CENTRAL STATIONS
A look into the products, technologies and solutions shaping the market
YOUR PARTNER…NOT YOUR COMPETITor
Armstrong’s National Alarm Monitoring first ULC alarm monitoring station was built in Chipman, NB in 1994. It opened with 1800 accounts. With a growing foothold in the industry, Armstrong’s began to rev up their marketing machine, with the focus, initially, being the New Brunswick region. In 1996 it turned its attention on expanding to the rest of the Maritimes. In 1997 a small daytime monitoring station was opened in Dartmouth, NS. This quickly grew into a full-time station. By 2002 Armstrong’s had outgrown its leased facilities in Dartmouth and decided to build its own facility in the quickly growing Burnside Industrial park in Dartmouth. The monitoring service moved into its new building in November 2002. Chipman, at this point, had primarily become Armstrong’s administrative facility. In 2003, Armstrong’s made a resurgence into the New Brunswick market with the opening of a completely bilingual monitoring station in Moncton, NB.
Armstrong’s National Alarm Monitoring first ULC alarm monitoring station was built in Chipman, NB in 1994. It opened with 1800 accounts. With a growing foothold in the industry, Armstrong’s began to rev up their marketing machine, with the focus, initially, being the New Brunswick region. In 1996 it turned its attention on expanding to the rest of the Maritimes. In 1997 a small daytime monitoring station was opened in Dartmouth, NS. This quickly grew into a full-time station. By 2002 Armstrong’s had outgrown its leased facilities in Dartmouth and decided to build its own facility in the quickly growing Burnside Industrial park in Dartmouth. The monitoring service moved into its new building in November 2002. Chipman, at this point, had primarily become Armstrong’s administrative facility. In 2003, Armstrong’s made a resurgence into the New Brunswick market with the opening of a completely bilingual monitoring station in Moncton, NB.
In March 2019 Armstrong’s purchased Consolidated Monitoring in Edmonton, AB. Making this our third monitoring station.
In March 2019 Armstrong’s purchased Consolidated Monitoring in Edmonton, AB. Making this our third monitoring station.
We believe in providing quality service that each of our dealers and their customers can rely on. Armstrong’s has been a developing success story. Today Armstrong’s has over 150 staff members and proudly boasts a client base coast to coast across Canada, and supports hundreds of dealer companies with thousands of employees combined nationwide.
We believe in providing quality service that each of our dealers and their customers can rely on. Armstrong’s has been a developing success story. Today Armstrong’s has over 150 staff members and proudly boasts a client base coast to coast across Canada, and supports hundreds of dealer companies with thousands of employees combined nationwide.
We believe that monitoring should be your last worry and we have worked hard to achieve a strong customer service and quality response reputation. Our dealers are our partners and we understand what quality monitoring can add to their reputation.
We believe that monitoring should be your last worry and we have worked hard to achieve a strong customer service and quality response reputation. Our dealers are our partners and we understand what quality monitoring can add to their reputation.
SERVICES OFFERED
• Live operator answering
• Bilingual operators
• 2-Way audio
• Dealer client billing
• Auto email / SMS messaging signals direct to client smart phone
• Customized reporting
• Client open/close schedules
PANELS &
COMMUNICATORS
• DSC landline, IP & GSM
• Honeywell / Resideo landline, IP & GSM
• BOSCH landline, IP & GSM
• IPDataTel IP & GSM
• GE landline, IP & GSM
• SecureNet IP
• Rokonet Ip
• DMP landline, IP & GSM
• Inaxsys-ICT IP
• Telguard
• Paradox landline & IP
• Alula
• VirtuAlarm
INTERACTIVE & AUTOMATION
• Alarm.com
• AlarmNet
• SecureNet
• C24 interactive
• Telguard
VIDEO VERIFICATION
• I-View Now – integrates security systems signals and video sources.
• VideoFied
PERS GSM & MPERS TRACKING
• Mytrex PERS GSM Systems
• iHelp mPERS systems
• Numera GPS mPERS systems
LONE WORKER
• MindrMobile Lone Worker GPS System (App)
ELEVATOR MONITORING
• Regular Landline
• EmergenceSC Elevator IP monitoring Systems
Lanvac: Video verification is “the future of monitoring”
During a presentation at an August event in Toronto, hosted by security products distributor Ameta International, Anna de Jager, vice-president of business development at Montrealbased Lanvac Surveillance, discussed the value of using video to keep properties safe.
