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Our business is 29 years old and situated in Franschhoek Valley. After years of building the business in the area we can now proudly open our local control room to serve our clients with quick and effective service 24 hours of the day.
Our Control room has instant radio communication to the Police and our Response vehicles on patrol are linked to 88 farms of "Franschhoek Farm Watch" that spreads down between the mountains.
We work with trained personnel whose professional in installations and alarm calls. Together we strive to keep our community as safe 24 hours of the day. Our alarm systems are combined with Instant Medical and Fire Response by just the press of a button.
There are two primary types of systems available: monitored and unmonitored. Monitored systems contact our monitoring station by telephone or radio, if the security system senses an intrusion and is not deactivated within a few seconds; the monitoring station receives the signal, determines the nature of the alarm and verifies it, usually by phoning the premises immediately. If we do not receive the password, or no one answers, we send out our Armed Response as quickly as possible.
Unmonitored systems typically have on-site alarms and/or flashing lights that indicate the security system has been breached. It relies on neighbors to see and hear the alarms and then call the police. Many burglars will flee once the alarms and lights have been activated. The disadvantage is the fact that the system relies on neighbors who might not be home.
With one-touch remote control convenience, using your security system has never been easier. In case of an emergency panic button pressed an alert text message can go out to 5 people which you select while our response vehicle speeds up to the place.
Our vehicles are also satellite monitored at the control room at all times to assure affective callouts to the correct sites.
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Pepler Alarms made a strategic investment to create a new business model that breaks the mould of
traditional reactive security. In mid-2008 a security company from Stellenbosch initiated a security
project with the plan to sell it to residents and businesses as a service. We saw the need for this in
our village and invested in a wireless infrastructure from Sytec Solutions to create a platform for all
security systems to work on. The strategy from the outset has been to use the newest surveillance
technology as tools for proactive security response, designed for central, local and mobile control.
We form an integral base for the area's security network, alerting us to more proactive and faster
responses. All our operations are integrated through the use of very sophisticated management
programs and tools. Pepler Alarms uses this together with guards from Franschhoek Farm Guard to
minimize problem areas.
The cameras will be places on buildings instead of poles. In this case it wouldn't be so visible and
connections can safely be hidden inside roof spaces.
The cameras are strategically placed to monitor all entry and exit points, and the images are closely
monitored. With one of these PTZ speed dome cameras an entire street could be monitored from one
side to another. The method used to mount and power the cameras over Ethernet maximizes the quality
and effectiveness of the images, as well as preventing vandalism of the units. With the main monitoring
center in Artisan Village at Pepler Alarms' central control room, Franshhoek Farmwatch acts as a backup
to ensure fast proactive response in case of alarms and calls.
The total security solution includes a proactive communication network with two-way radios and
mobile phones connecting all bicycle patrols, response vehicles and guarding vehicles. This creates a
security ring in this town proven highly effective in fighting crime. Our goal is to provide the most
optimal resources for securing Franschhoek and farms and we believe residents benefit from this
important investment in their safety.
It took about 10 months to get the project in full operation, establishing the best locations, getting
permissions for the high site installations, design of the implementations and carrying them out. We
starting with existing clients to set up cameras on their premises to face out on the roads, strategically
covering the main points for the region. We utilised a building on Matoppie Mountain for the repeaters.
Due to the mountain's height, we are able to relay the images back to our central control room. With
the images recorded 24 hours a day, we can share evidence with the police, and analyse the video to
discover crime patterns. With the live video we can identify anything that looks suspicious and respond
faster.
Our technical challenge was getting the images in high enough frame rates back to the control room.
We had a bandwidth challenge with the required frame rate for live video, which we were able to
resolve. We want to increase the number of cameras per area to extend our capabilities and that is
simple to do with the network cameras. We can also utilise analytics at a later stage and be able to get
licence plate recognition to trace in the police database. This will automatically warn us on a "wanted"
vehicle driving into Franschhoek or give us an alarm when the police are looking for a specific car.
This installation is unique in that Pepler Alarms has involved the community to give the residents extra
coverage, using the surveillance as a comprehensive tool in combination with their armed services to
pro-actively address crime. It is not just a security tool, the surveillance is also a management tool for us
to be able see where bicycle guards and armed patrol cars are at all times, to manage them better from
the central overview and to ultimately provide better services to the benefit of our clients.
It is an ideal scenario, a fully integrated alarm and surveillance solution. It will assist us by linking
alarms to video with instant access to what is happening. We can give patrols the information they need
to respond faster and more appropriately; are there two or three suspects, do we need to call in more
resources? The ability to identify false alarms also means we do not have to waste resources, we save
costs, and we ultimately provide better service because the people who really do need our services will
get them quicker.
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