Click below to watch a short clip where I describe how easy it is to add flood detection to your alarm system.

The city of Vancouver electrical code requires that every home has 120 volt smoke detectors installed before an Occupancy Permit will be issued. As a result, electricians will always install these ‘regular’ detectors in order to meet the code. Often, homeowners assume that those smoke detectors are being monitored by their alarm system… they rarely are.

Unfortunately, the city code does not yet recognize the superiority of having monitored, low voltage smoke detectors installed in your home.

What’s the difference between a ‘regular’ smoke detector and a monitored, low-voltage version?

Some of the advantages of a monitored, low-voltage smoke detector include:

• They are monitored through the alarm system… in the event of a fire (or the presence of smoke), we’ll know about it within seconds (even faster if you have BLINK);
• Because they are monitored through the alarm, a signal is sent to us to indicate that a detector has lost power or is using a back-up battery;
• the ability to pinpoint exactly which detector is in alarm;

By contrast, when the regular 120 volt detectors trip, they just make a noise… and if the power goes out, they will only last as long as the battery that you’ve installed in it (assuming it works).

This is why you often see homes with two smoke detectors side-by-side (like the photo below)… one is to meet the city electrical code… and one that is connected to the alarm system (either hardwired or wireless).

120Volt Smoke Detectors can be monitored… but are not the best way to go

While devices exist that allow us to connect your alarm to the 120 volt smoke detectors, we find that this practice invariably causes confusion later on… not the least of which is the fact that when any smoke detector in the house trips, all we know is that a fire alarm has tripped, not the exact location, or which specific detector, tripped. This is because 120 Volt detectors are ‘daisy-chained’ when wired… meaning that each detector is connected to a single cable. With low voltage detectors, each device is wired directly to the panel (or sends a wireless signal to the panel) without any ‘sharing’.

Daisy chain wiring creates a lot of frustration and wasted time for clients, the Fire Department and our Technicians when we are trying to troubleshoot why an alarm occurred … because all we know is that there was an alarm, but not the specific location from where it originated.

By contrast, with monitored low voltage detectors, we know immediately that an alarm is coming from the master bedroom smoke detector, or the basement electrical room or the garage, or wherever… giving the Fire Department much better information while they are en-route to your home.

False Alarm Issues

Because one of the most common reasons for smoke detectors tripping is burning something in the kitchen, clients invariably end up disconnecting the 120 volt smoke detector closest to the kitchen.

For this reason, we recommend that those ‘regular’ smoke detectors NOT be connected to the alarm. Instead, we install low voltage smoke detectors, designed to be remotely monitored, outside of each bedroom and in the basement… never anywhere near the kitchen.

Another advantage of low-voltage smoke detectors over the 120 volt ones is aesthetics. In many new residential projects, we are installing a flush-mount detector. The photo below shows one installed in our Kerrisdale showroom. While it is several times as expensive as a regular detector, it is the only flush mounted design that I have seen that really works.

The photo isn’t great, but it shows the smoke detector in the top right corner along with a small pot light and a ceiling mounted motion detector. Please feel free to stop by our showroom at 2309 West 41st Avenue if you would like to see how it looks installed.

What should you do?

1. Determine if your existing smoke detectors are monitored or not (call your alarm company and ask);

2. If your smoke detectors are more than 3 years old, consider having them replaced… if they are more than 5 years old, definitely have them replaced;

3. If you only have 120 Volt smoke detectors installed, consider having monitored low voltage smoke detectors added to your system (they can be either hardwired or wireless).

Click here to listen to my recent interview with Christy Clark on CKNW. The interview opens up with Captain Gabe Roder of Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services… and then me at about the 5:05 mark.

Although Captain Roder talked about lockboxes (like the one pictured below)…

I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend against installing a lockbox. If you have one installed in your building now… take it out (or at least the keys inside of it). Lockboxes are very easy to compromise and put your entire building at risk.

During the interview, I was asked by a caller what happens during a power failure and we received a number of questions today at our office about what exactly I meant.

My response to the question of what happens when the power goes out if we are providing remote management service was that “all of the instructions for the system are stored onsite”… which some people thought meant that we leave a binder, or some sort of paper records, onsite which can be read in an emergency. This is not the case.

