Burglar Alarm Monitoring: Your Options

The question monitoring answers

Every alarm makes a noise. Monitoring decides who finds out and what they do about it. A loud siren on an empty street at 3am may scare off an opportunist, but if nobody responds, the alarm has only done half its job. Choosing the right monitoring is really choosing who will act, and how quickly.

The four main options

• Bells only: the siren and strobe sound locally. No one is contacted automatically. Simplest and lowest-cost to run.
• App or self-monitored: the panel sends push notifications to your phone and named users, so you can check cameras and decide what to do.
• Speech dialler: the panel calls a list of keyholders in turn with a recorded message until someone answers.
• Monitoring centre: signals go to a staffed centre over a signalling path, which then contacts keyholders and, where the system and policy allow, arranges a response.

Signalling: how the alarm reaches anyone

Whichever option you choose, the signal has to get out. App alerts usually go over broadband or a SIM. Monitoring centre connections are often dual path, meaning broadband and mobile together, so the signal still gets through if one route is cut. Our dual-path signalling page explains how that works and why insurers sometimes ask for it.

Choosing for a home or a business

Many homes are well served by app alerts combined with CCTV, because the owner can see what triggered the alarm straight away. Where nobody is reliably reachable, such as holiday lets, empty properties or elderly relatives, a dialler or monitoring centre makes more sense.

Businesses and higher-value homes often have monitoring set for them by the insurer. If your policy names a particular type of monitoring or response, bring the wording to the survey and we specify the system to it.

Adding monitoring to an existing alarm

Many existing panels can have app control or a signalling module added without replacing the alarm. We check the panel make and model first; Pyronix, Texecom and Risco panels, for example, have their own app and communicator options. For a side by side comparison, see our guide to monitored and unmonitored alarms, and our page on burglar alarm monitoring in Medway for how we set it up locally. We can check the panel and communicator at the same visit as your annual alarm servicing.

What happens when a monitored alarm goes off

It helps to picture the sequence. With app monitoring, your phone receives an alert naming the zone that triggered, and if you have cameras you can open the live view to see what caused it before deciding whether to go round or call someone. With a speech dialler, keyholders receive a call in turn until one answers and acknowledges it.

With a monitoring centre, operators receive the signal, check it against the details held for your site, and follow the agreed plan, which usually starts with calling keyholders. Whatever the option, the system is only as good as the list of people behind it. We set that list up with you at installation and recommend reviewing it whenever someone moves, changes phone number or stops being a keyholder, because out of date contacts are one of the most common weak points we find.