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You don’t buy an alarm system for your home or business in 5 minutes. At least that’s what we think. If you are looking for quality, you must first look for a reliable company that offers a corresponding product. However, some people still go for the wrong way. They just call any company that offers something in security, and ask if they want to install an alarm system. When we weren’t in this business yet, we also thought that this was the way to get an alarm system. Now we know better.
When we were ignorant…
You have a company representative come, and indicate that you want an alarm system, sometimes accompanied by some cameras. The representative notes your wishes and comes almost immediately with a price for this. But what you forget to ask, and what the sales representative doesn’t tell you by himself, is what product or brand you are actually buying. There is no indication to the customer exactly what you get for this quote amount and which products are used. Because of this, no decent customization will be delivered which will especially meet all your wishes.
What a representative often fails to do, but should do
First of all, such a representative can tell you that there are different brands of systems and list their advantages and disadvantages. Often, at the end of the conversation with the representative, it will be agreed to have the system installed or that you will think about the quotation obtained. If you choose the first one, to have the system installed immediately, 99% of the buyers don’t even know which brand of alarm system they have ordered, and what will be installed. Because of this, they can’t be aware of all the possibilities, because they don’t know exactly what they ordered. That’s a real shame of course, and not as it should be.
Every day we get people who have given us contacts and elsewhere an offer for an alarm system. These people ask us what the price would be for an alarm system. Our very first question then, of course, is: Which products do you get exactly for the quoted price? Nobody can answer that, because they don’t know. The quote is always very brief, because the representative does not want you to compare with other providers. That is why there is little or no talk about the products you get.
In order for us to make an estimate of what these people need in terms of products, we often ask them to show us the quotation obtained. This then shows the meaningless articles motion detector, door contact and siren. But no brands or types. So this is of no use to us in order to be able to deliver custom-made products. That is why we take a different approach. We do want you to know exactly what you get for a certain amount, and we also want you to know what you buy. That’s why our website first starts with giving you information, and not directly with offering you a representative who will visit you.
Do you surf to any security company website and is the first thing they ask you to do is leave your information so a representative can call you? Then quickly close this page. You are dealing with a vendor who prefers not to tell you anything about the quality of the products they offer, and certainly not about the often too high prices they charge.
If you sell quality products, then as a seller you are happy to write about this. If they are silent about it, and only insist on having a sales representative visit you, be careful! Another characteristic of this type of business is that they try to push you down the throat for a service that would cost free or a tenth of the price with another system. We’re talking about alarm follow-up, who responds to an intrusion report from your alarm system. There are modern systems that inform the user when an intrusion is detected. But still most providers try to offer a system where it is not possible for you to be informed by the system yourself, and they say that a subscription is necessary to be called in case of a burglary.
You are then allowed to pay a very high monthly fee for this. And what do they do for this amount? Calling you when the burglar is in your home. If you would have opted for a different alarm system that can inform you directly about a burglary, for example via an App on your smartphone, you could have saved these monthly recurring costs. Of course it’s not wise to talk about such modern alarm systems for such a commission based representative, because the chance that he can’t sell you a subscription is too high and he will lose commission / income. So he will always insist on taking out a far too expensive subscription and say that connection to a central control room is a “must have”. In other words: If you are not connected to an alarm center that follows up in case of a burglary, you are insufficiently protected.
But nothing could be further from the truth…
Who says alarm follow-up must necessarily be done by a central alarm company? That’s up to you! If there is a modern alarm system that notifies you of a burglary without the intervention of a third party, you can also call the police and tell them what is going on. You can also easily see what a burglary alarm has generated directly on the camera images at your home. If you see your grandmother on the camera images you know that you do not have to call the police. By the way, did you know that the rates of an alarm center differ enormously. If you have a representative come and take this to him, you have to count on about 500 euros a year. If you were to buy a modern alarm system and take care of the reporting yourself with such an incident room, this would cost about 100 euros a year, for exactly the same amount. The difference between these amounts goes into the representative’s pocket, and it recurs every year. So if you are looking for an alarm system with forwarding to an incident room, then choose a modern alarm system with which you can decide which incident room company you will take care of this yourself. You can also request the different rates per control room, so that you can be sure that you are paying a decent price for this service.
Even more extra costs when purchasing the wrong alarm system
In addition to the cost price of the products and calculated installation costs, which could have been saved with another system, maintenance costs are almost always charged annually. In order to guarantee the reliability of the system, the system must be tested once a year, whether all detectors are still working properly, and whether the batteries in the remote controls, for example, are still empty.
