Bold Blog: Alarm Automation Software and Services

Recent enhancement provides verification benefit to all Manitou users - by Bob Bishop

Kellee Hardy — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:47:00 GMT

Recent enhancement to meet new legislation in Spain provides verification benefit to all Manitou users.

In August 2011, Spain enacted a national law requiring verification of private alarm systems (commercial and residential) prior to the dispatch of authorities. One of the approved methods for verification is multiple signals (three or more) received within a defined period of time. While Manitou has always provided transmitter-level soft programming options for Confirmed events or TwoTrip events, the system was hardcoded to wait for a second signal only – not a definable number of signals. Since this would not allow for compliance with Spanish law, our development team enhanced the Confirmed commands.

This enhancement now allows all Manitou central stations to define the Confirmation requirements at the Country level (Supervisor Workstation->Maintenance->Setup->Country – jump to Country Options). With the options now deployed, you can not only define the number of signals before Manitou creates a “Confirmed” event, you can also set an option to receive the original event at the time it was received, rather than waiting for the confirmation signal.

This new enhancement will provide central stations a method to notify users upon receipt of the initial trip, but dispatch upon receipt of the confirming event. For example, if a customer would like to be notified via email upon receipt of an interior motion detector, the system can now send out that notification immediately. Additionally, if a subsequent signal is received (i.e., door opened), the system can escalate the signal as a confirmed alarm and provide dispatch instructions to the operator. Prior to the release of this update (available in Manitou 1.6.0 Update 17), the notification would only go out AFTER the delay timeout occurred for the confirming event.

For more information on this new enhancement, please refer to the Manitou Release Notes for version 1.6.0. We will also demonstrate this enhancement during our November 30^th Coffee with Manitou session entitled “How Did You Do That.”

-Bob Bishop

Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts March 13th

Brandon Lilly — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:45:00 GMT

The 2011 "Spring Ahead" Daylight Savings Time (DST) change will happen on March 13th! To ensure that your Manitou system is compliant with the new DST changes...

Tip of the Week : Check the Configuration - Patrick Dench

Brandon Lilly — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 23:02:00 GMT

Over the life of your Manitou installation there will be many changes to the system...

Coffee with Manitou webinar - Manitou 1.6 is online!

Brandon Lilly — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:50:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that the January Coffee with Manitou session for Manitou Version 1.6 was successfully recorded

It's a new year! - Shaun Blair

Brandon Lilly — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:53:00 GMT

Let's discuss a couple important points that may affect your upcoming Manitou software upgrade...

Tip of the Week : Stay up to date! - Patrick Dench

Brandon Lilly — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:13:00 GMT

Keeping your Manitou system up-to-date provides many advantages; including bug-fixes, unlocking new features and reducing down-time.

Tip of the Week : Drive Space is Important | Eric Schmitt

Brandon Lilly — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:06:00 GMT

As you run Manitou, add accounts, and receive signals the Manitou data file grows. On busy sites this data file can quickly take over a small hard drive. It's important to keep track of how much free space you have available...

Tip of the Week : Replication using DB Manager - Jose Garundo

Brandon Lilly — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:59:00 GMT

This is a basic idea on how to establish replication using DB Manager, please refer to your Bold Technical Representative before performing this process if you are not familiar with replication or have any questions and require support.

Tip of the Week : Digi Etherlite - End of Life - Patrick Dench

Brandon Lilly — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:42:00 GMT

The Digi “Etherlite” serial server (or serial concentrator) is a staple for many central stations. However, the word from Digi is that the product will be reaching the end of its life in the next 2-3 years. Until then quantities in the Etherlite line will be limited as the product is already in “limited production”...

Tip of the Week : Windows Updates & Manitou Compatability - Eric Schmitt

Brandon Lilly — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:16:00 GMT

This week's tip looks at how Microsoft updates can affect Manitou in a server environment.