We recently received word that the Waterloo Regional Police have been approved to move away their current registration model to what’s called a VARP model, VARP meaning Verified Alarm Response Program. In the past, alarm system owners have had the option to pay a small fee to have their alarm registered with the WRP. Benefits […]
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RSS feed for this sectionElectronic Locks – Alula Communicators
The YRL and YRD Yale electronic locks have recently ended up on the shelves of the Big Box stores, making these locks the number one option for those doing home automation. And honestly, good for them. For the record, we knew this was going to happen. We don’t know what will happen to the quality […]
Cloud Storage for Surveillance – Feasible?
Depends on the size of your system. Man. I have never seen a more contentious question in our business than this one. So. Let’s talk about it. Camera systems are now recording at 1080P and 4K. We’ve talked about the amount of data that is. For those who don’t know, you’re uploading 1.2g and 3.6g […]
Police Registration
A lot of questions surrounding Waterloo Regional Police registration this year. Trust me. We get it. It. Sucks. Waterloo Regional decided years ago that any home with an alarm system was to be registered as having an alarm system in order to receive prioritized response and one free false alarm response per year. As the […]
After the Egyptians
Once something is invented, it is inevitably adopted/captured/absorbed by other cultures. In the case of the Egyptians, the first (Historically provable) adoptee of their locking mechanism were the Greeks. Now, I’m gonna put this here for all those smartasses. Yes. Rocks and caves came before keys and locks. You win. Congratulations. No civilization will ever […]
Yale vs Alarm Lock Grade 2
So. There’s this not-so-new guy back in town called Alarm Lock. We had a visit from a rep today with one of their grade 2’s in tow. There are a couple things about the DL2700 that I really like. There’s other things about the DL2700LD that I don’t like. I’m inclined to push it up […]
On the Move
Hard wiring a security system is always the most secure way to install an alarm. It is not always the most practical way. We, as a rule, always wire in a security alarm. Wireless, while reliable, saves very little in cost and the devices on wired tend to take less maintenance. However, there are quite […]
Resolution = Alula
Just a quick one today. Resolution, the designer and manufacturer of our Helix alarm system, has been combined with IPDatatel and rebranded as Alula. It’s a badly kept secret that the two have been looking for ways to merge since September 2017. For our end users, nothing really changes other than the name of the […]
Bluetooth in a Lock
So. I think our manufacturers missed a few… points. We have had a recently influx of blue tooth locks into our shop in the past couple of weeks. For those who don’t know, blue tooth locks are intended for short range operation and multi-user access. There are a couple of things about these types of […]
Home Alarms Marketing Mythology
You came! I’m flattered. Come back thursday and it’ll all make sense. Promise.