Showing posts with label security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label security. Show all posts

Sunday, May 1, 2016

The Human Interface: Adding Your Smartphone to the Mix

On the 11th of April we talked about the various kinds of human interfaces in use within the security market. We covered basic keypads, keyfobs, and card readers. We also talked about security and smart home technology and the enhancements associated with larger flat touch displays which invariably include soft keypad keys for security alarm arming, disarming, and other purposes.

Today, I’d like to chat with you about another famously popular human interface called the “smartphone.” More and more manufacturers of security systems are adding smartphone apps to their offerings in order to provide you, our client, with an even more enjoyable and efficient way of controlling your security system. This is an especially helpful method of control for commercial users because it allows you to stay in contact with your facility no matter what time it is, no matter where you may be.

Through your smartphone, you will nearly instantaneously receive a full compliment of information pushed to your smartphone when there’s an alarm situation. Using your in-house camera system, you will immediately have access to cameras in the vicinity of the door or motion that triggered the alarm. If there is no one there, you can cancel the dispatch, reset the alarm, and go back to what you were doing—in addition to saving money because the police were either cancelled or the central did not call in the first place.

If you have added lighting control to the list of items to which your alarm system integrates with, you also can use your smartphone to turn lights on and off, in addition to dimming and brightening them. Heating and cooling systems also can be controlled via your smartphone as well.

If you are interested in connecting your smartphone to your security system, give ESC a call. If this features is not offered by you’re present alarm system, we’ll give you a discount on replacing it with a new one that will. If you would like to add lighting and cooling/heating control to your security controller as well, ESC would be more than happy to assist you in making that happen.

Give us a call today at 614-754-1393, or send me an email at electronicsystemsconsultants@gmail.com. You can also leave me a message using the contact us form below.

Thank you, John

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Monday, April 11, 2016

Security: Meet the Human Interface

Electronic security, whether in the home, office, or an industrial facility, requires some means of interface between the control system and the people who use it. In some cases this means of interface is nothing more than a key switch while in other situations it can be a keyfob, an access card, or a keypad equipped with the usual numeric and function buttons (see photo #1). In some cases this human interface can take the form of a smartphone.

The most common keypad in use today provides the means whereby users can input a four-to-six digit numeric code, thus arming or disarming their alarm system. These simple human interfaces provide a series of point indicators that tell the status of the alarm system at a glance.

Additional buttons often are included that provide advanced functions, such as medical alert, hold-up, and fire. These buttons can be disabled by the alarm company where necessary.

Disabling these buttons is a ploy used when such a keypad is to be mounted in a public space where members of the general public might invoke an unwanted alarm. Such an area is the vestibule of a retail store.

Today’s Security Systems Offer Advanced Features
As time moves forward, so does the technology we use for security, and hence the human interface has grown more responsive to the many features and benefits that have evolved while becoming more simplistic over time.

Honeywell’s Lyric home controller, shown in the photo to the left, is a good example of a sophisticated, modern human interface (keypad) that offers more than just security. Besides arming, disarming, medical, panic, and fire, these systems make it possible to integrate your keyfobs and other alarm devices with a motorized garage door or outside gate.

Additional integrated components include video cameras; on keypad weather alerts with five-day forecasts; remote access to online devices, such as smartphones, desktop computers, laptops, and tablets; and control of auxiliary locks, such as Yale’s Real Living or Schlage Sense locks. Additional features include the ability to monitor pool areas, pets, water leaks, and harmful gases, such as CO and propane or natural gas.

Clearly today’s keypad has become more than just a security control device. For example, instead of hard keys that can become dirty over time, thus revealing a user’s PIN (Personal Identification Number), systems like Honeywell’s Lyric sports soft keys using an advanced touch-screen display. Systems that include all of the above new features and benefits have taken today’s alarm system from “wait and see” to “every day” where the business or home owner depends on it continually throughout each day.

If you’re interested in upgrading your existing alarm system to include some or all of the features named above, give ESC a call today and ask for assistance. Our number is 614-754-1393, or send us an email at electronicsystemsconsultants@gmail.com. You also can use our easy-to-use response form below.

Use of Keyfobs at Record High
Alarm users love their keyfobs, and that is a fact. Most alarm owners and users utilize mobile devices called keyfobs. Most of these devices are an integral part of alarm user’s lives as they offer a convenient, rapid means of alarm control.

