Skip to content
Sheet 01.1

Commercial  alarm  systems  for  Melbourne  businesses.

We install commercial alarm systems in Melbourne warehouses, shops and offices: the panel, the detectors, the door contacts, the sirens and the path the signal takes out of the building.

Our own crew from Tullamarine does the work, and our technicians hold a Victorian Private Security Licence. You choose whether the alarm reports to your phone or to a 24/7 monitoring centre, and this page says plainly what each one does at two in the morning.
Sheet
Alarm systems
Area served
Melbourne & VIC
Licensing
Victorian Private Security Licence
Quote
Itemised, no charge
AS-10

What  a  commercial  alarm  system  includes.

Five items. The quote names the equipment in each.

Ref Item
  • AS-11

    Panel and keypad

    The panel sits in a locked enclosure with its own battery. The keypad sits at the door people actually leave by.

    • Panel in a locked enclosure
    • Backup battery
    • Keypad arming
    • Individual user codes
  • AS-12

    Detection

    Motion detectors for the rooms, reed switches for the doors, and the right device for a roller door or a glass shopfront.

    • Motion detectors (PIR)
    • Reed switches on doors
    • Roller door contacts
    • Glass-break detection
  • AS-13

    Zones and areas

    A zone is one input on the panel. Where each door and detector has its own zone, the panel reports which one tripped. Areas arm separately.

    • Log of zone, time and who disarmed
    • Office and warehouse armed apart
    • Entry and exit delays
  • AS-14

    Sirens and strobe

    An internal siren makes staying uncomfortable. An external siren and strobe make the building obvious from the street.

    • Internal siren
    • External siren and strobe
    • Battery backed
    • Tamper protected
  • AS-15

    Reporting and monitoring

    The panel reports over your internet connection, with a mobile network path behind it where specified, to your phone or to a monitoring centre.

    • App alerts to named people
    • Internet path, mobile path where specified
    • 24/7 monitoring centre, paid separately
    • Response instructions on file
AS-20

What  happens  after  the  alarm  goes  off.

A warehouse, a roller door, two in the morning.

  1. 01

    A detector trips.

    A roller door contact opens, or a motion detector sees movement in an armed area. An entry door starts its delay. Anything else alarms at once.

  2. 02

    The sirens sound.

    The internal siren and the external strobe start together. An opportunist usually leaves at this point.

  3. 03

    The panel reports.

    The signal goes out with the zone and the time. If the internet line has been cut and a mobile path is fitted, it goes over that. A second zone tripping after the first says somebody is moving through the building.

  4. 04

    Somebody decides.

    This is the step that differs. Unmonitored, the alert lands on the phones you nominated, and if they are on silent nothing more happens until morning. Monitored, an operator works through your written instructions: call the site, call the keyholders in order, send a patrol if you have arranged one.

  5. 05

    Somebody attends.

    A keyholder or a patrol checks the building and resets the panel. Where a CCTV installation covers the zone, the footage shows what tripped it before anyone drives in.

  6. 06

    The log is read.

    The panel records the zone, the time and who disarmed it. A false alarm has a cause, and the log is where it is found.

AS-30

Monitored  or  unmonitored.

The same panel does both. The difference is who is awake.

Who is told
Unmonitored (app alerts): The people you nominate, on their phones.
Monitored (back to base): An operator at a 24/7 monitoring centre, then your keyholders.
At 2am
Unmonitored (app alerts): It depends on somebody waking up and driving in.
Monitored (back to base): The operator follows your written response instructions.
Ongoing fee
Unmonitored (app alerts): None needed to keep it working. It runs on your own hardware.
Monitored (back to base): Yes. Monitoring is a separate paid service.
Weak point
Unmonitored (app alerts): A phone on silent. A keyholder on holiday.
Monitored (back to base): An out-of-date keyholder list turns a response into voicemail.

The decision rule is one question. Who answers the phone at 2am on a long weekend? If the answer is nobody, the alarm needs monitoring. If the answer is you, and you are ten minutes away, it may not.

