Typical project · Quebec and Ontario
Replacing the old alarm system of a store with offices and a stockroom
These are typical projects, described from the kind of work we do. They do not describe a named client or a specific building.
Everyone uses the same code, the siren goes off at night for no apparent reason, and the whole building has to be disarmed for one person to reach a desk. This is how the alarm is replaced without the premises spending a single night unprotected.
The situation: one code, false alarms and a panel nobody can program
The client is a company that runs a store with a stockroom at the back and offices upstairs. The alarm comes from a previous occupant. It has a single area: when the bookkeeper arrives early, the whole building is disarmed; when the last salesperson leaves, the offices are armed with people still in them.
All the employees share one code, including several who have left. The false alarms come at night, the person on call drives in and finds nothing, and nobody hurries any more. The installer code is unknown: it is impossible to add a user, rename a zone or find out which detector is at fault.
What the first visit, zone by zone, finds
- Detectors where the walls used to beThe premises were rearranged; the detectors were not. One looks at the back of a shelving unit, another at a heating outlet that sets it off on cold nights.
- Doors that were never connectedThe receiving door and the door from the stockroom to the store have no contact. Neither has the roof hatch.
- Wiring worth keepingMost of the cable to the existing detectors is sound and can be reused. The runs to the new doors do not exist.
- A communicator on a line that is going awayThe panel reports over an old telephone line that the carrier is withdrawing from service, with nothing to take over if the line is cut.
What is designed, and why
The design starts from who comes in, when and by which door, not from the list of existing detectors.
- Three areas that arm separatelyThe store, the stockroom and the offices are each armed and disarmed on their own. The bookkeeper who arrives early opens the offices only, and the stockroom stays armed during the day if the client wants it so.
- A detector chosen for each spaceContacts on every outside door and on the roof hatch, motion detectors placed for the rooms as they are today, glass-break detection on the storefront. The detector facing the heating outlet is moved, not made less sensitive.
- A code per personEach employee has a code or a fob, valid for the areas and the hours that person needs. A departure is settled by one deletion, and the log shows who armed and disarmed.
- Alerts that say where to lookEach zone has a name in plain words, the same as on the plan. An alert on the phone of the people responsible names the zone, and the system has a connection for the monitoring station the client chooses, over the network with a cellular backup.
- A tie to the cameras and the doorsAn alarm in the stockroom brings up the camera of that room: the person on call can look before driving in. If the client has access control, a valid card at the staff door disarms the right area.
How the work is sequenced so that no night goes unprotected
The old system stays armed every night until the new one has been tested, area by area.
- The zone list approved on the plan
The client approves a plan that shows each detector, the name of its zone, its area and who may disarm it.
- New cable and detectors, the old panel still in service
Cable is pulled to the new doors and the detectors are mounted by day, while the old panel goes on protecting the building at night.
- The panel replaced in one day
The old panel comes out and the new one goes in on a day chosen with the client, every zone being connected and tested before closing time.
- A walk test with the people who close
Each door is opened and each room is walked through with the system in test mode, in front of the employees who will arm it, and the codes are handed out.
- Monitoring connected and tried
The connection to the monitoring station is made with that station, each type of signal is sent as a test, and the call list is verified.
What is handed over
- The plan with every detector and the name of its zone, as it reads on the keypad
- The list of users, areas and schedules, with the way to add and remove a person
- The test record of each zone and of each signal sent to the monitoring station
- The installer code and the administrator access, in the client's hands
- A one-page guide near the keypad: arming, disarming and what to do on a false alarm
Services involved
Industry
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A project like this starts with a floor plan and the story of the last false alarm
Tell us how the premises are divided, who opens and who closes, and what the present system does wrong. We go to every door and every room, then send a quote with the zone list and the order of the changeover. We reply in English or French.