New Homes & Lifestyles

Enhance Your Lifestyle - and Protect Your Home

If asked to describe a typical home security system, many homeowners conjure up images of coming home from work, opening their front doors and entering a code to silence a high-pitched squeal of an alarm. Others would describe a bedtime routine of punching in codes to ensure their systems are armed throughout the night.

But those who have already put technology to work to improve their lifestyle think about how reassuring it is to quickly check their office computer to watch their children safely return home from school. They can concentrate on the remaining tasks of the day, knowing that all is well at home.

The automation savvy homebuyers would also point out that they use their security system controls to lower the setting on the thermostat to cool the house down before the children returned from school. And they were saving energy all day by using a higher temperature setting during school hours.

Obviously, today's security systems are about more than alarms - they are sophisticated technology solutions aimed at enhancing lifestyles, all while providing the safety and comfort of a secure home.

Technological advancements during the last few years have redefined the standards for a home security system. Today's systems tout improved communication technology to ensure that alarm signals are delivered to the proper authorities, and to enable control of the security system from devices like laptop computers and cell phones. Structured cabling that connects voice, data and video functions into a whole-house central communication system is simplifying home automation, and Internet technologies are bringing the controls of all these functions straight to your keyboard, keypad or touch screen.

Better Alarm Transmissions - The Comfort of Feeling Secure
At its heart, a home security system is still alarm technology designed to help protect you from potential intruders by alerting you to their presence and communicating the alarm condition to the proper authorities. To alert law enforcement of a possible break in, older systems use standard analog telephone lines to transmital arm signals to central stations where personnel can respond appropriately.

But the use of land lines has steadily decreased over the years as cell phones and technology such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) have become more popular. And tech-savvy home buyers find it a nuisance to pay for a phone line for the sole purpose of having a security system. There's also the obvious problem of an alarm signal failing to reach a central station if a phone line is down. For these reasons, alarm system vendors are embracing technology such as digital communication and wireless Internet services. Analog networks that have been in use since the 1980s, meanwhile, are gradually being phased out.

The newest technology on the market includes wireless alarm radios that use redundant, multiple communication paths to ensure an alarm signal is delivered to authorities during a break in - if one path fails, another backs it up. Honeywell, for example, recently released a line of wireless alarm communication technology that can transmit redundant signals through the Internet, a wireless data service used by cell phones and a service similar to text messaging - all without the need for a phone line.

But today's improved alarm transmission technology does more than send signals to central stations.

For instance, the rapidly growing use of wireless digital communication networks to transmit these alarm signals means that your security system can now be controlled through a laptop computer, PDA or even a cell phone. If you forgot to arm your systems before leaving for work in the morning, for example, you can simply send a text command through your cell phone. If you're away on vacation, you can punch in codes on your mobile phone to check the status of your security system.

Structured Cabling - Many Devices, One Lifeline
Structured cabling - a network of wires hidden behind walls - essentially acts as your home's central nervous system. These systems use a central control panel to distribute voice, data and video information providing intercom, music and video content and even wireless high-speed Internet in and around the home.

The benefit of using a central control panel? Consider a satellite dish television system, for example. A regular dish system requires each television in the house to have a receiver to pick up the signal. With structured cabling, however, the dish can route its signal to any television through the control panel. Structured cabling is also used to hook up surround sound speakers in a den, or run speakers in each room of the house connected to a single stereo.

Although these home entertainment features are most typically associated with structured cabling, there is of course a strong security case to be made, as well.

Structured cabling can connect devices such as in-home security cameras and link them to any television in the house. This allows you to monitor visitors at the front door, children playing in the yard or the baby in the nursery. The system can be programmed to call your phone line when the doorbell rings, letting you speak to visitors through an intercom system without putting yourself in harm's way.

Using structured cabling as a security automation solution also enables the system to take intelligent actions based upon the type of security required. For instance, if a glass-break or motion detector determines that an intruder is attempting to break into the house, the system can turn on inside and outside lights to scare the suspect away.

Internet Options - Controlling From Your Keyboard
Whether we're banking, paying bills, ordering pizza, applying for jobs or just keeping in touch with friends, most aspects of our lives can now be managed by typing a line beginning with "www. ..."

Securing our homes has the same potential.

Automation devices can be installed into existing home security systems that allow you to simultaneously monitor and control systems using your computer or touch screen devices. The screens can display virtual versions of your systems' keypads, allowing for easy remote control - for example, you can raise thermostat settings from your work computer to ensure you return home to a comfortable room. And because the system is Web based, homeowners can also tap into their homes from anywhere with Internet access through a secure Web address.

So, for instance, the system can notify you by email at work that an alarm has been tripped. You can then log on through a Website to view camera shots from your front door, backyard and any room in the house being monitored by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system.

Many homeowners may not realize that the same communication path used to control an alarm panel can also control heating, ventilation and air conditioning panels, lighting fixtures and more. By controlling these comfort and lighting systems through an IP-based Web interface, an Internet connection module essentially turns a personal computer into a central control station for your home and gives you automation control.

This capability also allows you to program reactions to emergencies. For instance, if a fire alarm sends a signal to the integrated security system, the control module can be programmed to send a signal that shuts down the heating, ventilation or air conditioning system to slow the spread of smoke throughout the house.

The Age of "Smart" Homes
Technology breakthroughs over the past decade have paved the way for sophisticated security systems that guard some of the nation's most critical facilities, and highly valued industrial businesses.

The average home hasn't been left out either. Many homeowners are coming to realize what many business owners and facility managers around the nation have discovered: standalone security and building automation systems provide great value, but that value increases exponentially when they are tied together to form a truly "smart" building.

Likewise, home security systems, when tied with climate controls, home entertainment and other appliances can turn an ordinary dwelling into a "smart" home that provides a more comfortable, more convenient, and more secure lifestyle.