Security System Maintenance
Maintenance that keeps your security useful. Planned preventative maintenance for intruder alarms, CCTV and access control across Northern Ireland, with annual or twice yearly visits, a dated service record for every visit, and monitoring kept in place throughout.
What a maintenance visit actually covers
Intruder alarm systems
Walk every zone
Review the intruder alarm around the premises.
Trigger the detectors
Test the detection devices.
Check the contacts
Check door and window contacts.
Sound the devices
Test internal and external sounders.
Load the standby battery
Check the battery under load.
Prove the signalling path
Test the connection used to send alarm signals.
CCTV and access control
CCTV is different work: focus and field of view, infrared after dark, lens cleaning, retention against the period you agreed, and clock accuracy so exported footage stands up. On access control we test readers, exit devices, the emergency release and the credential list, because live cards for people who left are the usual finding.
Annual, twice yearly, or something between
The interval follows the standard the system was signed off to. A bells only intruder alarm is serviced once a year. A monitored system, and anything on police response, is maintained twice a year, one visit of which can often be carried out remotely.
CCTV and access control usually sit on an annual visit, though dust in a factory, weather on a forecourt or hundreds of people pushing the same school doors will earn a second. We set the interval at survey.
Insurance requirements and required paperwork
Policies rarely stop at requiring an alarm. They usually ask for a system installed and maintained to BS EN 50131 and PD 6662 by a company registered with a recognised inspectorate. Advanced Overwatch is SSAIB certificated (NIRE127) specifically for Intruder Alarm Systems, Visual Surveillance Systems (VSS) and Access Control Systems. Details are set out on our certifications page.
Maintenance is the half people forget. A system fitted correctly in 2019 and never serviced since can fail the same condition it once met, and that argument arrives after a break in. Every visit is written up and dated, so the service history is there when it is asked for.
We take on systems other companies installed
You do not have to rip out working equipment to change who looks after it. Plenty of our contracts started as somebody else’s installation. It begins with a takeover survey: the engineer identifies the panel, detectors, recorder and cameras, then decides whether it still meets its standard.
Locked engineer codes, unsupported recorders and discontinued cameras can affect a takeover. The survey establishes what can be maintained and what needs attention.
Monitoring arrangements
CCTV is monitored 24 hours a day through NI CCTV Monitoring from Advanced Overwatch. Intruder and fire alarm monitoring is provided through our monitoring partner’s NSI Gold certified Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC). When a maintained system signals, the response plan in front of the operator is the one we agreed with you, and you still ring one number.
Taking over a monitored system, we handle the change of monitoring, prove the signalling path again and refresh the escalation list, usually years out of date. Response follows your choice: calls to your keyholders, keyholder attendance so nobody turns out at night, or police response where the system qualifies.
One maintenance relationship across the building
Few premises own one system. There is an intruder alarm, cameras, a couple of controlled doors and a fire alarm. Split across four companies that is four site visits, four sets of paperwork and four numbers to ring when something fails on a Monday morning.
We can carry the security disciplines and fire alarm servicing on one schedule, so visits land together and the records sit in one file. Scope, precisely: Advanced Overwatch is SSAIB certificated (NIRE127) specifically for Intruder Alarm Systems, Visual Surveillance Systems (VSS) and Access Control Systems. Fire alarm work runs to BS 5839, a separate discipline with its own certificates, outside that registration.
Faults between visits, and the record you keep
Fault support
Contract customers can reach our on-call engineers around the clock on 028 7087 8077, and diagnosis comes before a van, because a modern panel gives up the answer remotely. The repeat callers are predictable: a flat battery, a tamper after building work, false activations from a moved detector, or a fault light nobody can clear.
The service record
Every visit leaves a dated record of what was tested, what failed and what was replaced, with battery ages noted so replacements are planned. We hold the schedule and tell you when the next one is due, because the certificate that lapses is the one everybody assumed somebody else tracked.
Security system maintenance questions
How often should a security system be serviced?
A bells only intruder alarm is serviced once a year. A monitored system, or one on police response, is maintained twice a year, one visit of which can often be done remotely. CCTV and access control are usually annual, more often on hard worked sites.
Will you maintain a system another company installed?
Yes, and plenty of our contracts began that way. An engineer surveys the panel, detectors, recorder, cameras and doors, checks condition and paperwork, and confirms it can still be maintained to standard. Where a panel is locked or equipment unsupported, we say so.
Does a maintenance contract affect my insurance?
Policies commonly require a system installed and maintained by a company registered with a recognised inspectorate. Advanced Overwatch is SSAIB certificated (NIRE127) specifically for Intruder Alarm Systems, Visual Surveillance Systems (VSS) and Access Control Systems. What your own policy requires is set out in the policy, so bring it to the survey and we will tell you whether your system meets it.
Do we have to change our monitoring if you take over?
Monitored systems we maintain stay connected throughout, to NI CCTV Monitoring from Advanced Overwatch for cameras and to an NSI Gold certified Alarm Receiving Centre for alarm signals. We manage the changeover and refresh the keyholder list.
Can you look after our fire alarm on the same contract?
Yes. Fire alarm servicing runs to BS 5839, a separate standard with its own certificates and a different discipline from the security side, but it shares the same schedule and visit so your records stay in one file.
Book a maintenance contract survey
An engineer surveys what is installed, confirms what can be maintained to standard, sets the visit interval and puts it in writing. Systems fitted by other companies included. Call 028 7087 8077.
Systems we maintain, and what sits alongside them
Covered by the same schedule, and worth reading before a takeover survey.
Systems we service
- Intruder alarm installation and servicing
- CCTV installation across Northern Ireland
- Access control systems
- Fire alarm servicing and maintenance
- NI CCTV Monitoring from Advanced Overwatch
Worth reading first