Alarm monitoring
Back-to-base monitoring of your alarm system, 24 hours a day, with a documented response for every signal type.
Monitoring
Someone is watching, 24 hours a day.
An alarm that only sounds a siren relies on a passer-by caring enough to act. Back-to-base monitoring puts a staffed control room behind your system instead — and a response procedure written for your site.
Overview
Monitoring is the part that happens when nobody is there.
Teracom monitors alarm systems and cameras for commercial and residential sites across Australia. Signals from your panel arrive at our control room, where an operator works through the response procedure agreed for your site: calling your nominated contacts in the order you set, sending a patrol, or escalating to emergency services.
We already monitor sites for customers who came to us for the installation, and the two are deliberately joined up. The people who specified and commissioned your system are the people whose control room it reports to, which removes the most tedious conversation in this industry — the one where the installer blames the monitoring company and the monitoring company blames the installer.
Monitoring suits any site where the gap between something happening and someone finding out is the real risk: premises that sit empty overnight, yards and compounds, sites with staff working alone or closing up by themselves, and anywhere an insurer or a head contract asks for it.
Services
What we monitor.
Each of these can stand on its own, and most sites run two or three of them together.
CCTV monitoring
Cameras watched alongside the alarm, so an operator can see what triggered a detector before anyone is sent.
Open, close and schedule reporting
Know who armed and disarmed your site, and when, with alerts if it happens outside the hours you set.
Patrol response
A patrol attends when your contacts cannot be reached, or whenever your procedure says someone should go.
Duress and lone worker monitoring
Monitored duress buttons and personal devices for staff who work alone, late, or with the public.
Why monitor with us
What you actually get.
Monitored 24 hours a day
Signals arrive at our control room within seconds, every hour of every day, including the hours when nobody is at your site.
A response written for your site
Who is called, in what order, what happens after hours and when a patrol attends -- decided with you when the site is set up, not assumed.
A supervised connection
On a polled path, the control room notices when the connection fails. An unmonitored path only tells you it is broken when an alarm does not arrive.
The same team that installed it
We supply, install, commission and monitor. When something needs looking at, there is one number to call and no argument about whose problem it is.
Connection
How your panel reaches the control room.
This is the decision that quietly determines how good your monitoring is. We will recommend a path that suits the site rather than the most expensive one.
- Dialler
- The traditional path over a fixed telephone line. Cheapest to run, and still appropriate on some sites, but it only reports when it has something to say -- if the line is cut you find out when the alarm fails to arrive.
- Dual-SIM 4G
- A wireless path with two carriers in one unit, polled as often as every 20 seconds. If the path drops, the control room knows in seconds rather than at the next alarm. The usual choice for a commercial site today.
- IP
- Reporting over your existing internet connection, supported natively by several common panels. Fast and inexpensive, and normally paired with a wireless path so one outage does not take monitoring with it.
- Multipath
- Two independent paths, continuously supervised, for sites where a loss of monitoring is itself the incident. Insurance requirements and higher security classifications usually land here.
How it works
From first look to live monitoring.
Nothing goes live untested. Every documented zone is proved on site before the system is handed over.
- 01
Assess
We look at the panel you have, how the site is used and what you are actually protecting, then recommend a monitoring path that fits -- not the most expensive one.
- 02
Apply
We complete the monitoring application together: contacts and their authority, arming schedules, the zone list and what should happen for each signal.
- 03
Connect
Any communicator required is supplied and configured, the panel is programmed, and the site is registered with the control room.
- 04
Commission
On site, every documented zone is tested -- an alarm and a restore on each, plus siren and cabinet tampers, and arm/disarm reports where schedules are used. Nothing goes live untested.
- 05
Monitor
The site is monitored from that point on. Contact changes, schedule changes and reports are handled by us, so you have one number to call.
Questions
Monitoring, answered plainly.
What does back-to-base monitoring actually mean?
It means your alarm system reports to a control room that is staffed 24 hours a day, rather than only sounding a siren at the site. When a signal arrives, an operator works through the response procedure agreed for your site -- calling your nominated contacts, sending a patrol, or escalating to emergency services.
Can you monitor the alarm system I already have?
Usually, yes. Most commercial panels installed in the last fifteen years can report to a control room, sometimes as they are and sometimes with a communicator added. We check the panel before quoting rather than assuming, and we will tell you if replacing it is the more sensible option.
Do I still need a phone line?
Not for most sites. A dialler needs a working outgoing fixed line, which is exactly why fewer sites use one now. A dual-SIM 4G or IP path does not, and is supervised as well -- meaning the control room notices if the path fails, instead of finding out at the next alarm.
What is polling, and why does it matter?
Polling is the connection checking in with the control room at a set interval, from once a day down to every 20 seconds depending on the service. The shorter the interval, the sooner a cut or failed path is noticed. It is the difference between a monitored connection and an assumed one.
What happens if you cannot reach anyone on my contact list?
Whatever your procedure says. Most sites nominate a patrol attendance when the list is exhausted, and we recommend at least three after-hours contacts -- two is the most common reason a response stalls in the middle of the night.
Can I change my contacts or schedules later?
Yes, at any time, and you should whenever staff change. Contact us and we will update the control room record. Keeping that list current is the single most useful thing a customer can do.
How is monitoring billed?
Monitoring is charged at a fixed rate for the service you choose, payable in advance. There is no card surcharge. Optional extras are charged only when used, and so are call-outs outside business hours, additional site visits, reprogramming, decommissioning at the end, and any cost emergency services charge us for attending your site. We tell you the rate before doing chargeable work. Ask us for current rates.
How long am I committed for?
Monitoring starts with an initial 12-month term and the agreement renews after that. The notice you need to give to cancel, and what applies if you cancel early, are set out in your monitoring agreement. We take you through those before you sign rather than leaving you to find them afterwards, and we are happy to send you the agreement to read first.
Does monitoring replace insurance?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Monitoring reduces risk and shortens the time between something happening and someone acting on it. It cannot prevent a break-in or a fire, and it depends on power, networks and equipment that can fail. Keep your insurance.
What do I need to provide on site?
Mains power for the panel and its backup supply, safe access for our technician, and a working connection path -- a fixed line for a dialler, or adequate mobile or internet coverage for a wireless or IP path. We confirm all of this before the site goes live.
Talk to us about monitoring your site.
Tell us what panel you have and how the site is used, and we will come back with a recommendation and a price. Online applications are coming; for now it is a conversation.
Monitoring is provided under our terms and conditions.