Alarm Reporting Centres (ARCs)

The SPC panel has the facility to communicate information to a remote receiving station when a specific alarm event on the panel has occurred.

These Alarm Reporting Centres must be configured on the panel to allow this remote communication to operate.

Adding/Editing an ARC using SIA or CID

Prerequisite

  • PSTN or GSM modem is installed and functioning correctly.

  1. Select Communications > Reporting > Analog ARC.

  2. Click the Modem1/2 button to make a test call to the ARC from the either modem 1 or modem 2.

  3. Click the Log button to receive a log file. A page with the logs from all automatic and manual test calls will be displayed.

  4. To add or edit an ARC, click Add.

    – OR -

    Click Edit.

  5. Configure the fields as described in the table below.

    Description

    Enter a description of the remote Alarm Receiving Centre.

    Account

    Enter your account number. This information should be available from the receiving station and is used to identify you each time you make a call to the ARC.

    For a Contact ID account, a maximum of 6 characters is allowed.

    Protocol

    Enter the communication protocol that you intend to use (SIA, SIA Extended, Contact ID, Fast Format).

    Note: SPC supports the extended SIA protocol. Select this protocol to support additional textual descriptions of the SIA events being sent to the Alarm Receiving Station.

    Priority

    Select the priority for the ARC in terms of primary or back-up reporting.

    Number 1

    Enter the first number to be dialled to contact the ARC. This system will always attempt to contact the ARC on this number before attempting another number.

    Number 2

    Enter the second number to be dialled to contact the ARC. The system will only attempt to contact the ARC on this number if the first contact number did not successfully establish a call.

    Dial Attempts

    Enter the number of times that the system will attempt to make a call to the receiver. (Default is 8)

    Dial Delay

    Number of seconds to delay between failed dial attempts (0–999).

    Dial Interval

    Enter the number of seconds to delay between failed dial attempts. (0–999)

    Test Calls

    Enable the test call by choosing a time interval. This will send out an automatic test call from modem 1 to the primary ARC.

    Test All

    Check this box if you want to initiate also an automatic test call from modem 2 to the backup ARC.

  6. Click the Add button to enter those details on the system.

    A list of the configured ARC accounts will be displayed in the browser along with the account information, description, protocol, dial-up status and time and date of the last call to the ARC.

Editing an ARC filter using SIA or CID

To configure the events on the SPC that will trigger the call to the ARC:

  1. Select Select Communications > Reporting > Analog ARC > Edit > Filter.

  2. Configure the following fields:

    Check any of the following boxes if you want to initiate a remote call to the ARC to notify it of the particular event.

    Alarms

    Alarms are activated.

    Alarm Restores

    System alarms are restored.

    Confirmed Alarms

    Alarms confirmed by multiple zones

    Alarm Abort

    Alarm Abort events. Alarms are aborted after a valid user code is entered via the keypad after a confirmed or unconfirmed alarm,

    Faults

    Faults and tampers are activated.

    Fault Restores

    Fault or tamper alarms are restored.

    Settings

    System is Set and Unset.

    Early/Late

    Unscheduled setting and unsetting of the system.

    Inhibits

    Inhibit and isolate operations are performed on the system.

    Door Events

    Door events are activated. Only works with SIA protocol.

    Other

    All other types of events are detected on the system.

    Network

    Report IP Network Polling Up/Down events.

    Areas

    Select specific areas to which above events apply.
 

By adding a separate Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) for each area defined on the system and programming each area to report it’s own separate ARC receiver, the system can approximate a multi-tenanted system in that a high degree of autonomy is assigned to each area.
Editing an ARC Filter using Fast Format

To configure the events on the SPC that will trigger the call to the ARC when Fast Format is the selected protocol:

  1. Select Communications > Reporting > Analog ARC > Edit > Filter.

    A list of the eight channels is displayed along with the alarm conditions that can be programmed for each channel.

  2. Select the alarm conditions for each channel as required. For a description of each, see Outputs types and output ports.

  3. From the Scope dropdown menu, select System or a specific area to apply your selected settings.

  4. Click the Test button located next to the first channel to test the alarm activation.

    The light bulb icon is switched on.

  5. Wait approximately five seconds and click the Test button again for the same channel. This sends a channel restore to the ARC and the light bulb icon is switched off.

  6. Continue to test the other channels.