KEN KIRSCHENBAUM, ESQ ALARM - SECURITY INDUSTRY LEGAL EMAIL NEWSLETTER / THE ALARM EXCHANGE You can read all of our articles on our website. Having trouble getting our emails? Change your spam controls and whitelist ken@kirschenbaumesq.com ****************************** Remote station and UL Certified account / If coming did you RSVP for Holiday Party? November 13, 2024 ************************* All times booked for private meeting with KK at ISC East *************************** Only waiting list available: contact: Stacy Spector,Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304 or SSpector@Kirschenbaumesq.com. Concierge Clients will have priority. ************************* Remote station and UL Certified account / Comment on Fire Alarm Phone Line Issues and your time from article on November 4, 2024 ************************* Ken, The subject of phone lines has been beaten to death, anyone out there that is just figuring this out must have been under a rock for the last 10 years. Aside from that there were several things I wanted to comment on. The first is the difference between a UL Certificated account and one that is not, the vast majority of fire alarms are not UL Certificated; they are just considered remote station fire alarms, and as such your responsibility is different. Using this example a remote station account when a test timer is missed would require notification (either by voice or electronic is acceptable) but if it was a UL certificated for Central Station Service the issuer of the certificate would be responsible for sending out a service tech to fix it. Remote station and Central Station Service are two very different things. I also wanted to add some additional color on why the phone problem exists and what can and does happen. The reason we are in this place is because the PSTN network has transformed from an analog to a digital packet based network, 100% of all calls made in the US today somewhere end up on a packet based network, the ends may be analog but the middle is not and nothing you can do is going to change that, that ship sailed a long time ago. And it’s not that packed based (VoIP) is necessarily evil the challenge is latency, and I could spend hours on the why and have done dozens of presentations on it but at the end of the day you are going to see inconsistencies with dial up alarm traffic. This can manifest itself in several ways and here are the typical ones. A. The dialer can’t hear the receiver kiss-off and results in sending the same message over and over again until it times out and goes into trouble B. The receiver hears part of the message and then decodes the message as something other than Contact ID and then the message ends on the wrong account number, these are the worst because now you have a communicator that thinks it’s successful, but the alarm is on the wrong account, C. The communicator can’t hear the receiver handshake or its not in time, so it never sends the message in the first place. Think about a fire alarm that missed its test, it tried 16 times over 30 minutes and didn’t get through or ended up on the wrong account number, the same will happen on a real fire alarm, sending the truck on a 30-minute old alarm is not a good thing. Almost every monitoring center can provide the dealer with the communication error logs on a daily basis, you should be reviewing these and being proactive, it would be much easier to give a site a new radio that to have to manage a loss claim. The costs for moving them to a modern approach will always be less than the cost of a two POTS lines, no matter how you count the pennies. It’s in everyone’s best interest to get systems moved off of dial up and on to something current. It’s never been easier with lots of options on how to get there. All the best. Morgan Hertle, VP of Technology and Innovation Rapid Response Monitoring 877-553-4531 mhertle@rrms.com *************************** Another comment *************************** Ken Replying to fire alarm phone line issues. I don't believe it's ever been recommended to use digital phone services with a fire panel dialer due to compatibility issues. Not to mention the fact that there's more RMR to be had with cellular options. Larry D ******************** Response ******************** Understanding how fire alarms are monitored, how all alarms are monitored, is vital for all dealers. Be sure you know how any signal you program is going to be handled. ********************** Holiday Party 2024 – this is your invitation - rsvp if attending ************************** The K&K Holiday Party will be on December 12, 2024 in Old Westbury, NY from 6:30 to 9:30 PM. You’re invited, but you do need to RSVP before December 1, 2024 so we can properly plan. Format is casual dress, cocktails and plenty of pass-around hors d'oeuvres; you won’t leave hungry. Please send your RSVP to Kathleen Lampert at 516 747 6700 x 319 or KLampert@Kirschenbaumesq.com or Amy Laveglia at 516 747 6700 x 313 or ALaveglia@Kirschenbaumesq.com. Come see old and meet new friends at this social event. Looking forward to seeing you at the party. ************************ STANDARD FORMS Alarm / Security / Fire and related Agreements click here: www.alarmcontracts.com *************************** CONCIERGE LAWYER SERVICE PROGRAM FOR THE ALARM INDUSTRY - You can check out the program and sign up here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/concierge or contact our Program Coordinator Stacy Spector, Esq at 516 747 6700 x 304. *********************** ALARM ARTICLES: You can always read our Articles on our website at ww.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/alarm-articles updated daily ******************** THE ALARM EXCHANGE - the alarm industries leading classified and business exchange - updated daily ************************* Wondering how much your alarm company is worth? Click here: https://www.kirschenbaumesq.com/page/what-is-my-alarm-company-worth ****************************** Getting on our Email List / Email Articles archived: Many of you are forwarding these emails to friends or asking that others be added to the list. Sign up for our daily newsletter here: Sign Up. You can read articles and order alarm contracts on our web site www.alarmcontracts.com ************************** Ken Kirschenbaum,Esq Kirschenbaum & Kirschenbaum PC Attorneys at Law 200 Garden City Plaza Garden City, NY 11530 516 747 6700 x 301 ken@kirschenbaumesq.com www.KirschenbaumEsq.com
