Two Security Cameras (dirty and cobwebs)

Keep Your Security Cameras Free of Insects

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Keep Spider Webs, Bugs or Insects From Security Cameras 

Two Security Cameras (dirty and cobwebs)High resolution surveillance cameras are key tools in protecting our New England homes and businesses from thieves and intruders. However, as reliable and proven as these solutions are, they require maintenance — and that includes preventing the camera lenses from being obscured by such obstructions as spider webs or insect nests.

Spider and insect interference may be a bigger problem than you might realize, particularly for homeowners with exterior camera-based security systems. Spiders do in fact habitually spin webs across lenses, as this industry blogs notes. This can create blind spots in your surveillance system, in effect disabling it. 

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High school students at school, wearing N95 Face masks. Teenage girl wearing eyeglasses sitting at the school desk and listening to the teacher.

Returning to School: Security Tips for Parents

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Depending on your state, county, city or town, your child may be returning soon to the classroom. With the threat of COVID-19 remaining here in New England, you’ll want to take the best approach to ensure your child’s safety in and outside the school or playground.High school students at school, wearing N95 Face masks. Teenage girl wearing eyeglasses sitting at the school desk and listening to the teacher.

The challenges for successful reopening and education are considerable, as a Mayo Clinic article on the subject notes. It states, “As schools reopen, they must balance the educational, social and emotional needs of their students along with the health and safety of students and staff in the midst of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.”

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Loving couple paying bills online at home using a laptop computer and looking very happy - lifestyle concepts

How to Secure Your Home Without Breaking the Bank

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Loving couple paying bills online at home using a laptop computer and looking very happy - lifestyle conceptsRoughly 250 New England homes out of every 100,000 are burglarized each year. Massachusetts residents alone have about a 1 in 79 chance of becoming the victim of a property crime. 

If you want to ensure that you do not become part of that statistic, you’re not alone. Homeowners are looking for better ways to secure their property – that don’t come with a hefty price tag.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to achieve greater home security that don’t involve a lot of additional investment. Often, some creative thinking matched with wise decisions are all it takes to ensure that your home is safe from would-be intruders.

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A businessman is giving a presentation in a modern co-working space.

Four Tips to Improve Productivity by Leveraging Commercial Security

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

A businessman is giving a presentation in a modern co-working space.New England boasts the most well-educated workforce in the nation, yet productivity is still an issue – as it is everywhere in the United States. It is imperative for companies to find a way to increase employee engagement, and decrease stressors, pressures, and distractions that lead to a lack of productivity.

One of the best ways to do this is by implementing a stronger commercial security infrastructure. These added measures will fortify your business against wasted hours, employee distrust, and other productivity stealers. The following four tips show you how to use commercial security to increase productivity among your employees – across all areas of your business.

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Two people discussing CCTV project. Video security equipment and blueprint on a table

5 Warning Signs You Need to Upgrade Your Business Security

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Two people discussing CCTV project. Video security equipment and blueprint on a tableAs a New England business owner, you may not think much about your various security and surveillance systems — until you need them. That means your existing solutions may have become outdated, suffer from gaps, or are just plainly obsolete and not fully functional.

It may be too late to address these security shortcomings by the time you realize them. This is most relevant in areas where the growth of new technology, such as the Internet of Things, is creating even more risk than before.

Is Your Security Ready?

With the arrival of COVID-19 and new safety and health regulations, businesses face a whole new set of challenges to protect their employees, customers and partners. As the Boston Herald notes, a failure in protection might lead to a crippling lawsuit that could financially ruin a small firm.

Members of your company, or your partners, may be working remotely in unfamiliar environments or conditions, as mentioned in a recent Boston Business Journal article. Your security procedures and solutions may be vulnerable, given they must function across geographically distributed locations, or at hours and in circumstances they weren’t designed for.

