Tag: PSAP

PROVO, Utah—Vivint in late September started planning its ASAP to PSAP adoption.“Vivint was told from this point it is typically four to six weeks before going live with the first PSAP,” Amy Becht, Vivint director of central stations, told Security Systems News. The ASAP program increases the speed and accuracy of transmitting alarm information by sending it digitally from the central station to the PSAP.In the short term, the program does not affect much of Vivint's account base....

WARRENDALE, Pa.—When Jason Bradley was named director of central station operations for Guardian Protection Services in April, he said implementing the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol program would be high on the agenda. Just a few months into his tenure, that objective has been realized, with the company going live with the program in Richmond, Va., where the company has a strong account base.It's a critical first step toward broader implementation in other PSAP-ready jurisdictions, Bradley...

YARMOUTH, Maine—Whether the talk is about mobile PERS devices with geo-fencing, speed alerts and lone-worker monitoring, or about smartphone apps that better connect subscribers with central stations, the takeaway is that the monitoring space is going mobile, and the transformation is happening fast, according to central station executives who are using these newer technologies.“[mPERS] is absolutely the fastest growing thing we see right now on the PERS side, with the emergence of multiple...

GARDEN CITY, N.Y.—Since the inception of mobile PERS, central stations have faced the problem of getting the devices to cheaply and reliably identify the appropriate public safety answering point during an emergency situation.World Wide Security, a full-service security company here, has developed a service for mPERS that seeks to address these challenges while creating a new RMR stream for central stations. The company's PERS division, Life Button 24, recently introduced an mPERS service that...

RA'ANANA, Israel—NICE Systems recently announced the launch of NICE Inform Version 6, which enables Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) to evaluate the quality of service delivered across an entire emergency incident, according to a company statement. The solution offers value to public safety organizations by supporting the evaluation of single calls as well as complete incidents, including the processing of multimedia input, such as GIS, video and CAD screen. This helps PSAPs and security...

SAN ANTONIO—United Central Control is switching to SGS' Stages for its central station automation, giving UCC dealers expanded access to mobile applications and improving efficiencies to reduce alarm-processing errors, company officials told Security Systems News.UCC President Teresa Gonzalez said the wholesale monitoring provider, based here, took two years to determine which automation software would be best for its 500 dealers.“We needed to look at where we are headed with our rapid...

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.—A PSAP that controls emergency communications for numerous municipalities around Chicago is reportedly having such problems with delayed response times that dispatchers recently voted “no confidence” in the agency's management.The situation at Northwest Central Dispatch System serves as a good example of why cities and towns shouldn't shut central stations out of the fire monitoring business if they want the public to be safe, according to the head of the...

The CSAA has taken the next step toward bringing more participants into the fold with the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol by going "live" with a computerized message broker in Arizona. The server at the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (Nlets) in Phoenix serves as a scrubber for transmissions being forwarded from monitoring companies to public safety answering points. It checks for errors and ensures that the information is properly formatted before sending it to the appropriate...

VIENNA, Va.—A provision to establish Next Generation 911 became law Feb. 22 as part of the payroll tax bill, including language the alarm industry feared might allow unverified PERS calls to stream into PSAPs. But agreements have been reached that will prevent the measure from having a negative impact on central stations, according to the Alarm Industry Communications Committee.The AICC had been lobbying members of Congress since December to change H.R. 3630—the Middle Class Tax Relief...

The U.S. House did the alarm industry no favors Tuesday night. By passing H.R. 3630, “The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011,” House members said yes to extending the Social Security payroll tax deduction and sent the contentious bill to the Senate. While you'd be hard-pressed to find a central operator who opposes tax relief or job creation, the bill is laden with a stealth bomb: Next Generation 911, which in its present form would allow emergency calls from alarm...