Subscribers dropping POTTS lines

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Question:

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Ken,

    We have been using the Customers Potts phone line as the Primary way to transmit signals to the central station and using the Cellular back-up as the Secondary .Now our Customers are disconnecting their Potts phone line completely and wanting us to install the Cellular as the primary to transmit signal to central station without a phone line.

    Do we need to change or add any wording to our existing Contracts?

Dan Duckson

Ron Duckson Security Systems Inc

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Answer:

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    Assuming you are using my Standard Form Contracts there would be  no need to change the contract.  Any mode of communication is covered by the contract.  The Disclaimer Notice still notes that Potts is the preferred mode of communication.

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Video monitoring for municipality

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Question:

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Hi Ken:

    Your articles are both timely and important—thanks!

    Here’s a question for you:

    Let’s assume that a municipality decides it wishes to provide ONLY video verification services for 1) prioritizing officer response, and 2) collecting retail monthly service income from its constituent homes and businesses.  Thus there are no “blind alarms”—only video images of intrusion.  Assuming the muni outsources first-level monitoring to a 3rd party station that supports the VV system deployed…

    Do alarm contracts/liabilities still apply when there are no alarms (i.e., only video)?

Again, many thanks for your excellent work in this industry.

Mark Premo

US Manager

Emza Visual Sense

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Answer:

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    I assume your concern regarding liability is about the central station to whom the municipality has subcontracted out its video verification services.  The central station should have a contract with the subscriber that contains the usual alarm protective provisions.  Keep in mind that the municipality may have governmental immunity [unless it goes into the alarm business] but that immunity may not extend to third parties, like the central station.  Any interesting legal issue is - will governmental immunity cover a central station monitoring for a municipality when the municipality is acting within its police powers and has immunity for the monitoring?  Probably, but not something I would give an opinion on off the top of my head.

    I'm not technical so I don't know how  video verification would work without an alarm system. Something like a motion detector goes off and all that is sent out is a video stream?  I doubt that the type of alarm or electronic signal or data that goes out will matter as far as the contract protective provisions are concerned.  Just be sure to describe the services you are providing and the system limitations, not just your liability limitations.

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Batteries

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Ken:

    I realize that this conversation has been channeled to components and not system batteries but while the topic is open I'd like to expand the conversation.

    `System batteries a huge part of the foul weather alarm trips that happen. This is especially true in those systems that are not CP-01 listed.

    I was in business in Miami during and after Hurricane Andrew. Prior to the storm we could track the daily summer thunder storms in the central station as they rolled across the county. In fact we staffed up with part time central station operators every summer to specifically address this issue. The summer after hurricane Andrew we prepared for the onslaught of these errant signals but found that none came. After considering the issue we came to the conclusion that the culprit was batteries. You see, power throughout the area was out for at least 48 hours so at a minimum every system had a new battery.

    When the industry moved from hard points ( non powered protection ) such as foil and window screens, we became huge power consumers. A system with a couple of keypads, glass break sensors and motion detectors require a huge power supply to maintain the system during outages. They also require a fully capable of battery just to handle power fluctuations when the commercial power is not steady. This is addressed in the CP-01 listed products as they have a power restoral delay feature that suspends trips from a system with a battery that is questionable.

    In England they have a national alarm requirement and even residential systems must have a backup power supply that will last 72 hours. Their residential control panels are the size of large fire panels in order to handle the huge batteries required to achieve these backup requirements.

    The number of legacy systems is reported at somewhere between 30 and 36 million systems currently in service. With battery manufacturers claiming an effective live at three years this means that we should be replacing somewhere between 10 and 12 million system batteries a year. I have spoken to battery manufacturers that report we aren't replacing even close to either of those numbers. To compound this issue there are reports that batteries being imported from a certain Asian country have about one third less lead and thus a projected life of about one year and since they are significantly less expensive than other batteries.

    So when discussing batteries make certain that you give proper attention to the system battery. You'll have fewer customer issues and fewer false dispatches when you do.

Ron Walters

SIAC

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Ken

    I've read a couple comments about changing a battery in a smoke alarm.  They are all good points but everyone seems to be missing something important.  Anytime you change the battery in a smoke alarm or wireless device, you should highly recommend changing the batteries in all the devices.  This way all batteries will have the same installation life and the customer won't be bothered with another low battery fault a month or so down the road.  (For which you will get the blame.)

Tony Barlow

Pres/CEO

North Coast Signal Inc.