Polish security supplier, Altest in the city of Lublin, provides technical and physical security and has created advanced alarm systems integrated with an alarm monitoring centre. This means operators are able to keep an eye on multiple locations for all their customers, securing all kinds of businesses and homes. But they needed a way to verify alarms quickly and accurately and to improve their security offering. For this they worked with Hikvision to create an innovative solution.

Altest uses an alarm monitoring centre software called 'Adinfo'. Using this, operators in the centre can react to alarms coming in from the security systems installed at customer premises. Then they can take the action needed – for example sending a patrol, and notifying the emergency services, depending on the issue.

However, to streamline their business and reduce the problems caused throughout the infrastructure by false alarms, they needed to be able to verify the alarms in some way. Previously they would have needed to find another way to verify the alarm, possibly, even my sending a patrol to the area. Reaction time in many real alarm situations is key – the faster the operator can verify what’s happened, the faster they can react.

Altest also wanted to be able to provide an extra centralised patrol function, to deliver a permanent monitoring check for secured areas.

Hikvision’s alarm and CCTV systems can be seamlessly integrated, through the use of NVRs and VMS. The Altest project essentially integrated the alarm information coming from the Adinfo software with feeds coming from the cameras (either existing or added) using Hikvision’s powerful Hik-Central VMS and embedded 4K NVR (DS-9632NI-I8).

The ID of every alarm device is cross-referenced to the ID of every camera, so that the system can automatically identify the camera which is closest to the alarm that has gone off. This means that the operator is immediately shown the footage from the right camera. They can then, not only verify that this is not a false alarm, but also the nature of the issue – and they can do it quickly.

If they have a good idea of the issue, this also means they can provide a much more useful service by already reacting in an appropriate way. For example – if they can see the alarm issue is caused by a fire, they can already dispatch the fire service. In dangerous situations, the time saved by them having this information could be the difference between life and death.

They can also perform scheduled remote patrols of the site, using the integrated system. This improves Altest’s business as a whole – they can provide an extra integrated service. All this combined means the company can now offer a heightened quality of service to customers.

Marek Kowalczyk, Altest’s IT Director, says: “Using Hikvision’s trusted systems means that we can optimise our working processes, increasing efficiency and reducing costs. We can focus on safeguarding customers’ premises and assets, even at night and weekends, and can now offer them a much better service. We were thrilled that the openness and support provided by Hikvision enabled us to create a completely new set of features for our system.”