What I should have said was that… 1) Yes, the system will continue to operate during a power failure; and 2) Yes, we can still remotely connect and control the system remotely. All of our system programming is stored in the actual access control system hardware onsite… which means that although we can control the system remotely, the system is not relying on that connection in order to continue to operate. If required, the system can still be programmed locally… using remote management adds another layer of security (and convenience) to the system, without taking anything away.

Click on the icon below to listen to the show.

I’ve written about how ‘five minute proofing’ is the most effective tactic that can be used to reduce your risk of loss in a burglary in several posts.

Here is an excerpt from a recent home security seminar where I spoke about how you can apply some specific five minute proofing strategies in your home. The lighting isn’t very good… but you’ll get the idea.

This video was filmed a couple weeks ago at the Arbutus Club where I spoke, along with Constable Ray Gardner of the Vancouver Police Department, for about an hour and a half about how burglaries actually happen, how alarms work, why most alarms are completely useless… but most importantly, what you can do about it.

We have a few more seminars scheduled over the next few months. The next one that is open to anyone will be held on Wednesday, May 28th at 7:00pm in the Provident showroom in Kerrisdale. I’ll post more information about it soon, but if you would like to register to attend, please send us an email to reserve a spot.

Over the past few weeks, we have established a very strong BLINK network in most areas of the Westside.

BLINK is a mesh radio network… meaning that each and every radio that gets installed acts as a repeater on the network.

This ensures that there is no single point of failure and that each client’s system has multiple paths to send an alarm signal. When our technicians have been installing new BLINK radios, they use a handheld programming device that tells them exactly how the signal reached our Operations Centre (the ‘OC’). For example, if a signal sent through BLINK installed at a client’s home is able to reach our OC directly, the handheld programmer will say that. If the signal ‘talks’ to another BLINK system on the network first, before reaching our OC, it lets us know that as well.

On the OC side, we can see the signal strength of each possible route that any BLINK radio on the network might use… and in what order it would do so.

As a result, we can test through a number of different ‘paths’ to our OC.

Due to the close proximity of many of our clients to our Kerrisdale OC, the vast majority of BLINK radios installed are able to connect directly to us, without any ‘hops’. The benefit of this is the fastest possible signal transmission time… in the vast majority of cases, alarm signals are being received in our OC in 1 second or less.

A ‘hop’ refers to how many other BLINK radios that a particular signal connects through in order to make it to us. Each ‘hop’ takes between 1 and 2 seconds. So far, every BLINK radio that we have installed connects without any ‘hops’ as the primary path… as more BLINK radios are installed, each existing unit ‘learns’ another possible route.

To help demonstrate how the BLINK network works, we installed two identical alarm systems in our office… both connected to the same alarm zone (a sliding glass door). The door has two wires, each leading to one of two Honeywell control panels. One panel uses a phone line to send the signal, and the other uses BLINK.
This set-up (pictured left) allows us to show how fast the BLINK signal is received. The actual BLINK radio is the second box from the left side, with the antenna on it.

The two laptops are configured to show the signals being received by both systems individually. Typically, we will receive the alarm signal through the BLINK enabled system between 40 and 6o seconds sooner than through the panel connected to the telephone line.

Another interesting feature of the BLINK radios is that they communicate almost constantly (every few seconds) with our automation software to confirm that they are working and that everything is ok. By comparison, the systems that we monitor using a telephone line are only able to confirm once every 24 hours that all is well.

We now have many clients on the wait list for BLINK installations… which we are working hard to get to as quickly as possible. The good news is that the network is coming along much better than we had anticipated and that signal transmission is even faster than we had originally thought.

If you are interested in coming by to see a live demonstration of BLINK, please call or email us to set-up a convenient time to check it out.

Clients often ask us why their phone line seems to get disconnected every time that they come home and disarm their system. Clients whose alarms we have taken over comment that their phone line was never used in this way with their old company.

Your alarm uses your telephone line to communicate, and at Provident, as standard practice, we monitor EVERY signal that your alarm is capable of sending. Therefore, every time the system is armed, dis-armed, a zone is bypassed, battery is low, power is lost, etc. the alarm sends a unique signal to our Operations Centre in Kerrisdale.