Keyfobs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, depending on who makes them. They can come with a single button, two buttons, or four. In the case of the latter, control functions include disarm, arm, panic, and control of a light or perhaps a garage door—even both.

The problem with keyfobs is that if you lose one and someone finds it, or if they actually stole it, the same device that allows you to enter your business or home will also grant crooks the same luxury. If such a loss should occur, contact ESC’s main office ASAP and ask to have the lost keyfob removed from your alarm system. Although it’s not difficult to do, it may require an ESC technician to do this from your business or home, resulting in a service charge. Call us at 614-754-1393 and ask for service.

Integration Between Access & Security Systems
Electronic Systems Consultants LLC is a fully capable systems integrator. We can integrate your access control and security systems in such a way that your alarm system can be armed and disarmed through a single action on the access control side.

The advantage of this type of arrangement is the convenience of doing two things at once without remembering PINs and operating keypads or keyfobs. Of course, it’s still a great idea that every system has at least one keypad for alarm control. In fact, you can still use a keyfob as well, and in some cases the keyfob can be used to unlock doors and turn alarm systems off, all at the same time.

The degree of complexity or simplicity is up to you and ESC is prepared to provide you with whatever you need to make the task of alarm and building control more manageable to you and your staff on a daily basis. If you’re interested in upgrading your existing alarm system to include some or all of the features mentioned in this article, give ESC a call today. Our phone number is 614-754-1393, or you can send an email at electronicsystemsconsultants@gmail.com. You also can use our easy-to-use response form below. We look forward to hearing from you at your convenience.

John Larkin, Senior Partner

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Tuesday, August 4, 2015

ESC’s John Larkin Featured in Security Sales & Integration Magazine

John Larkin, ESC Senior Partner, was recently featured in a story published in the July issue of SSI magazine.

Entitled “Bundle to Broaden Your Security Services Package,” the story addresses the issue of how an alarm company becomes a single source vendor by creating incentives for his clients to purchase multiple systems, plus maintenance.

In this story John is quoted concerning how he bundles a variety of services together, creating incentives for his clients to purchase more for less. The publication John appears in is a magazine of his peers, which shows how important John Larkin's actions and business opinions are to other professionals in the field of security, safety, and fire protection.

Check out the story (click here) and then call John for a free consultation. Call 614-754-1393 or use our contact form by clicking on the button on the left.

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Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Smartphones in Security

The number of smartphones sold during the last quarter of 2012 exceeded the number of personal computers in use. Add the fact that today’s smartphone has as much computing power as most PCs, and you begin to see a power trend emerging. The fact is, mobile computing will continue to grow until it converges into something else more news shattering and profound than anyone today can imagine.

Smartphones have become a powerful force among consumers where it comes to their home or business. Through an Internet connection, your smartphone will also enable you to access your home or business video surveillance system as well as your alarm system.

With your smartphone you can review alarms that occur, openings and closings that take place, and activities that take place by reviewing video footage—all while you’re away.

Using a virtual keypad on your smartphone, you also can arm and disarm your system when and where needed. Let’s say you’re in Las Vegas for the weekend and your furnace develops a glitch that stops it from working during cold winter weather. With your smartphone you can telephone your maintenance company and, if you’re on really good terms with your service man, disarm the alarm and unlock the front door to let him in!

Unlocking your door is done through a technology called Z-Wave. By installing a Z-wave compliant door lock, which is self contained with its own battery, you can send a command to the alarm panel in your place of business or home telling it to unlock the front door. A special Z-wave module installed and connected to your alarm panel will then send a wireless radio signal using Z-wave technology to the lock giving it the order. A signal is sent back to the alarm panel from the lock when this command is executed.

ESC LLC offers a wide array of alarm systems that will interact with your smartphone. Be sure to contact us with your questions and we’ll be glad to discuss the smartphone connection with you. Call us at 614-754-1393, or contact me at electronicsystemsconsultants@gmail.com.

I also invite you to download “5 Unexpected Ways Businesses Can Use Smartphones to Drive Profit,” by Kirill Storch, CEO of Electric Web, available right here from ESC. To get your copy, please fill in the form below and click on Send. You also can send an email to 101ways@tpromo2.com with the word “smartphone” in the subject line. You will receive a link via email through which you can download your copy of “5 Unexpected Ways Businesses Can Use Smartphones to Drive Profit.”

5 Unexpected Ways Businesses Can Use Smartphones to Drive Profit

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