8 Critical Components of a Commercial Security System

A com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty sys­tem can safe­guard your busi­ness from threats such as break-ins, bur­glar­ies, van­dal­ism and fire. But if you’re eval­u­at­ing your options, you may won­der what your alarm sys­tem includes.

In truth, there is no “one size fits all” com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty sys­tem. Each alarm sys­tem should be designed to fit your unique needs and the desired lev­el of secu­ri­ty. So while there are numer­ous com­po­nents that your secu­ri­ty sys­tem can include, there are a few that we rec­om­mend con­sid­er­ing for most busi­ness­es.

Here are some crit­i­cal options and how they work to keep your com­mer­cial prop­er­ty safe.

Essential Parts of a Commercial Security System

1) Alarm System Control Panel / Keypad

The con­trol pan­el is like the “brains” of your com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty sys­tems. It enables all the oth­er com­po­nents below to work togeth­er, com­mu­ni­cate, and send alarm sig­nals to you and the mon­i­tor­ing cen­ter. The con­trol pan­el also makes your sys­tem easy to con­trol from a sin­gle key­pad (though most sys­tems today also allow you to man­age your sys­tem from your smart­phone).

2) Door and Window Contacts

Win­dows and doors are the weak­est links in a secu­ri­ty chain. Door and win­dow con­tacts help change that by detect­ing when these entry points are opened or dis­rupt­ed. When the con­nec­tion is bro­ken (i.e., when a door is opened while the sys­tem is armed), the con­tact instant­ly sends the sig­nal to the alarm pan­el. The alarm sounds, and the mon­i­tor­ing cen­ter is noti­fied (if equipped).

Door and win­dow con­tacts can be paired with win­dow film and bro­ken glass sen­sors to alert your sys­tem when­ev­er there is an issue with your win­dows or doors.

3) Smoke and Fire Detectors

Smoke and fire detec­tors are cru­cial com­po­nents of a com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty sys­tem. Unlike a stand­alone smoke detec­tor, these devices are inte­grat­ed with your alarm sys­tem. There­by, your mon­i­tor­ing cen­ter is alert­ed at the first fire signs.

4) 24/7 Monitoring by a Monitoring Center

A mon­i­tor­ing cen­ter pro­vides 24/7/365 secu­ri­ty by auto­mat­i­cal­ly receiv­ing alarm sig­nals from your prop­er­ty. Mon­i­tor­ing cen­ter staff are spe­cial­ized in deliv­er­ing full-spec­trum sur­veil­lance. When your alarm is acti­vat­ed, they respond swift­ly to noti­fy you and the prop­er author­i­ties. So, for exam­ple, if your sys­tem detects an intrud­er, an audi­ble alarm will sound, and author­i­ties will be dis­patched once ver­i­fied. Mon­i­tor­ing ser­vices are a crit­i­cal tool that increas­es the over­all pro­tec­tion of a busi­ness.

5) Motion sensors

Motion sen­sors detect motion in places where there should­n’t be any. For exam­ple, the alarm will be trig­gered if your sys­tem is armed and motion is detect­ed inside your prop­er­ty.

6) Cameras

Secu­ri­ty cam­eras help you cap­ture crime when it hap­pens, such as van­dal­ism, bur­glary and tres­pass­ing, and they also allow you to mon­i­tor employ­ee behav­iour. Addi­tion­al­ly, the mere pres­ence of secu­ri­ty cam­eras can act as a deter­rent, pre­vent­ing crimes from occur­ring in the first place.

7) Access Control

Access con­trol is essen­tial for any envi­ron­ment that requires door secu­ri­ty and the abil­i­ty to mon­i­tor who is com­ing and going. Access con­trol from PROTECTION PLUS can be as sim­ple as a key­pad, dig­i­tal read­er or smart­phone app. There­by pro­vid­ing elec­tron­ic access to your autho­rized per­son­nel while stor­ing data about each entry in case you need to review it.

8) Environmental Sensors

In addi­tion to smoke & fire detec­tors, your com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty sys­tem can also be equipped with addi­tion­al sen­sors. Sen­sors for detect­ing oth­er envi­ron­men­tal issues, such as gas leaks, car­bon monox­ide, tem­per­a­ture and water/flooding.

Learn more about your options.

Because each build­ing and busi­ness is unique, a cus­tomized secu­ri­ty solu­tion that address­es your com­mer­cial secu­ri­ty sys­tem and every secu­ri­ty need for your busi­ness is an excel­lent option. Con­tact PROTECTION PLUS for a no-oblig­a­tion secu­ri­ty sys­tem con­sul­ta­tion today to find the best fit for your busi­ness.