De Jager, whose firm provides wholesale monitoring for dealers and integrators, explained that other types of verification for an intrusion incident aren’t as effective as video hooked up to and triggered by an alarm system.
that’s installed in a way that two zones would trigger based on the intrusion,” de Jager said. “What if they came in through the roof? There’s just so many options.”
Audio, meanwhile, can’t determine who has tripped the alarm or what they are doing, de Jager said.
Video is also safer than sending in a guard or a keyholder, according to de Jager.
Cross-zoning verification requires two zones on the property to be tripped, but for that, “you’re depending on a system
De Jager also asserted that video is a more effective verification method than a guard, explaining that trained thieves will trip alarms multiple times, banking on users neglecting to send in a guard to check on the property after several false alarms. “By having video, you know that each and every time, we’re looking in and we’re checking.”
A.p.i. acquires Protelec residential business
Winnipeg-based Protelec Alarms, a 48-year-old family-owned firm with residential and commercial security solutions, announced the sale of its residential business to Toronto-based a.p.i. Alarm Inc. on July 2.
Protelec president Harry Black said in an open letter to customers that the firm’s residential monitoring services have been permanently transferred to a.p.i., and a forwarding system has been activated so all customers have immediate access to a.p.i.’s emergency monitoring centre.
Black said in the letter, “With this important responsibility top of mind, we set out to carefully select the right company with the right customer care team to be your new residential security provider. We are pleased to have found that partner in a.p.i. Alarm Inc.”
Josh Garr, director at a.p.i., said in an email interview with SP&T News of the acquisition, “It was great fit for both
companies and we continue to work together on more services for our dealer base with partners like Protelec. And as the industry continues to consolidate we are providing more and more support to smaller stations who are looking to take advantage of infrastructure we can provide them that they couldn’t on their own.”
Black went on to explain in the letter that the sale of Protelec’s residential business allows full-time focus on its commercial business in the security and lone-worker safety industries, and that over the past year and a half, the business has expanded with integrated security services and technology such as CCTV, door access and intercom systems.
Black said the firm continues to service long-standing clients at hospitals, property management companies, industrial, financial and agricultural businesses, and has entered the cannabis producer market.
— Will Mazgay
In addition to offering more effective verification and a safer alternative, de Jager said opting for video monitoring can also lead to savings on manpower costs and insurance. “More and more insurance companies are offering additional discounts for video monitoring. It’s wise that they would. They reduce their liability for fraud quite substantially if they can look in and see a video of the event.”
While accuracy, safety and cost-savings are certainly attractive to end users, de Jager asserted that what everyone really wants is faster response from police. “A video operator is able to call the police department and say, ‘I see an event that’s happening,’ and the police dispatcher takes that as a 911 call,” she said.
De Jager also said that video will eventually become integral to maintaining compliance with police. Police services across Canada are starting to require some combination of video, audio, cross-zoning or contacting keyholders before they will respond to an alarm, but video verification could eventually become mandatory. “I believe very strongly that in the next five years, police departments will not even attend if they don’t have video,” de Jager said.
Patti Jones, president of the Northern Alberta council, CANASA, who was interviewed by SP&T News for the June/July issue, also sees police services requiring video verification in the future, as a response to sky-high false alarm rates.
“At some point, it might be, if it’s not visually verified there’s not going to be a response. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that in the next couple of years.”
De Jager said, “By starting to offer this service (video monitoring), you’re going to be ahead of the game…Video is the future of the monitoring world.”
— Will Mazgay
Anna de Jager, Lanvac
Edmonton police seeking alarm bylaw change
Local CANASA president says monitoring firms can do their part and improve customer records management
To reduce the number of false alarms requiring a police response, the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) is seeking changes to the City of Edmonton’s Alarm Systems Bylaw, and is currently asking for feedback from permit holders through a brief survey.
The EPS says under the current bylaw, alarm permits have no expiry date, resulting in out-of-date contact information. To rectify this, the EPS is proposing that alarm permits be renewed on an annual basis for a fee of $15 a year.
EPS spokesperson Carlos Cardoso, Manager, Police Information Check and Alarm Control Section, said that yearly renewals will be a big help because, “we have in our system 110,000 permits, and we can’t say which ones are valid and which ones aren’t.” He continued, “If you have your alarm permit and you pay your one-time fee, you move six times in the next year or two, we have no up-to-date information.”
Cardoso said he is encouraged by the fact that other police services that have implemented yearly permits have had reduced false alarm rates.
Patti Jones, president of the Northern Alberta council, CANASA, welcomed the proposal, but said the monitoring industry hasn’t done a good enough job in setting up their customers and the police for success.
