Installing a DIY Home Alarm System
Uploaded by SecureYourHome on 08.10.2009
Transcript:
Hello everyone and welcome to the FrontPoint Podcast Series. I’m your host Greg Able
joined as always by FrontPoint Chief Operating Officer Peter Rogers. Hi Greg. Hey Peter.
This week we’re going to talk about installation of home security systems. Now Peter, when
most people think about home security installation, what’s running through their head? It depends
on the type of system that you’re going to buy but let’s talk about the traditional
hard wired systems since that represents most of the systems that are out there. You generally
got a large grey box that’s going to go somewhere in the closet or the basement. In
addition to that there’s a connection to the home phone line because most of these
traditional systems actually utilize the home phone line to communicate. You’ve got drilling
and wires running through the house, so that all of the sensors can communicate with that
grey box and lastly you’ve got programming and testing that has to be done so it’s
quite a process. Right, and I understand its two steps right? The first is a consultant
will come out and look at your house, make recommendations, and the next step is the
technician comes outright? That’s right. With the drilling and the running wires, are
we getting away from that at all with the advent of wireless sensors? We are and some
companies have actually moved over towards wireless sensors which we’re really happy
to see because we feel that’s the right way to go, but you’ve still have the grey
box and you’ve still have the programming and the testing and you still have that connection
to the vulnerable phone line. Alright so with the traditional installation
and technician coming to the home, how much time are we talking about from start to finish?
You know when the cable or phone company comes you know that window you have to allow? Same
kind of situation. You’ve got to be there at 9-1 and it’s going to take at least half
a day and it may take longer. Are there any alternatives to spending the
whole day waiting for a technician to do it for you? Good question and happily there are.
There’s actually a DIY alternative that’s out there and there are a couple of different
flavors of it. One flavor is just buying the components and you can buy these from folks
like Safe Mart or HomeTechnologyStore.com. What these folks do is they just sell the
actual alarm devices. Generally speaking you’ve got to figure out what you need, put it all
together, do the programming yourself, may or may not be monitored, probably won’t
be and these are not real alarm companies, they’re not licensed and they don’t do
everything they’re supposed to. Or you can go to BestBuy or Radio Shack and buy some
raw components. You’ve got to be really careful there because you’re not sure what
you’re going to get. What about FrontPoint? Tell me about the FrontPoint
approach to installation. We’ve really combined what we think is the best of both worlds.
What we’ve got is a fully licensed alarm company and what we’ve got is a roster of
security consultants and they help you design the system from scratch. We then program and
test all the equipment, ship it out to you via FedEx, and normally in about half an hour
you can have the system set up. You can do it yourself? Absolutely, it’s that easy
and once you’re done you give us a call and we get to check your work to make sure
everything is working properly. Are some consumers intimidated by this process
or can everyone pretty much do it? Well, some are at the beginning and when that happens
we simply tell them once you receive the equipment take a look at it, if you still feel that
you need help despite how easy it is just let us know and we have resources that we
can supply for that. The other week I had a nice call with a nice lady from Texas. She
had been concerned and it turns out that she set the system up with her daughter in about
45 minutes. Wow alright so it sounds like if you can follow some instructions you can
put up a system pretty quickly? With all of the things people are programming in their
home these days, it’s even easier than that. Alright great thanks for the information.
It sounds like the installation of home security systems has reached the twenty first century
too right? Absolutely. Alright thank you. Everyone thank you for joining us for this
edition of the FrontPoint Podcast Series. We’ll see you next time.
joined as always by FrontPoint Chief Operating Officer Peter Rogers. Hi Greg. Hey Peter.
This week we’re going to talk about installation of home security systems. Now Peter, when
most people think about home security installation, what’s running through their head? It depends
on the type of system that you’re going to buy but let’s talk about the traditional
hard wired systems since that represents most of the systems that are out there. You generally
got a large grey box that’s going to go somewhere in the closet or the basement. In
addition to that there’s a connection to the home phone line because most of these
traditional systems actually utilize the home phone line to communicate. You’ve got drilling
and wires running through the house, so that all of the sensors can communicate with that
grey box and lastly you’ve got programming and testing that has to be done so it’s
quite a process. Right, and I understand its two steps right? The first is a consultant
will come out and look at your house, make recommendations, and the next step is the
technician comes outright? That’s right. With the drilling and the running wires, are
we getting away from that at all with the advent of wireless sensors? We are and some
companies have actually moved over towards wireless sensors which we’re really happy
to see because we feel that’s the right way to go, but you’ve still have the grey
box and you’ve still have the programming and the testing and you still have that connection
to the vulnerable phone line. Alright so with the traditional installation
and technician coming to the home, how much time are we talking about from start to finish?
You know when the cable or phone company comes you know that window you have to allow? Same
kind of situation. You’ve got to be there at 9-1 and it’s going to take at least half
a day and it may take longer. Are there any alternatives to spending the
whole day waiting for a technician to do it for you? Good question and happily there are.
There’s actually a DIY alternative that’s out there and there are a couple of different
flavors of it. One flavor is just buying the components and you can buy these from folks
like Safe Mart or HomeTechnologyStore.com. What these folks do is they just sell the
actual alarm devices. Generally speaking you’ve got to figure out what you need, put it all
together, do the programming yourself, may or may not be monitored, probably won’t
be and these are not real alarm companies, they’re not licensed and they don’t do
everything they’re supposed to. Or you can go to BestBuy or Radio Shack and buy some
raw components. You’ve got to be really careful there because you’re not sure what
you’re going to get. What about FrontPoint? Tell me about the FrontPoint
approach to installation. We’ve really combined what we think is the best of both worlds.
What we’ve got is a fully licensed alarm company and what we’ve got is a roster of
security consultants and they help you design the system from scratch. We then program and
test all the equipment, ship it out to you via FedEx, and normally in about half an hour
you can have the system set up. You can do it yourself? Absolutely, it’s that easy
and once you’re done you give us a call and we get to check your work to make sure
everything is working properly. Are some consumers intimidated by this process
or can everyone pretty much do it? Well, some are at the beginning and when that happens
we simply tell them once you receive the equipment take a look at it, if you still feel that
you need help despite how easy it is just let us know and we have resources that we
can supply for that. The other week I had a nice call with a nice lady from Texas. She
had been concerned and it turns out that she set the system up with her daughter in about
45 minutes. Wow alright so it sounds like if you can follow some instructions you can
put up a system pretty quickly? With all of the things people are programming in their
home these days, it’s even easier than that. Alright great thanks for the information.
It sounds like the installation of home security systems has reached the twenty first century
too right? Absolutely. Alright thank you. Everyone thank you for joining us for this
edition of the FrontPoint Podcast Series. We’ll see you next time.