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Sur-Gard System II

In a country that needs to see a “95% drop in violent crime levels for its criminal justice indicators to begin matching international, or for that matter, African norms", it is no wonder that South Africans are increasingly demanding the latest in security technology.

So said Jack Edery, CEO of Elvey Security Technologies, when he announced the arrival of DSC’s new Sur-Gard System II single-line IP receiver in Johannesburg last week.

Designed to enhance the monitoring and performance of emergency response stations, the new Sur-Gard II receiver perfectly meets the requirements of emerging applications, he added. “Monitoring stations are the life blood of security firms wanting to provide high-end security solutions to their clients. While alarm systems are there to detect intrusions, it is the monitoring and response station that actually protects people which is why the new receiver is so important.”

According to Edery, the hot-off-the-line receiver, which provides remote IP monitoring of both fire and burglary systems, brings with it a host of benefits. Among these are that it provides higher line security and faster transmission than conventional dial-up panels.

Adds Francois Smuts, product specialist for Elvey: “The industry still utilises the conventional method of sending signals via telephone line, but as technology advances, a growing number of control rooms are embracing the ability to receive signals via the Internet as an alternative to circuit-switched phone services. Determined to provide clients with the ultimate in protection, security and life safety professionals are increasingly relying on the Internet to communicate information from intruder and fire alarm control panels to their central monitoring stations. IP (Internet Protocol) delivers enormous benefits such as faster data transmissions, reduced costs and immediate notification of line interruptions at both the central station and the protected premises.”

Building on DSC’s lineage of trusted monitoring station receivers, Smuts says the System II receiver is well-suited to proprietary applications such as colleges, university campuses, gated communities, town house complexes, and corporate and government entities.

How it works

Using a LAN/WAN or Internet network, the Sur-Gard II receives alarm information from panels which it then date stamps before transmitting it via TCP/ IP, USB or serial outputs. Data viewed on-screen can also be transmitted directly to a printer using the parallel printer port where it can then be viewed on the receiver’s LCD screen.

Locally or remotely programmable using Windows-based software or manually using the scroll button and LCD display, the receiver can be configured for desktop standalone operation. For more demanding environments, it can support vertical stacking of up to four systems or 19’’ rack-mount installations.

“What is also exciting about the System II is that it can support up to 1024 T-link accounts (TL300/TL250/TL150), of which 512 can be supervised,” notes Smuts.

Highly user-friendly, the menu-driven unit works on a 40-character, 2-line LCD display basis, he tells further. Another enhancement is that its blue backlighting feature provides instruction when in manual mode, where just four buttons are required for operation.

Concludes Smuts: “System II is designed to supervise automation software 24/7. The instant the software goes off-line, the receiver switches from the primary Ethernet port to a USB port. Should there still be a problem, it will switch again to a serial port before finally going into manual mode.”

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