Protection Assessment and Evaluation

Given the current situation, here are five indicators to consider if you’re in doubt about how current and robust your current business security system is. You might want to consider an upgrade or revamp if:

  1. You can’t view/record activities in key areas for ongoing compliance and safety. This particularly applies to customer-facing businesses, such as restaurants or retail stores. Given the new rules around hygiene, you must be able to demonstrate you follow social distancing and similar guidelines.
  2. Your business has changed or expanded substantially since the last surveillance/alarm installation. Are you in the same location? Did you expand your existing one? Are new areas sufficiently protected? You have to regularly re-evaluate your existing infrastructure to match your growth.
  3. You can’t respond in real-time to disruptive or risky situations. Thieves or vandals can strike at your business at any time. Plus, given the various restrictions caused by COVID-19, members of the public have lately demonstrated disruptive behavior, as mentioned in this blog post. A high-resolution camera system feeding into a 24/7 control system can enable the fastest, safest responses.
  4. You lack communications and/or power redundancy. Thieves are shrewder than ever. They can take out your landline to prevent a burglar alarm reaching first responders. As we’ve previously noted, you should have backup communications in place, such as cellular connectivity. Likewise, if the power in your facility goes out, back up battery power will ensure the alarms stay live until electricity is restored.
  5. It’s been years since you upgraded your surveillance/security systems. High tech criminals never rest. They create new viruses and hacking schemes. You can help defeat that by making sure your network has all the latest software patches and security protocols in place. Can your cameras clearly record all activity on your premises? High resolution cameras improve regularly and enable ever better visibility into your facilities or shop floors. Cloud-based solutions can provide further security by allowing securely encrypted off-site video storage and streaming 24/7.

If any or all of these situations applies to you, it’s worth considering a security upgrade. New surveillance and sensing systems can protect you and your business in this ever changing and challenging commercial environment.

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CCTV Security monitoring student in classroom at school.Security camera surveillance for watching and protect group of children while studying.

A Great Time for School Security System Upgrades

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

CCTV Security monitoring student in classroom at school.Security camera surveillance for watching and protect group of children while studying.Upgrading School Security Systems

As a school administrator, are you wondering how to respond to new threats such as COVID-19 when you reopen your facilities? Besides the usual risks (vandals, thieves, intruders and potential shooters), administrators must now factor in hygiene and cleanliness protections (surveillance and monitoring may assist with these efforts).

The upside is that school buildings are less occupied and quieter than usual because of the pandemic. This provides the opportunity to get large projects done with less disruption, including bigger and more ambitious security infrastructure upgrades than would be possible during a normal summer season.

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young couple buying a new house

5 Reasons to Upgrade Your Home Security Before Selling 

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Invest in Home Peace of Mind 

Planning to put your house on the market? Want to differentiate the property and build value for it in a practical, demonstrable way? Offer your buyers full security capabilities and extra peace of mind.young couple buying a new house

If you already have some sort of basic alarm system in place, consider upgrading it and implementing a cutting-edge, high tech and holistic surveillance/life safety solution. The safety of your property and loved ones is crucial. Anything you can do to enhance that protection will most likely appeal to future owners of your house.

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Reopening Your Business During the Pandemic: Security Solutions for Restaurants

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Restaurants Opening in COVID-19 Era Need New Security Solutions

As New England restaurants begin reopening to the new normal, their owners and managers are discovering new uncertainties and risks.

Happy business owner opening the door at a cafe wearing a facemask to avoid the spread of coronavirus – reopening after COVID-19 concepts

New regulations and policies for hygiene add complexity to an already difficult business. As noted in a prior blog, some patrons are impatient or unwilling to conform to the new rules. Businesses in cities like Boston and Brockton are now facing vandalism and theft as well.

Some of these challenges can be mitigated with technology solutions.

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Operating Through the Pandemic

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Operating Through the Pandemic

We hope and trust you are safe and well, despite the COVID-19 crisis. We would also like you to know that American Alarm is an essential Massachusetts-based business, and one that remains open to serve the public. We continue to support thousands of New England residential, commercial and government clients, including those other essential businesses that must operate through the pandemic.

Although the public’s focus is on COVID-19, traditional electronic security and surveillance solutions may prove as important as ever.

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Tips To Keep Your Basement From Flooding

/by American Alarm Blogging Team

Fight Back The Floods

As New Englanders, we should always be ready to protect our basements from flooding — particularly when caused by spring rains or severe storms.

This blog has covered the risks storms and floods pose to our businesses and homes, and to seasonal homes in particular. A flooding disaster can cost thousands of dollars in damage to property, and inflict huge stress on homeowners.

Our basements can be inundated at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected ways, as one North Woodstock, New Hampshire, couple learned last April. According to a CBSN Boston January article, the couple’s basement was flooded by 16 inches of water — which they alleged was part of the runoff from a commercial ice castle attraction.

The couple spent $30,000 on a system to drain the estimated 35,000 gallons of water from the basement and keep it dry. Read more →