SSAIB offers a range of schemes covering monitoring centre and control room operations, including: Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs), Remote Video Response Centres (RVRC), Secure Operating Centres (SOCs), Stolen vehicle tracking and recovery, Lone Worker Monitoring
Apply NowSSAIB offers a range of schemes covering monitoring centre and control room operations, including:
Accreditation and Compliance
Certification against these SSAIB schemes will demonstrate compliance with the NPCC and Police Scotland Policies on Police Response to Security Systems and the Chief Fire Officers Association’s (CFOA) Policy on Remote Monitored Fire Alarm Systems (RMFA). It will enable the certificated stations to monitor intruder and fire alarm systems and route activations to Fire Service and Police control rooms to initiate a response.
Third party certification is required for all monitoring activities that are intended to involve an emergency services response. These schemes are also recognised by insurers and SSAIB is accredited to operate them by UKAS.
SSAIB has wide UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) Accreditation, which means that our approach is subject to independent scrutiny and validation against international standards.
Alarm Receiving Centres (ARCs)
This scheme certificates Alarm Receiving Centres against the requirements of BE EN 50518 – Monitoring and alarm receiving. centre. Monitoring centres, in particular ARCs, perform a central and critical role in the fire, intruder and social alarm sectors. Activations from monitored systems must be routed through an ARC for verification prior to being passed to the relevant authority for a response. The approach aims to minimise the number of false alarms handled by the emergency services. SSAIB can offer guidance and support to companies seeking monitoring centre certification.
Remote Video Response Centre (RVRC)
RVRCs reflect the convergence of technologies used by the security industry and BS 8418 was introduced to provide guidance on the design, installation, commissioning, operation and remote monitoring of detector activated CCTV systems. BS 8418 also aims to minimise false alarms by using detectors to trigger CCTV activation, with images being transmitted to remote stations. As such the standard includes recommendations applicable to the system, the remote centre where the system will be monitored and the operation of the system by the user.
Unusually, the standard places responsibility on the user of the system to ensure that it is operated correctly and that the RVRC is informed of legitimate activities at the supervised premises to avoid false alarms.
This complex standard requires system providers to be conversant with several other standards, all of which are critical to ensuring that the system is designed, installed and properly commissioned.
Secure Operating Centres
This certification is required for control rooms offering after-theft vehicle tracking and immobilisation services in conjunction with Police services.
Lone Worker Monitoring
It is vital to ensure that when a lone worker device is activated that the user gains an appropriate response. The link between the device and the ARC is critical. Lone worker devices should be in accordance with the requirements of BS 8484; the ARC monitoring the lone worker must also comply with this standard and should also conform to BS EN 50518, (see above). The ARC must meet the criteria for a Police response, but must also be able to communicate with the lone worker to verify that an emergency response is required.