At WebWayOne’s recent launch of SLIPstream to the insurance industry and key partners (to which Security Management Today received an exclusive invitation), Paul Harte – security manager at the Dixons Group plc – had a clear message for national retailers and small businesses alike.
“Using WebWay’s signalling, we removed the cost of 1,300 annual telephone line rentals from our branch network,” explained Harte. “The savings allowed us to invest in dual path signalling using IP and GPRS technologies. Since installing the system we have deterred seven burglary attempts on our major brands, the cost of which would have been between GB pound 50,000 and GB pound 100,000 per event.”
In partnership with mobile network provider O2, WebWayOne is proving that not all IP signalling solutions are the same. While IP and GPRS are global protocols, end users (and their insurers) need to know that they are buying an improved service. It’s at this juncture that exceptional design, genuine partnership working and top quality service separate the best from the rest.
Designed to be of the highest security, with the management features normally expected of sophisticated IT networking equipment, the combination of WebWayOne’s award-winning 2424 signalling technology and O2’s GPRS network has created SLIPstream – described as “the security industry’s new standard in monitored IP alarm signalling.” A bold claim to make, but does it stack up in the real world?
Many industries have benefited when switching from analogue to digital communications, including data format and storage. The music industry, the television sector and the Internet have all changed dramatically over the last five years, with more information being sent faster and delivered by communications services that are now cheaper than ever before. It appears to be the security industry’s turn to ‘muscle in’ on the action.
Better security, less cost
SLIPstream meets the security manager’s essential need for improved security with reduced ongoing costs. It also benefits the monitored alarm signalling market as a whole by improving the quality of the installation and efficiently managing the response to site with regard to events or maintenance.
Digital signalling affords the opportunity to complete a dual path installation on one site visit, and to manage the site response. Analogue signalling systems fail to identify the location or possible cause of system faults, which can result in site visits by the installer that are unnecessary. Using the combination of integration to the alarm panel and IP/GPRS communications, this management information can be used for better security and to cut visits, in turn reducing the security industry’s carbon footprint.
WebWayOne was the first signalling provider to identify these benefits, and led the way with the only environmental message at IFSEC 2007. Digital switchover can mean a lot to security managers, installers and insurers. In this day and age, corporate social responsibility messages are ubiquitous.
WebWayOne, of course, has been a dedicated partner of the security industry for many years, and is a member of the British Security Industry Association. Additionally, the company is a representative of the industry at a European level (CENELEC), helping to advance the understanding and development of signalling standards.
Recently, WebWayOne advised on the industry Code of Practice for the installation of IP signalling systems, and provided essential input to the IPCRes Guidance on IP signalling (Part 2) from both IT and security viewpoints. Undoubtedly, this kind of participation places WebWayOne in a unique position from a design and service perspective.
“Our relationship with WebWayOne isn’t just about the supply of SIM cards,” asserted Gilli Coston, head of machine-to-machine business at O2 UK. “We listened to them and worked together to understand how the dual path security signalling supply and application could be improved from the first day of installation using a tried-and-tested combination of innovation, processes and networks.”
No stone left unturned
Talking to WebWayOne and O2, it’s clear there has been no stone left unturned. Over the past three years, WebWayOne has integrated alarm panel protocols from all major manufacturers. This means that anything the alarm panel knows about the site can be transmitted to the Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC). Every alarm is logged in the communicator, encrypted and then sent over the best available signalling path (IP or GPRS).
On arrival at the Gateway Receivers, the alarm is decrypted, logged and sent to the alarm management system (AMS). Every step of the process, including the acknowledgement from the AMS, is logged and available for full audit by the security manager, installer, insurer or ARC without having to go to site. Every unit arrives pre-configured with the SIM card activated and completely secure – unable to be used in any other mobile device, a unique feature of any mobile product.
The O2 SIM card relationship with the WebWay 2424 SPT hardware is unique. The SIM cannot be used in any other device, and any removal or change of the SIM is immediately notified to the ARC. Automated checking maintains 99.8% systems availability for each Broadband/GPRS connection.
“Working on any Broadband connection is important,” stresses Chris Carter Brennan, sales director at WebWayOne. “End users want to use the shared Internet connection for security signalling. They want to save money. That much is clear, but the logistics of the GSM part of the solution are less so and can be fraught with issues relating to installation and the future. This can manifest itself in a poor service to the customer. Our collaboration with O2 removes doubt and enables a one visit installation process.”
Most installers don’t have the time or resources to perform the site survey. Often, a dual path system is purchased in the forlorn hope that signal strength will be sufficient. Clearly, there is the potential that systems will be installed with either a low – or potentially long term unusable – signal strength. That can only be to the detriment of overall security and the end user’s insurance policy, not to mention the basic management of the system.
WebWayOne has managed to solve these problems by providing a real-time signal strength reading at both the communicator and receiver. Unlike any other dual path signalling system, installers have the option to purchase a low cost high gain antenna which is provided complete with an O2 UK roaming SIM that can also access Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile networks – thus making it possible to predict a one visit installation for dual path signalling.
Network path availability
Once installed, it’s essential to monitor the availability of each network path. All communications networks are susceptible to outages – both predictable and unpredictable. Availability is an EN 50136 post-installation measurement for individual alarm transmission systems. Modern day networks will almost certainly provide high performance availability classifications, but a small percentage of links will operate below this level.
For their part, WebWayOne 2424 threshold levels are set to identify locations that have either poor or fluctuating GPRS signals, or last mile transmission problems that require resolution. The end-to-end connectivity of any SLIPstream device is continuously calculated using the WebWay 2424 polling system.
The signalling equipment and associated alarm systems are remotely accessible by the installer or ARC via the WebWay 2424 Gateway Receivers located inside the BS 5979 environment of the ARC. Every action relating to a site is logged by the Gateways, and engineering events and actions recorded in the memory of the WebWay 2424 SLIPstream unit.
No other external access is granted to the remote system, and all communications are encrypted and protected against the substitution of messaging.