November 2, 2011

 

******************

Comment on UL 827 Standards v An Act of God Storm mode policy

******************

While AC fails can be a bother for sure in storm mode the biggest problem we face is burg alarm, troubles, and supervisory alarms.

It used to be when most systems were on dial up there was a built in throttle based on the number line cards in a DACR, (digital alarm receiver) you could only get 2-3 alarms per minute, per card, now with IP, a central station can get thousands of alarms a minute, to the point an automation system can get overrun.

When a CS gets hit like this you run out of staff pretty quickly, especially if this is going to be an extended storm, the only viable solution to this is to fight fire with fire which means that the notifications out have to be electronic.

These notifications can be email (Electronic Mail), SMS (short message systems) , ASAP to the PSAP (As Soon As Possible to the Public Safety Answering Point)or IVR (Interactive Voice Response) Most central stations have some or all of this ability and have the ability to use it when it necessary such as storms

The problem is not with technology, dealing with signal load, (that by the way is up 4-6 X with today's systems compared to even 10 years ago)the problem is acceptance and leveraging with the industry itself.

Consumers are used to it, I get text messages when my southwest flight is late, my bank calls me with an IVR to tell me if I have a large transaction hit my credit card, even the local fire agency used IVR to tell us not to go up to the mountains because of an impending fire last year.

CSAA and others are working very hard to get the ASAP to the PSAP up and working, this will allow central stations to send dispatch requests to the agencies electronically saving lots of time and increasing accuracy dramatically.

Electronic notification is here to stay, used properly can help mitigate acts of God when central stations get overloaded, the only other solution would be to require centers to staff based on the worst case scenario, but that would raise the cost of wholesale monitoring 6 fold, something I doubt the trade would accept. With a balance of people and electronic notifications most centers should be able to deal with the actual critical alarms and have other forms of notifications for the non critical stuff

Morgan Hertel, Vice President and General Manager

Mace CS

Anaheim CA 92805-2911

www.central-station.com

*****************

Comments on complying with Homeland Security

*******************

Hi Ken;

I find this whole thing with receiving faxes from the Dept. of Homeland Security to be distressing at best. This whole Patriot Act is nothing less than a serious erosion of our rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for doing everything that we can LAWFULLY do to keep our Nation safe. But if you read some of the sections of the Patriot Act, it's scary. I wasn't that upset when it was first enacted, as A) it was right after 9/11/01 and anything to make us safer and to make it easier to find terrorists among us was OK by me, and B) I knew that the Act had a sunset date. Well when President Obama signed the extension of it, it took on a whole new complexion. If you think for just one second that "Big Brother" ISN'T watching, then you better think again. What I found really startling, was that one of the writers of the Patriot Act was our Vice President, Joe Biden. I'm not prone to giving much sway to conspiracy theories, but this is downright spooky.

In the same situation, I would have complied with the request too, but would have insisted on some sort of "hold harmless" guarantee in writing, and it too signed by a judge and not just some over zealous agent.

John from NJ

*********************

If criminals and terrorists used monitored alarms, cellphones with built-in GPS, vehicle EZ-Pass tags and credit cards with RFID chips, it would be very easy to track them. But that's not the case. All these electronic gizmos are to screw the law obeying working Americans whose freedom was taken away.

Dusan

*******************