What if you’d immediately chosen an alarm system that suits you better
If you’d been better informed by the security company, you wouldn’t have had to deal with these high costs. You can’t change much about the price of the products except ask for a discount, but you can save a lot about the price of the installation and the price of maintenance there. If you would buy a modern alarm system such as the AJAX alarm system you would be able to install it yourself very easily, thus saving you costs. In addition, this system also has no yearly recurring maintenance costs to check the system. A modern system doesn’t let you check once a year, but checks itself… Not once a year, but every 6 seconds. Noticing an empty battery, for example, is checked several times a day, not once a year.
What kind of alarm system should you choose?
Alarm systems are divided into certain gradations. You can choose systems in a grade 1 or grade 2 class, but if you want to insure extremely expensive goods, the insurer can oblige you to have a grade 3 or much higher installed. The AJAX system is grade 2. This is the highest class that a wireless alarm system can achieve. Unfortunately, this class was determined at a time when only Wi-Fi based wireless systems were available, and we can still say that these Wi-Fi systems offer a much lower level of security. Actually, these old-fashioned systems work on the basis of 1-way communication and the products cannot communicate with each other, in other words: That’s worthless. So don’t ever be tempted to buy a Wi-Fi based wireless alarm system, that’s really rubbish. The range is poor and the signal unreliable. The AJAX system, on the other hand, has its own developed wireless protocol called Jeweller, which is economical because the batteries in the detectors last up to 7 years, and it has a huge range of up to 2,000 meters in open field. In practice, this means that securing garden sheds and garages if the central transmitter in your meter cupboard in the house is no problem. And through AJAX Rex you can also extend the signal up to 5 times with 1,800 meters. This makes even the largest factories optimally and completely wirelessly secure.
Therefore, when purchasing an alarm system, pay at least attention to the points below:
- What “grade” or what requirements does any insurer place on the security system?
(Our advice is, if possible, not to indicate to an insurer that you have an alarm system, then they can also not come out of a possible claim by saying that the alarm system was not switched on at the time of a theft.) - How much does the alarm system cost me in total over the years I use it?
What possibilities does the system offer now and is the company actively adding new products? - Is the system easily expandable and future-proof?
- Is the system easy to install myself so I don’t have to pay any installation costs?
- Does the system maintain itself, or are there maintenance costs
(With AJAX, only one battery change per product once every 4 years from € 1.50) - Is the system wireless, or do cables need to be pulled?
- For a wireless system: What is the life of the batteries and what do they cost?
- In the case of a wireless system: What is the distance that a detector can bridge?
- For a wireless system: What happens when a battery runs out?
- Where does the burglary report come in, at a control centre or on your own smartphone, or both?
- If you want an emergency center, here is a free choice, to choose the cheapest one
- What is meant by early detection, is this in the house or already in your garden so that an actual burglary can be prevented.
- Are outdoor detectors available at all (AJAX has multiple outdoor detectors)
- In a wireless system: Is the wireless signal Jamming, and what happens if this happens intentionally?
- Do the detectors respond to pets present
- How to operate the system (In the case of AJAX with a smartphone and/or remote control or KeyPad)
- Software updates can be easily installed and the system gets updates at all
- Are other products linkable such as smoke detectors, water detectors, or other products such as lighting
- What happens if the connection at your home between, for example, a detector and the switchboard is lost, or if, for example, the entire Internet is lost at home, you will be informed if you are not at home. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
You can give a positive answer to all the above questions with an AJAX alarm system. AJAX thinks of everything. Thanks to a constant connection from the AJAX Hub to the Cloud, and your smartphone connected to the Cloud through the AJAX App, everything is noticed and passed on to you. Even if someone intentionally interferes with the wireless frequency the system is running on will be reported immediately. Is someone deliberately turning off the internet and all communication with your secure home or business has been cut off? The Cloud will notice it, and report it directly to your mobile, so you can go and see what’s going on, or call the police immediately.
Alarm verification
We are often told by potential customers that they want a camera-based alarm system. And they specifically mean that they want the camera(s) to indicate via an App on their smartphone if something is going on in their home.
Anyone who has ever had a camera with such a function will be able to talk about the fact that these cameras are not 100% reliable and also react to moving trees, plants, and the cat of the neighbors. In other words: Reliable detection of burglars in your garden based on a camera in the price range “cameras up to 500 euros each” is impossible. There are cameras that can reliably detect movement, but you pay more for that than for a complete alarm system from AJAX with as many as 10 outdoor detectors.
