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Sur-Gard launches new receiver

In its 2012 report on crime and safety in South Africa, OSAC (Overseas Security Advisory Council) states that violent confrontational crime such as home invasion robberies and burglaries ‘is a major concern’.

The Council has reason to be concerned, says Valerie Bingham, product manager for Elvey Security Technologies. “According to a report by the South African Institute of Race Relations, a shocking 678 burglaries were committed every day in South Africa during 2010/2011.”

She believes home and business owners will be pleased to hear of the launch of the Sur-Gard System III, a virtual receiver which she says is superior to conventional receivers, owing to its super-fast, reliable ability to receive and handle burglar and fire signals.

One of Tyco Security Products’ brands, its new receiver sports features such as automation output over TCP/IP using an RS-232 serial output as a back-up, and expandability to accommodate up to 24 mix-and-match lines.

Residing in two 19-inch rack mount cages, this set-up allows for automatic switching redundancy of all internal components should the primary CPM (central processing module) fail, in which case the secondary unit would then immediately take over.

Bingham says the receiver has been designed for easy and economical expansion. It can be configured to run from one to up to 24 line cards, and a combination of phone and network line cards allows for the creation of one integrated monitoring solution. The benefits of this include increased account volume and improved signal processing. Additionally, the CPM polls each line card to get consistent, up-to-the-minute information.

The System III is also equipped with a self-diagnostics feature, which allows it to pick up component problems instantly. The CPM provides continual supervision of automation software to ensure automatic backup to a redundant port. “So,” says Bingham, “if the automatic system goes off-line, the CPM will switch from the primary Ethernet port to a secondary or serial port, before going into manual mode.”

The use of an E1 circuit greatly improves disaster recovery capabilities, she adds. “In the event of system failure, the receiver can be re-routed via the E1 circuit and directed to an alternate disaster recovery facility. This prevents any down time and ensures that activities can continue as normal.”

Bingham points out that the System III makes use of SG-DRL3-IP line cards to ensure top level security alarm monitoring. “The cards, which are FIPS/NIST, UL AA High-Line Security and ULC Level 3/4/5 listed, offer 128-bit AES encryption and an anti-hack design that isolates internal communications from external data transmissions.”

Line testing

System III offers integrated end-to-end testing of up to 1024 telephone numbers. Line tests can be initiated on demand or automatically, she says, using daily or weekly schedules. A unique test signal using SIA or Contact ID is programmed for each phone number, and results are individually logged via Sur-Gard Console Software. System III can also send test signals to other compatible receivers in a central monitoring station.

System III can be programmed locally by referencing the unit’s menu-driven 1/4 VGA display, or remotely over a network Ethernet connection using Sur-Gard Console Software. Bingham says the easy-to-use Windows-based software can also be used to upgrade the unit’s flash memory with new operating software, without the need to handle hardware, pull chips or disrupt the activity of other components.

Used to configure the System III virtual receiver, the software, which connects via the receiver’s Ethernet port from any network computer, also provides a number of remote diagnostic tools. These include communications debugging and real-time status of all subsystems. Other features, she notes, include a flash memory upgrade utility, date and time synchronisation, edit and archive configuration options, and a virtual event log.

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