Central Monitoring

Barking Dog appoint Southern Monitoring Services for their central monitoring. SMS was originally formed in 1983 and has since become one of the most recognised independent Alarm Receiving Centres in the United Kingdom. Alarm Receiving Centres, or ARC’s as they are known, monitor the state of security systems and should an alarm signal be received the ARC will verify its authenticity. There are three established ways of doing this:

a) Sequential confirmation allows the security system to transmit additional activations to the ARC which show that an intruder is moving through the premises;

b) Visual confirmation via the use of video monitoring;

c) Audible confirmation via the use of audio monitoring allowing the ARC to listen in to the premises.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) require that: “monitored systems shall have at least two keyholders, details of whom will be maintained by the ARC or through arrangements with a central keyholding service. Keyholders shall be trained to operate the alarm, be telephone subscribers, have adequate means of transport to attend the premises at all hours, shall have access to all relevant parts of the premises and shall be able to attend within 20 minutes of being notified.”