Commercial Fire and Security Alarm Services

They depend on occupancy, building size, local adoption of fire codes such as NFPA 72, and your AHJ, usually the fire marshal. That is why we start with an assessment rather than a device count. We identify what the building has and where the gaps are, then design with permits and the AHJ in mind. IPS reviews for code compliance only when that is in the quote, and the AHJ can add requirements.

Usually four systems that should talk to each other: fire alarm, intrusion, access control, and video. Examples: arming the intrusion system when the last badge leaves, bringing up video when a zone trips, and releasing specified doors on fire alarm. The decision is one integrator for all four or separate vendors. One integrator simplifies accountability; with separate vendors, bring IT in too, since a firewall change can quietly break the links.

Yes. We move from risk and needs assessment to system design to installation by our certified, trained team. On combined fire and security projects, the order matters: door hardware surveys come early, because egress doors released on fire alarm need the right fail-safe or fail-secure hardware. Intrusion zoning is planned around how people actually use the building, so entry delays and motion coverage do not cause nuisance alarms.

We install and service the intrusion system; our monitoring partners provide 24/7/365 monitoring and response under a separate monitoring agreement. Their services include redundancy and fault tolerance, and multiple notification options with decision policies you define. Keep your call list current and decide who is called for what. A frequent issue we see is a call list naming people who left the company years ago.

Two kinds of remote monitoring apply. Alarm signals go to a monitoring provider, as described above; IPS does not monitor fire or intrusion alarms itself. Our Network Operations Center watches system health: remote probes and an IPS application on your video server check devices and cybersecurity controls and send data outbound over TLS to our secure AWS server. When it finds a problem, we resolve it under your maintenance contract.

We work with medium and large enterprises and government agencies. Industries we serve include education, federal and municipal government, healthcare, manufacturing, casinos, banking and finance, commercial real estate, data and technology, hospitality, professional services, retail, and sports and entertainment. A bank branch's hold-up and after-hours alarm needs look very different from a school's lockdown and visitor access needs, so design starts with how the site runs.

Yes. We handle intermittent door readers, cameras with dropping feeds, displays with poor image quality, and alarm devices that trouble or false alarm. Service is dispatched within a reasonable time during normal hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, excluding holidays, with after-hours work at additional charge. Variable-scope work is billed on a time-and-material basis at prevailing rates, and repairs are approved by you first.

Yes. Support Programs include two preventative maintenance visits per contract year, database metrics compilation and performance analysis, priority response for remote and onsite support, and a documented history of your systems. Once a year, test every alarm point and the link to the monitoring center, and check backup batteries. Shared alarm codes that never change when staff leave are a common weakness.