Council sees the point

Manchester Company JB-EYE have been favoured to install point ID or SIA signalling for BURY County Council. The system has been adopted to save man power and increase efficiency of the councils own first response team, the system works by signalling individual points of entry to the councils own control centre where first response officers are directed to the exact point of entry of an alarm activation.

It was quickly realised that some of the properties are quite large and knowing the point of entry and by filtering calls it is both efficient and allows risk assessments to be made before dispatching officers.

European Standard EN50131 comes into effect

Customers who have existing alarms will not be affected by this standard. EN50131 differs to current British Standards, in that:

• It determines not only system, but also component design requirements for Intruder and Hold-up Alarm Systems
• It requires a comprehensive risk assessment to determine system design criteria
• Systems are required to be “Graded” to reflect the risk (Grade 1="Low" Risk / Grade 4="High" Risk)
• Alarm systems are therefore now defined as an EN50131 System Grade 1, 2, 3 or 4, installed to conform with PD6662:2004, with notification options (Sounders and Alarm signalling devices)
• System Components are “Graded” individually and are also given an “Environmental Classification”
• Police response to new or extensively modified security systems will soon only be possible if the system complies with EN50131 and PD6662, supplemented by DD243
• Your insurer may penalise you if your security system fails to comply with EN50131.

Fire Legislation Sets Alarm Bells Ringing

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order is now in force, fire protection enters a whole new era, transferring accountability from fire authorities over to installers. JB-EYE (fire & security) ensure proof of competence and are currently undergoing accreditation to third party certification scheme SP203 Building owners will need to show proof that all the procedures necessary for Fire systems comply with the new legislation. This is a highly important initiative with the BSi, the BFPSA and BAFE. BS 5839 calls for all fire work to be carried out by competent persons, defined as those with the necessary training and experience and access to the requisite tools, equipment and information, and capable of carrying out a defined task. This applies to every company and employee working in the fire industry, from designers, installers to commissioning and maintenance engineers. In April 2005, the Chief Fire Officers Association policy called for companies to be certified to the BAFE SP203 third party certification scheme, and the Fire Safety Order calls not only for risk assessments to be carried out by competent personnel, but for written risk assessments to be presented should a company employ more than five employees. There are considerable potential fines and even prison sentences for those who fail to comply with the Fire Safety Order, as a major Government publicity campaign will stress from January onwards.

IP/GPRS

JB-EYE has the benefit of high speed Internet Protocol data from their alarm signalling systems. This system has become the preferred method of transmitting CCTV pictures and is now being used to transmit information from intruder systems. The additional benefit of GPRS and GSM means that alarm systems have more than one transmission path ensuring all signals are received.