Security Systems Go High Tech

By Russell Slaton

The move from landlines to cellphones and the marked improvement of video capabilities has helped one Mabank-area company take a giant leap forward to help its customers.

Jon Durm, who owns American Watchdog, has been in the security system business for about 15 years and started his local business in July His company offers alarms and security cameras, as well as surveillance and network services, to residential and commercial customers. American Watchdog is licensed and insured.

Not only has technology changed in the past 15 years of Durm being in business, “technology’s changed in the last six months,” he says. Security systems used to run through landline telephones; now, Durm says, security operates wirelessly, like cellphone signals.

“The systems that are monitored nowadays, they use a wireless 5G cell signal,” Durm says. “It’s like having a cellphone attached to your alarm system. So, if there’s a trouble call, it notifies the monitoring company through a cellphone signal, because of people breaking into houses and knowing there was an alarm. They would just cut the phone line knowing that was the connection to the monitoring company. They can’t do that anymore with the wireless signal.”

As for cameras, “We’ve gone from analog black-and-white to 4K resolution with facial recognition – person, animal, vehicle detection, multiple features. They can count how many people come in and out of the building.”

Keypad and sensor technologies have also advanced. “Used to, it was just a point of contact,” Durm says. “It was wired, connected to a magnet and when that broke free, it registered a detection. With alarms, what they do is, they deter and detect.” Durm states home or business owners (or separate monitoring companies) take it from there by notifying the police, for instance.

“Back then, you could’ve put a magnet on a door post and bypassed the alarm system just by having a magnet,” Durm explains. “And now, they’ve got resistors in there that they can tell there’s a differential in the magnetic field of the sensor and so forth. So, if you don’t have the exact distance between the magnet and the sensor, it’s already registered, and it can detect that. It makes it a lot more difficult for crooks to bypass the alarm system or defeat it, per se.”

American Watchdog also handles networking inside homes and businesses. Durm’s company can strengthen and solidify internal networks, whether it be Wi-Fi or landline connections. For example, American Watchdog can run cables to make sure plugs are available for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phones, Durm says.

American Watchdog also offers a 24-hour response time. “If you call us with any type of problem, whether it be a new customer or an old customer, we will show up to address and assess the problem within 24 hours,” Durm says.

Technology fuels home, business security

Mabank-area company uses latest tools

Mabank Veterinary Clinic Office Manager Maria Kyle has used American Watchdog both at the business owned by her husband as well as at home. “I think he’s fantastic,” Kyle says. “Jon has helped us out tremendously with our internet and dealing directly on our behalf with the local internet provider. He was my go-between with them, we were having internet connection problems, we were getting the runaround. Jon stepped in and basically took over. I did not have to deal with them anymore. He met with them, kept calling them, made sure we had the right speed with them, the right cables. Then after that, he made sure our internet was hooked up and properly running at speed. He is an amazing businessman and he stands by his clients all the way. He will not drop a job until it’s done.”

American Watchdog can be reached at (903) 880-2772.