No ongoing fee is needed to keep an alarm working. The one exception is 24/7 monitoring, a separate paid service, because somebody has to be watching. An unmonitored alarm keeps working as installed, on your own hardware.

Site attendance and the itemised quote are at no charge. Ask for it priced both ways, monitored and unmonitored.

AS-40

How  the  job  runs.

  1. 01

    Site attendance.

    We walk the building with you: doors, roller doors, glass, where the panel can sit and how staff open and close.

  2. 02

    Itemised quote.

    Every detector, contact and siren is a line, with the equipment named. Monitoring is a separate paid service, so it is quoted apart from the installation.

  3. 03

    Install.

    Our own crew fits the panel, runs the cable and mounts the detectors. Out-of-hours work is scheduled and announced in advance.

  4. 04

    Commissioning.

    Every device is tested and demonstrated. Ask to watch each zone tripped and confirmed at the panel, and the sirens, the battery and the reporting path tried.

  5. 05

    Handover.

    You receive the administrator credentials, the configuration and the as-built documentation.

AS-50

What  the  quote  depends  on.

  • How many doors, roller doors and opening windows need a contact.
  • How many rooms need a motion detector, and whether racking or a high roof changes where it mounts.
  • The cable route. A tilt-slab warehouse with no ceiling space needs conduit.
  • The reporting path: internet alone, or internet with a mobile path where one is specified.
  • Monitoring, which is quoted apart from the installation.

Our guide to what a commercial security system costs gives a checklist for comparing quotes. One crew also installs door access control and the rest of the schedule of what we install, so they are scheduled together.

AS-90

Questions  we  get  asked.

Questions about alarms and monitoring specifically. The general ones are answered on the Solutions sheet.

What is alarm monitoring?

Alarm monitoring means the panel reports to a staffed monitoring centre as well as sounding the siren. An operator sees the zone and the time and follows the response instructions you wrote. It is also called back to base monitoring. Australian Standard AS 2201.2 sets requirements and a grading system for monitoring centres, so ask any provider which grade its centre holds.

Is alarm monitoring worth it?

It is worth it when nobody will reliably act on a phone alert out of hours. A siren on an industrial estate at 2am is heard by no one, and an alert on a silenced phone is read at breakfast. If a keyholder lives close and will always answer, app alerts may be enough.

How much does alarm monitoring cost?

It is a recurring fee, quoted as its own line, and we do not publish a figure. With any provider, what changes it is what the fee includes: whether open and close reports are in it, and whether patrol attendance is included or charged per call-out. Ask every provider to put both in writing.

What causes false alarms, and how are they stopped?

Most false alarms come from where a detector is mounted, not from a faulty one, so the fix is position and detector type. A motion detector facing a heater outlet, a banner hanging under an air-conditioning vent and a roller door that rattles in wind are the usual causes. The event log shows which zone to look at.

Does the alarm still work if the power or the internet is cut?

Yes, for a period. The panel and sirens run from their own battery when mains power is off. Reporting needs a path out of the building. Where a mobile network path is specified behind the internet connection, a cut line does not stop the report.

Will police attend when the alarm goes off?

Not automatically, and nobody can promise it. Police decide what they attend. A monitoring centre can ask for police where an activation meets the criteria police set, and more than one zone tripping is a stronger case than a single detector. That is why the response instructions name keyholders first.

Can the alarm be tied to the cameras and the door readers?

Yes, where the equipment supports it. An alarm event can mark the matching camera footage, and a card presented at a reader can disarm the area behind that door. One crew installs all three, so they are scheduled and documented together.
AS-95

Related  sheets.

Tell  us  how  the  building  closes.

Who locks up, which door they leave by and what is inside overnight is enough to start. We attend site and send an itemised quote, at no charge.

Transmittal Issued for enquiry
To
Gentex AU · Tullamarine VIC
Reply
Phone or email, usually the same business day
Attending
Mon–⁠Fri 07:00–⁠16:00
Licensing
Victorian Private Security Licence