Within companies, there is a push to make better use of their telephony in general, to get the most capability out of the bandwidth available, reports Chris Bridgwood, head of Sales at BT RedCARE.
Within companies, there is a push to make better use of their telephony in general, to get the most capability out of the bandwidth available, reports Chris Bridgwood, head of Sales at BT RedCARE. In the past, someone in a large organisation would look after the security system alone; now, different parts of a business and a building are ever more switched on to what technology is available. Different departments are talking to one another digitally.
Security, IT talk
Yes, the IT manager in a building can be protective of his data network and digital telephone lines, and the security manager could find himself battling with the IT manager to release lines for other, security uses. Chris Bridgwood adds however: ?We are starting to talk quite heavily with IT managers along with their security managers and directors within their business? and when security and IT do discuss what they want and what is available, yes, security signals can be sent over the network. Maybe the IT department wants to use the off-peak hours to make back-ups over the system. With the correct configuration, Chris Bridgwood points out, you can tell the transmission device to give priority to certain applications. That is, IT could be doing a back-up (or a download or a check of stock) at 3.30am, but if there is a personal attack alarm or other alarm, the back-up goes on hold, effectively, and the transmission of the alarm or CCTV images goes ahead. Once the security transmission has gone through, the back-up resumes.
About services
The RedCARE service continuously monitors the BT telephone line that links an alarm system, in the customer?s premises, to an alarm receiving centre (ARC), 24-365. It both signals line cut detection to the ARC and provides encryption to prevent substitution of equipment or ?spoofing? emulation of line conditions. RedCARE ISDN is the company?s digital service, which allows more information to be delivered more quickly and is capable of transmitting up to 1,000 alarms or data packets to an ARC, over the same connection. For example, the system can be set to detect when a window is left open, when the air conditioning has been left on, or when the boiler is over-heating. It can pass textual information about the status of a premises to a monitoring station, such as ?intruder in kitchen? and ?intruder moving to sales floor?, an aid to police responding to an activation. RedCARE with GSM is a RedCARE connection with a GSM radio back up path, using Cellnet?s GSM network. This enables premises to be linked into the network through two separate paths. If one path fails, or is interrupted, then the other informs the ARC, and continues to monitor subsequent alarms. BT RedCARE with GSM protects a customer?s level one alarm response by police by automatically delivering alarm signals over the back-up path should the main line fail. Visit www.bt.com