A camera will not be able to control any siren of any brand of alarm system, because even the manufacturer knows that such detection gives far too many false alarms. In other words: There are no outdoor sirens that produce volume based on a registered camera image, and that is not without reason. So our answer to the question of whether we can offer an alarm system based solely on cameras is always no. Should we do so, this customer will always be dissatisfied with the security offered. Rather no sale than a dissatisfied customer.
What can we offer with cameras
Cameras work perfectly, but separately, with an alarm system like that of AJAX. A camera can easily detect motion with, for example, an AJAX outdoor motion detector such as the MotionProtect Outdoor verify, you can then immediately see who is currently at your home by watching the live images, and thus immediately know what action to take on the AJAX notification.
Can camera X work together with AJAX
That’s a question we have a lot to answer. Almost everyone thinks that a camera works with an alarm system. But this is not the case in 99% of the cases, and it is not common practice in homes either. As we already described, a camera works separately from the alarm system, and not together. In other words: If a camera records something, it does not “trigger” anything with an alarm system. So you always use the cameras only to see what’s going on, either live, or afterwards when you save the footage to a hard disk or the optionally inserted SD memory card. Viewing these camera images is always possible using the manufacturer’s App. There are 5 camera brands of which you can also consult the camera view not only in the manufacturer’s own app, but also in the AJAX app. These cameras will then appear in the Devices tab of the AJAX app between the linked detectors / products you have. We wonder if you should call this “working together”. What is the added value of viewing camera images in the App of the brand of that camera manufacturer, or viewing in the AJAX App. Often the camera app from the manufacturer is more clear, you can play more streams at the same time if you have more cameras installed, and if you use fully wireless cameras such as the Ezviz C3A, you can also see the current battery status. So many things why we would rather check out the App especially for your purchased camera than the AJAX App.
Now that you know this you will understand that the choice of a certain brand or type of camera is not bound to a certain cooperation with an alarm system. Always remember that a camera is for verification, in other words: To see if there really is something going on in your home, or in your company. So just choose the camera that suits you best in terms of price and quality. Especially the fully wireless battery operated cameras with built-in SD card are very popular lately, and more than enough for verification.
Spending a lot of money on expensive outdoor cameras has become useless
When the AJAX system with unique outdoor detection was not yet on the market, simply because it hadn’t been conceived and developed yet, we spent a lot of money buying expensive cameras with great night vision and as much as 6 or 8 megapixels, so that we could literally count the hairs of unwanted visitors in all light conditions. In a manner of speaking then.
Now we would never put so much money into these cameras again. Now we choose for AJAX outdoor detectors which we mount at specific locations in the garden and are able to control an outdoor siren. As soon as an unwanted visitor takes one step in the garden, the siren will sound, bystanders or neighbours will be informed by the loud sound, and within 0.15 seconds a message will appear on all connected smartphones of the owner. The result is that the burglar will not enter the garden any further because he has been spotted and can expect action to be taken. A further burglary attempt will most likely be stopped. The camera you usually attach to your property will most likely not even notice this person because AJAX has already chased him away. Investing in such a camera that “can count the hair on someone’s head” is therefore no longer necessary. A camera that can see if the person chooses eggs for his money, or that you can recognize a person as for example a family member in this sufficient. With the cameras in a price range between € 60,- and € 150,- this is no problem, as long as you don’t use these cameras as the only “alarm system” in your garden.
Errors in detector selection
We regularly carry out installations, preferably with products/detectors that we select ourselves for a particular location because we know which product works well at which location. It also sometimes happens that people choose a number of products themselves and order them in our webshop, and want to get them installed. Then we often find out that a certain detector is not optimal for that particular location. If you would like good advice, so that errors in the choice of the product are avoided, please always contact us. We can always very well determine what you need based on photos you send us. This way you get an optimal security result. You can send us photos via WhatsApp, Live Chat (bottom left of the page) or E-mail.
Help, my detector responds to my dog, or the neighbor’s cat.
If the wrong detector is selected, or the detector is not mounted at the correct location or mounting height, a false message may be caused by a pet.
Why do motion detectors react to animals and how can we avoid that?