Conversely, many other alarm companies program alarms to simply send ‘alarm’ signals only. For an alarm company, sending ‘alarm’ signals only offers several advantages…

1. it significantly reduces the volume of signal traffic coming into the central station, allowing for many more clients to be monitored per phone line; and
2. in the case of out-of-town central stations, it reduces long distance and 1-800 line charges. This is why some companies are able to charge so little for their ‘monitoring’ service… Because they are only monitoring about 1% of the signals that an alarm is capable of sending.

Unfortunately, by programming an alarm to only send an actual ‘alarm’ signal and not communicate every time the system is armed or disarmed, it opens up the possibility that a client’s alarm may not be operating or communicating correctly, and the only time the alarm company will figure that out will be after a burglary where no signal is received and the client calls to find out why. As a result, with some alarm companies, they may be ‘monitoring’ for years before realizing that there is a problem with the alarm and that it is incapable of sending a signal in the event of an actual burglary.

Due to the fact that most alarm systems are monitored through a telephone line, every time the alarm needs to send a signal, it will seize the line and send the signal through. As a result, every time you arm your alarm, your phone line will be
unavailable for about 30-45 seconds while the alarm is communicating.
On older systems, the line may be tied up for as much as 90 seconds.

Most alarms, and certainly all Provident alarms, are installed so that the alarm has priority over the telephone line. Ensuring that the alarm has priority and can simply disconnect any other call in order to send a signal eliminates the risk of someone being able to call your home, and then break-in, with the alarm system unable to communicate because someone else is using the line.

Due to the fact that we monitor every signal that your alarm is capable of sending, every time you arm or disarm the system, the alarm will seize your phone line and then send us that signal.

In addition, we also program all of our clients’ alarms to send a ‘test’ signal at least once a day. Typically, we program this signal to occur at some point in the middle of the night so that it is unlikely to cut you off when you are on the phone.

What are the advantages of complete vs. ‘alarm’ only monitoring?

1. Our computers are programmed to expect at least one ‘test’ signal every day. If your alarm cannot send the signal, for any reason, an alarm is generated for us to follow up on to ensure that everything is ok. As a result, it is virtually impossible for your alarm to be out of commission without us being able to figure that out within 24 hours. (of course, for maximum security you really need to have a back-up method of wireless communication to ensure that your alarm can send us a signal even if your phone line was cut)
2. We log every signal that we receive from your alarm, allowing us to provide you with history reports that show which user armed or disarmed at what time, on what day. Further, these reports will show which, if any, zones were bypassed when the alarm was used.
3. During an alarm response, our Operators can give our response team and the Police very important information that would otherwise be unavailable such as when the alarm was last armed. For example, we know right away whether the alarm was armed 45 seconds before the alarm (indicating that the likely cause of alarm was an exit error by the user) or that it has been six days since the alarm was armed, suggesting that the homeowners are likely out of town.
4. If you cannot remember whether you armed the alarm when you left in a rush, you can call us and we can instantly confirm for you whether the system is armed or disarmed. (Incidentally, if the system has been left disarmed, we can remotely dial into the system and arm it for you)… which is helpful if you are halfway to Whistler.

The only negative aspect of monitoring this way is that there are times when users will be disconnected while on the phone. (for example, if the alarm is armed in STAY mode while someone is on the phone, and then another family member comes home and needs to disarm the alarm) Whenever possible, we will connect the alarm to the phone line that is used the least (typically the fax line) so that it causes the least disruption. Some clients have opted for a second line to ensure that they are never interrupted by the alarm sending a signal.

For clients that regularly call Europe or Asia at 3:00am, when many of our clients systems are programmed to send the test signal, we can easily change the time that the test signal is sent… please just give our office a call and we can do this remotely.

The NY Times published a story yesterday (to read the article, you will need to sign up for a free NY Times account) about VoIP services and how inconsistent the call quality can be on an un-facilitated VoIP service such as Vonage. The quality issues discussed in the article are analogous to our concerns about alarm signal transmission over VoIP networks.

As I have discussed in several posts (here, here and here) alarm signal transmission cannot be guaranteed by any VoIP service or alarm provider.

I keep posting about this because we keep getting calls from people who have either made the switch, or are considering the switch, to VoIP and want to ensure that their security is not compromised. For now, the only way to ensure that your alarm system will work is to maintain an analog line or have a cellular (or radio) back-up system installed.

Click here to be notified every time this blog gets updated.

