adding smart security. The technology described in this post represents the “latest and greatest” in today’s security technology. Moreover, we encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have about the material presented here. We will happily help you find the smart security solutions that work for you.

Additionally, we encourage you to take advantage of our free site survey program. We offer free security audits and product quotes to both new and existing customers alike. While on site, we can address any security concerns you may have. Furthermore, we can make suggestions based on our own observations of your property during our visit. Together, we can come up with a complete security plan to keep you, your property — and everyone on it — as safe and secure as possible!