An Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) can be a major part of a company’s system set-up, especially in relation to their security and fire safety alarm systems. In this article we’ll answer the questions of what is an alarm receive centre and what services do they offer?
What is an Alarm Receiving Centre?
An Alarm Receiving Centre, otherwise known as an ARC, is a purpose-built facility that monitors multiple companies’ and buildings’ systems for triggers. The most common being security, intruder and fire alarms.
Within an ARC works teams of monitoring operatives, who are highly trained to react quickly when an alarm is triggered. The team will constantly monitor the centre for any incoming alarms and will take appropriate action if they do occur, such as calling for a police response.
An Alarm Receiving Centre, therefore, becomes fully responsible for dealing with a company’s alarm system when there is a fire or breach of security. It takes the responsibility and pressure off of the company’s employees and adds an extra layer of security to their system, due to 24hr monitoring.
What Do Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs) Do?
ARCs act to increase protection against intruders, vandalism, damage and fire by providing a rapid alarm identification and actioning process. Here is what happens when an alarm is triggered…
- An alarm is triggered at a client’s site.
- A signal is sent from the client’s system control panel to the ARC.
- If the signal is received by the ARC and a monitoring operative will immediately look into the case.
- If it is within the site’s working hours, an operative will contact the site and confirm the alarm to be legitimate and not false. False alarms do happen and by checking with the site first, we are able to prevent waste in emergency service resources, as well as business downtime for the site.
- If the alarm is out of working hours then the operative will confirm whether it be a false alarm themselves by checking CCTV and audio footage if possible. If this is not plausible, they will skip to the next step.
If the alarm is a legitimate alarm or it is out of the site’s working hours, the monitoring operative will take the most appropriate action within a matter of minutes. This could be in the form of an audio challenge to an intruder, the police or fire brigade as well as notifying the keyholder.
The ARC, therefore, acts to provide a fast and reliable response to any alarm systems that give businesses peace of mind that their sites are being watched over for any suspicious activity 24/7, for 365 days of the year.
What Services do ARCs Offer?
Alarm Receiving Centres can monitor a large variety of systems, including:
- Fire Alarm Monitoring – Professional monitoring of your entire fire alarm system.
- Intruder Alarm Monitoring – Full monitoring of all your intruder alarms across all sites.
- CCTV Monitoring – Monitoring of all CCTV cameras.
- Lone Worker Monitoring – Constant monitoring of lone workers to provide an extra layer of protection to those that work alone.
Some ARCs are also able to monitor and remotely control other business systems, to further increase your site security and save you costs in the long run.
- Remote Site Access – Eliminates the need for on-site security by remotely protecting a site from unwanted visitors.
- Remote Arm/Disarm – No need for multiple employees to hold security information and have the responsibility to arm and disarm the security systems at the end and beginning of the day.
ARCs can therefore play a very important role in the safety and security of business premises and their employees.
At RMS, we are NSI Gold approved and go above and beyond to provide world-class service to our clients. From our 5* hand-picked operators to our embracing of new and innovative new technologies.
Whether you’re looking for a new monitoring contract, changing from an existing monitoring provider or looking for call handling services, get in touch online or call 0330 002 1149 for a no-obligation, free quotation.
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