I just got off of the phone with one of our clients who has switched their home telephone service to Rogers Home Phone. She was calling to speak with me after hearing from one of our sales representatives about our concerns and cautions about relying on a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone service for alarm signal transmission. In a nutshell, her confusion was surrounding the fact that a sales representative from Rogers had specifically assured her that Rogers Home Phone was not VoIP and that her alarm would work “just fine”.

I checked out the Rogers website today and found this explanation in their technical support pages that says that “Rogers Home Phone is not VoIP” (in case it gets changed, click on the image above to view a screen-shot of what I found today). However, further down in the same paragraph it states that “the Rogers Home Phone service is delivered over the Rogers privately owned and monitored secure packet cable network..” … which, as I pointed out in an earlier post, means that their service uses a form of VoIP called facilitated VoIP (just like Shaw does) as opposed to non-facilitated VoIP service (like Vonage). Bottom line being that Rogers Home Phone is most certainly a VoIP service.

I also called their tech support line to clarify this and was told that when the site says that their service is not VoIP, that that is “business” wording as opposed to “technical” wording. The reason being that they do not want anyone to be confused between their type of VoIP service and regular, non-facilitated VoIP such as that offered by Vonage. The technical support representative did confirm that their service was in fact facilitated VoIP and that he agreed that it might be a little confusing.

At best, I would consider the Rogers site misleading… taking a page from Shaw’s Digital Phone (TM) marketing department, they have decided that rather than explain exactly how their service works, it is just simpler to offer a false statement that is easier for most people to understand.

So, whether using Shaw or Rogers, our position is unchanged: we do not recommend relying on any type of VoIP service (whether Shaw, Rogers, Vonage or anything else other than Telus) without having a secondary, back-up communications method such as cellular back-up or MESH radio.

As of yet, no alarm communications equipment has been certified to be able to communicate consistently over VoIP networks.

FYI, here is a link to my original post on this topic which has some links to other, more technical, explanations about this issue.

* Shaw Digital Phone is a registered trademark of Shaw Communications Inc.

* Rogers Home Phone is a registered trademark of Rogers

There used to be an image here.

**** UPDATE  Shaw got upset with me for using an image from their website (so it’s gone now). I’ve also added a (TM) beside every instance of their trademark Shaw Digital Phone (TM). ****

I received a flyer for Shaw Digital Phone (TM) at my house today that claims that they are signing up a new client every 96 seconds, which may very well be true. However, on the inside of the brochure, it claims that “…unlike VoIP, the Internet based phone service, Shaw Digital Phone (TM) requires no computer or high-speed internet connection.” While it is true that you do not need a computer or internet account to use their service, their inference that Shaw Digital Phone (TM) is not VoIP (Voice over internet protocol) is absolutely untrue.

Further, the brochure also says “No additional fees. No extra charges. And no surprises.” … in speaking with our clients who have either contemplated, or actually switched to Shaw, they have all been VERY surprised to hear our concerns about Shaw Digital Phone (TM)’s effect on their alarm system. Especially given that Shaw’s website specifically says that their service is compatible with alarm systems and suggests that if your existing alarm provider cannot support Shaw Digital Phone (TM) , they have a ‘preferred vendor’, Voxcom Security, and claim that their systems are ‘fully compatible’

As you can see in this page from Shaw’s site regarding their service and alarm systems, their language differs a little from their brochure when they say “unlike some VoIP services…” (emphasis is mine) which correctly implies that Shaw’s service is a form of VoIP. As I wrote in a post on this issue a few months back (the most popular post on this blog, as it turns out) Shaw Digital Phone (TM) is most definitely a VoIP service… it is the type of VoIP that differentiates it from other VoIP providers like Vonage, but it is still a VoIP service.

Voxcom, like Provident, is an alarm service PROVIDER… not a manufacturer of alarm equipment or network provider. The reason alarm systems do not work consistently over VoIP service has nothing to do with the alarm equipment or the monitoring station where the alarm sends its signals, alarm systems do not work consistently with VoIP because the network that connects the two is not designed to transmit alarm signals. Neither Voxcom, or any alarm company, can claim to be able to offer any type of service that is capable of addressing this issue.

Presently, no major alarm equipment manufacturer (Tyco, GE and Honeywell) or cable company (including Shaw) will provide a written certification that alarm signals can reliably be sent using VoIP. While both the alarm and cable industries are working hard to be able to offer some type of certification, it still does not yet exist.

