Many people are considering DIY systems from national marketers to save money and they feel the need to have "some" protection. One industry trade magazine decided to investigate one of the many mass marketing DIY companies, SimpliSafe. What the found was disturbing.
This SimpliSafe design and equipment does not at all compare to what the professional alarm industry uses, is not “advanced,” and does not comport with nationally recognized industry standards and best practices.
A new startup wants to turn drones into guardian angels for our homes.
Sunflower Labs -- with headquarters in Silicon Valley and Zurich, Switzerland -- announced a new security system on Thursday that detects possible threats and investigates them with a drone.
The drone streams video to your smartphone, so you can see and decide if your home is at risk or not.
Sunflower Labs, which is now accepting participant applications, will start beta tests in mid-2017. The startup sees itself as a complement to traditional alarms.
Here's how it works: The Sunflower Home Awareness System relies on the drone and a handful of in-ground smart lights to watch over your house. It detects motion, vibration and sound. By analyzing this data, the system can distinguish between a human, a car and animals. To do so, it uses artificial intelligence to identify the disturbance and determine if it's potentially dangerous. For example, trusted visitors such as mail delivery persons will be recognized by how they approach the home and how long they stand at the front door.
A fire alarm system has a number of devices working together to detect and warn people through visual and audio appliances when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other emergencies are present. These alarms may be activated automatically from smoke detectors, and heat detectors or may also be activated via manual fire alarm activation devices such as manual call points or pull stations. Alarms can be either motorized bells or wall mountable sounders or horns. They can also be speaker strobes which sound an alarm, followed by a voice evacuation message which warns people inside the building not to use the elevators. Fire alarm sounders can be set to certain frequencies and different tones including low, medium and high, depending on the country and manufacturer of the device. Fire alarm sounders in the United States and Canada can be either continuous or set to different codes such as Code 3. Fire alarm warning devices can also be set to different volume levels depending on the Authority having jurisdiction's requirement.
We found this highly detailed PDF produced By Stanford University's Fire Office to be a very good guide to understanding the basics!
Year after year we see consumers who are taken advantage of regarding their choice of security companies. Here is a quick inforgraphic we have put together regarding 5 easy steps to follow when selecting your next security company. If you or anyone you know is in the market for security, please share these quick tips.