After the installation of the motion detectors at home, you expect an immediate reaction to outsiders. If a thief steps over the threshold or breaks in through the window, an alarm is triggered. And you can be sure that any high-quality alarm device can handle this task. But responding to movement is only half the job: an important quality of a detector is its ability to determine exactly what is moving. It must quickly and accurately detect a person, while also ignoring natural interference and pets, so you and the security company can be sure: if the security system triggered the alarm, the threat is real and you need to react immediately.
This story tells how infrared motion detectors see the world, which technologies they use to distinguish a sheepdog from a villain, and which pet owners need to remember when installing an alarm system at home.
How infrared motion detectors work
Motion detectors based on infrared sensors capture the infrared radiation or, in other words, the heat.
The closer to the white, the stronger the radiation and the warmer the object.
Sometimes they say, “The motion detector saw a man.” However, these devices don’t see objects, animals or people; in fact, they only see data.
A special curved Fresnel lens focuses the infrared radiation on the pyro sensor of the detector. The sensor signals are then sent to the microprocessor, which converts them into digital data. This is followed by threat analysis and assessment, which is exactly the main difference between smart detectors and their primitive counterparts. With knowledge of the intensity of the infrared radiation and the dynamics of the source movement, software algorithms determine the nature of the threat and the detector decides whether to sound the alarm or ignore it.
How pet immunity is implemented in Ajax motion detectors
Indoor
When the motion detectors MotionProtect, MotionProtect Plus, CombiProtect and MotionCam are properly installed and configured, they ignore animals that are up to 50 cm tall and weigh up to 20 kg. The maximum weight is defined as an understandable landmark, but in reality the size of the heat spot in the infrared spectrum is important. Keep in mind that detectors do not see objects, but analyse the infrared radiation of these objects.
Motion detectors are less sensitive near the ground. Large pets are believed to be found there.
Motion detectors use the SmartDetect software algorithm developed by Ajax Systems to assess the threat. When motion is detected, SmartDetect analyzes the signal waveform of the infrared sensor and compares it to values specific to human movement. Due to the fact that the heat point of an animal is small and the signals enter the lower zone of the Fresnel lens (which emits less radiation to the sensor), the detector does not give an alarm.
Ajax motion detectors also use the temperature compensation system. It increases the sensitivity of the PIR sensor when the ambient temperature is close to the human body temperature (36°C) and decreases the sensitivity when the temperature contrast between the body and the environment is high. Such a system helps the detectors to remain effective throughout the temperature range and protects them from false alarms at low temperatures.
Outdoors
MotionProtect Outdoor detectors do not respond to animals up to 80 cm in height. To effectively ignore all typical outdoor disturbances, these detectors are equipped with two infrared sensors and read out signals from two areas in space. They only give an alarm if both sensors detect movement.
Like Ajax indoor detectors, MotionProtect Outdoor uses the SmartDetect algorithm – the first software-based level of protection against false alarms. The algorithm analyses and compares the data of each sensor. As a rule, the detector is ready to decide whether or not to raise the alarm at this stage. But if the situation is ambiguous, the spectrum analysis will cover the frequency components of the signals from two sensors. This anti-false alarm system, which is unique to safety detectors, was named LISA.
Points to consider for motion detectors to ignore animals
1. Ensure that the motion detector is installed at the optimum height.
If motion detectors are installed indoors below the recommended height, the animals will move in the oversensitive area. If a sheepdog is walking on its hind legs or even a small spaniel is frolicking in the chair, the detector may sound an alarm.
Outside, the site of the protected area must be taken into account. If a large dog enters the detection area of both MotionProtect Outdoor lenses, the pet immunity function cannot handle it and the detector will sound an alarm.
2. Set the detector to the correct sensitivity.
When protecting areas with animals, MotionProtect, MotionProtect Plus, and CombiProtect detectors are set to medium or low sensitivity, depending on the size of the animal. The sensitivity of MotionProtect outdoor detectors is determined empirically: start with medium sensitivity and decrease it if a false alarm occurs.
3. Make sure that the animal cannot approach the lens of the room detector.
The closer the moving object gets to the lens, the larger the thermal spot becomes. If a maneuverable dog jumps to the level of the detector near the lens, an alarm will sound. The same goes for a cat that jumped on the case to get close to the detector.
To eliminate the slightest chance of worry and useless outings of guards due to the activation of animals, use the new MotionCam motion detectors with visual alarm verification. When motion is detected, they take one shot or a series of 2-5 shots. Both you and the security company know exactly what causes the alarm: a playful pet or a robber breaking into your home.