As I stated in my first post about this issue, our experience has shown that signal transmission using Shaw Digital Phone (TM) is inconsistent. Even if a signal is sent and received over the system once, there is no guarantee that it will work properly the second time.

To be fair to both Shaw and Voxcom, our own testing has shown that while not all alarm equipment can transmit over VoIP, those that do, are able to send signals every time that we tested… eventually. Sometimes, we received the alarm signals a full three minutes after we received it over a regular Telus analog phone line. Our major concern is the speed with which the signals are received. For a company like Voxcom, ADT or any of the other alarm company that does not provide immediate alarm response, a couple minutes of delay in receiving the signal is not a major issue because it will have little to no impact on how quickly the Police will arrive after they are dispatched.

However, in our case, where we guarantee a five minute response to alarms and regularly respond within just a couple of minutes… every second counts. Waiting an extra two minutes for an alarm signal to get to us makes a huge impact on our ability to offer maximum value to our clients.

Imagine the potential damage if the signal being sent is a fire signal from a smoke detector, and the alarm monitoring station only begins to try and dispatch the Fire Department three minutes later.

My biggest frustration with the Shaw service is that I feel that they are deliberately misleading people to believe that their service is not VoIP in order to avoid the public confusing their service with those provided by Vonage or other ‘regular’ VoIP providers… especially given all of the negative publicity that VoIP providers have received regarding 911 service. To that end, many Shaw employees have been told that their service is not VoIP and that it is equivalent to an analog telephone line. I have spoken now with at least a half dozen Shaw employees who have tried to argue that Shaw Digital Phone (TM) is not VoIP. As detailed in my first post, the difference between Shaw and other VoIP providers is that Shaw (like every other cable provider in North America) uses a “facilitated” VoIP network rather than an “unfacilitated” VoIP network that Vonage and other non-cable companies use.

The bottom line?

We STRONGLY recommend that clients who decide to use Shaw Digital Phone (TM) utilize a back-up method of communication such as cellular or Internet back-up to ensure that alarm and fire signals are received by our Operations Centre as quickly as possible in the event of an emergency.

For those who decide to rely on Shaw Digital Phone (TM) as the only means of communication for their alarm, we are requiring that they sign a waiver saying that they understand our concerns about this service and the potential risk that it poses to their alarm system.

While I have no doubts that most, if not all, telephone service will be VoIP in the near future, and that the alarm transmission issues will be addressed (they have been working on it for more than 3 years already), the fact remains that the network is still unreliable for alarm transmission at the present time.

Should you have any questions, please call our office at 604.664.1087

Click here to be notified every time this blog gets updated.

* Shaw Digital Phone is a registered trademark of Shaw Communications Inc.

On Friday, we received a fax from the Vancouver Police indicating that, effective immediately, they have made a major change to their burglar alarm response policy so that we may call 911 to request Police response to client’s burglar alarms under certain circumstances.

These circumstances are:

1. Hold-up/Panic alarms
2. ULC rated security alarms (ie. in banks, jewellery stores, etc.)
2. Multiple zone alarms where both glassbreak AND motion detectors have tripped;
3. Multiple motion alarms AND either interior audio or video verification is in place

The VPD have decided that alarms that can be considered ‘verified’, or at least high risk, are worthy of a ‘priority dispatch’ much like any call for a crime in progress.

This is great news for all Vancouver homeowners and we have already changed our dispatch instructions to include calling 911 (in addition to dispatching ourselves) on every alarm that meets the above requirements.

Up until now, no alarm company was allowed to call 911 and instead had to call a special alarm dispatch line. All alarm signals were treated equally under the old policy… which was basically as the lowest possible priority. This new policy is an acknowledgement of the value of a properly installed burglar alarm that has multiple levels of detection.

For all alarm signals that do not meet the above criteria, the old policy is still in place. Hopefully, by distinguishing alarm signals in this way, the Police can avoid the massive false alarm problem caused by user error (typically single zone alarms) and faulty equipment.

This policy adds yet another great reason to ensure that you have glassbreak detection in your home or business.

While the Police obviously cannot offer a guaranteed response time, this policy change will allow us to initiate communication with 911 much sooner during an actual burglary. As always, our own response teams will still be on the way immediately after every alarm signal.

We will keep you updated on our experiences under this new policy.

Click here to be notified every time this blog gets updated.