Regarding the administration of alarm holder contact information, Jones said, “Our perspective is that the ownership of maintaining and keeping information on emergency contacts really should be the responsibility of the monitoring stations and the companies themselves…That’s an awful lot of administration for them
(EPS) to have to own on an annual basis.”
The EPS is also is proposing one free false alarm to be given to every permit holder, after which, escalating penalties will be in place. (No information on penalty fees was available at press time.)
This isn’t the first time the EPS has attempted to tackle false alarms. It took a significant step in 2016, when it brought in an enhanced call verification process. This means that police dispatch to an intrusion alarm won’t occur unless the following conditions are met:
1. A combination of an exterior breach (door/window breach, glass break, etc.) and interior motion alarm activations.
2. Contact with keyholder(s) to determine the alarm’s legitimacy.
“In general, we get about 6,300 calls per year to our 911 lines,” said Cardoso. “By doing the enhancement call verification, we narrow it down to 1,800.” While such a reduction appears to be a success, Cardoso explained that 98 per cent of these are still false alarms.
Going forward, “We’re also looking at trying to encourage alarm companies to do their part on call verifications,” said Cardoso.
Jones agreed that alarm companies
need do their part. “They (the EPS) need to be able to trust that when we’re calling, we’ve got the current information, we’ve called the keyholders, we’ve followed the current bylaw,” she said. “We want them to be able to spend their resources focused on those actual alarms that we’re pretty confident are legitimate.”
To help reduce false alarms, Jones said alarm firms can also make sure systems are installed properly to provide adequate coverage. It’s also crucial, according to Jones, that customers understand how to use their system properly. Lastly, firms can encourage customers to upgrade old systems to those with better coverage, or better yet, a system with video, to bring in a visual verification for intruders.
Jones said that alarm firms ensuring protocol is followed and false alarms are reduced will help maintain good relations between the alarm industry and police.
“We’ve had a really good relationship with the EPS at CANASA local council over the past couple of years,” she said, stressing that the relationship needs to be continually fostered, or else communication and co-operation between the two sides may suffer.
— Will Mazgay
RSPNDR ramping up guard dispatch service
Anew security service aims to be the connective tissue that puts central stations in touch with guard services with the ultimate goal of responding to alarms more quickly and making end users happier in the process.
Toronto-based RSPNDR launched a pilot program for its service in 2017 and now works with two of Canada’s largest telcos as well as multiple monitoring companies, including API, Graham Alarm Monitoring, Global Link, Central Security BPG and Lanvac, according to the company’s management.
RSPNDR’s software is a cloud-based guard dispatching service that can be utilized by central stations as well as the guard companies that RSPNDR has partnered with. When an intrusion alarm is set off and recognized by a monitoring station, the software locates the guards close enough to respond and sends out an alert received by an app on guards’ phones. When one guard responds, all other guard notifications are cancelled. The responding guard then attends the
scene and files a report based on a series of criteria laid out in the RSPNDR app.
Any guard, regardless of which guard company he or she works for, could potentially respond to alarm as long as the guard works for a company that is currently partnered with RSPNDR and is in close enough vicinity to the alarm to receive the app notification in the first place.
According to RSPNDR, everyone wins in this scenario. The monitoring station can dispatch more quickly; the responding guard companies collect revenue; both the station and the alarm dealer receive detailed reports from the guards; and the end user is assured of a swift response in the event of an alarm. The app will also track total response time (RSPNDR calls it Total Time for Service) in addition to written reports and photos. Video from a guard’s phone cannot be integrated yet, but that may be an option in the future.
“We’re trying to change the habits and provide a new bar for what we call
customer experience and transparency,” said Frank Pietrobono, RSPNDR’s vicepresident of sales.
“People love the fact that they know where the guard is, when he’s there. [When] the report goes live, they have it at their fingertips. We’ve had a few incidents where the dealer has been able to use that report right away and can share it with their customer. It’s different from what we’ve had for the last 25to 30 years.”
This type of on-demand model has worked well in other industries — RSPNDR compares their service to similar innovations in the ride-sharing industry — and the company sees avenues outside of security and alarm response where their software could be a good fit.
According to the company, RSPNDR currently offers service in the Greater Toronto Area, lower mainland B.C., Montreal and Ottawa with more Canadian cities coming on board. RSPNDR also has plans to expand into the U.S. later this year.
— Neil Sutton
RSPNDR staff (from left): Clark Evans, senior developer; Mark Wires, CEO; Eric Babin, CTO; Frank Pietrobono, vice-president of sales and business development; Priyank Patel, developer
