Find Your Perfect System
September 10, 2014
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Answer About The Monitoring Center
You may view your home alarm system as just a Control Panel with a set of sensors attached, but there’s a lot more to it than the equipment. Think about all the people involved to ensure that your home security performs when you need it: the FrontPoint Security representative who checked to ensure your system was setup properly, the person in your home who arms your system daily, plus your local emergency responders who react if there’s an alarm.
And then there’s the monitoring center, the group of people who connect your alarm system to the emergency responders, and to you.
The monitoring center is an unknown entity to many home alarm owners, and is the topic of many questions asked by our customers. What is it and what do they do? What monitoring center does FrontPoint work with? Ask no more, we’re answering all things monitoring center today!
What is a monitoring center?
An alarm monitoring center, as its name implies, is a team of people dedicated to monitoring your alarm system. In the event a sensor is triggered, the alarm is raised or the system shows any signs of irregularity, the monitoring center is responsible for responding by contacting you to verify the alarm as well as deploying the authorities.
Monitoring centers are also referred to as a monitoring station or central station.
Do all alarm companies use the same monitoring center?
No, they do not. And not all monitoring centers are equal. Quality of service, response times, accreditation status and levels can vary from center to center.
This variance makes it important to properly do your research when searching for a home alarm system. In addition to researching the equipment and service of a home alarm company, make sure to inspect the monitoring center the company uses as well.
What monitoring center does FrontPoint use?
FrontPoint works with Rapid Response Monitoring to provide premium-level monitoring to its customers. One of the most highly regarded monitoring centers in the U.S., Rapid Response has many levels of accreditation, including:
- Department of Defense approved
- Underwriters Laboratories Inc. tested
- Factory Mutual approved
- New York City Fire Department approved for commercial buildings
What is the monitoring center’s role during an emergency?
A monitoring center acts as your home security’s middleman, maintaining a constant connection between your alarm system and the authorities, so you don’t have to worry about it.
The monitoring center keeps a watchful eye over your home. If an emergency occurs, they’ll know about it and be able to notify you and the emergency responders immediately.
If it’s just a false alarm, you can confirm it with Rapid Response so the authorities won’t be dispatched, helping you avoid a penalty or fine. However, if it is an actual emergency or if you’re unable to answer when Rapid Response tries to contact you, help will be on its way.
What happens if the power goes out at a monitoring center?
Most monitoring centers have something called monitoring redundancy in place to plan for emergencies like loss of electrical power. Redundancy is incredibly important as it ensures that you’ll never lose protection, even when the unforeseen happens.
Rapid Response has redundancy for almost anything you can think of, including backups for electrical power, telephones, internet, computer servers and environmental conditions.
As always, please feel free to leave a question in the comments below or send it to blog@frontpointsecurity.com!
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