Having looked at various options to replace my alarm system at home, I have been surprised by how mainstream ‘professional’ alarm technology seems to lag behind that of the new ‘smart’ consumer alarms now available.
Recently I had to secure a warehouse and initially chose one of the smart alarms by a company called iSmartAlarm. I found the basic premise of this to be excellent. It was very easy to set up, offered a seemingly excellent user interface and seamlessly interfaced with its own CCTV system. Cloud support for notifications etc, IFTTT support (for many other things) and lots of other features were inbuilt from the get-go. Unfortunately, the security aspects were woeful. The siren is not weatherproof and is ridiculously quiet, there is no panel (arguably not needed), no battery backup and lots of other security ‘basics’ simply missing. It also soon became clear that the company behind it is constantly flirting with bankruptcy, so the cloud goes down and suddenly you can’t operate your own alarm, not even on the same LAN. So, exceptional user experience but very poor security.
So, in addition, I installed a Pyronix Enforcer. The security aspects are much better as you’d expect, but the level of smart integration is poor, and appears to be have been bolted on to a design that is basically out of date. No IFTTT integration, the App works, but is very basic, and all but the most basic configuration is beyond the reach of an ordinary user (going through all of those menus feels distinctly 1990’s!).
Between the two of them, they give me excellent peace of mind. The Pyronix handles basic site security. The iSmartAlarm backs it up and also allows me to remotely switch on all manner of burglar frightening devices (via IFTTT) if I see something amiss. But it’s not perfect (IFTTT can go down, as can Pyronix, as can the iSmartAlarm cloud) but there’s an element of redundancy built in (I’ve got 2 networks in there as well!). The price to pay is I now have 2 alarms in one place.
I often wonder whether any mainstream alarm company is designing something that combines the two. Looking at all of the solutions out there at the moment I struggle to find one that offers the best of both worlds, and whilst the mainstream is moving in this direction it still all feels a bit like it is added as an afterthought. The same basic, out of date infrastructure underpins it all. Some of the US solutions look much better thought out, but they don’t seem to be available here.
What are your thoughts? Am I just missing something, or looking in the wrong place? Or am I being unreasonable?
Recently I had to secure a warehouse and initially chose one of the smart alarms by a company called iSmartAlarm. I found the basic premise of this to be excellent. It was very easy to set up, offered a seemingly excellent user interface and seamlessly interfaced with its own CCTV system. Cloud support for notifications etc, IFTTT support (for many other things) and lots of other features were inbuilt from the get-go. Unfortunately, the security aspects were woeful. The siren is not weatherproof and is ridiculously quiet, there is no panel (arguably not needed), no battery backup and lots of other security ‘basics’ simply missing. It also soon became clear that the company behind it is constantly flirting with bankruptcy, so the cloud goes down and suddenly you can’t operate your own alarm, not even on the same LAN. So, exceptional user experience but very poor security.
So, in addition, I installed a Pyronix Enforcer. The security aspects are much better as you’d expect, but the level of smart integration is poor, and appears to be have been bolted on to a design that is basically out of date. No IFTTT integration, the App works, but is very basic, and all but the most basic configuration is beyond the reach of an ordinary user (going through all of those menus feels distinctly 1990’s!).
Between the two of them, they give me excellent peace of mind. The Pyronix handles basic site security. The iSmartAlarm backs it up and also allows me to remotely switch on all manner of burglar frightening devices (via IFTTT) if I see something amiss. But it’s not perfect (IFTTT can go down, as can Pyronix, as can the iSmartAlarm cloud) but there’s an element of redundancy built in (I’ve got 2 networks in there as well!). The price to pay is I now have 2 alarms in one place.
I often wonder whether any mainstream alarm company is designing something that combines the two. Looking at all of the solutions out there at the moment I struggle to find one that offers the best of both worlds, and whilst the mainstream is moving in this direction it still all feels a bit like it is added as an afterthought. The same basic, out of date infrastructure underpins it all. Some of the US solutions look much better thought out, but they don’t seem to be available here.
What are your thoughts? Am I just missing something, or looking in the wrong place? Or am I being unreasonable?