Protecting your home starts outside the property
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According to Eurostat, there have been an average of 80,000 burglaries and 9,200 car thefts per year in Austria over the last five years. This alone is why it’s worth thinking about protecting private homes and small businesses.
As so often in life, it is best to prevent certain situations from occurring in the first place. Homes, garages and driveways are better protected if intruders are detected before they arrive. OPTEX offers several outdoor sensors that ignore small animals, are weather resistant and detect people approaching or passing through an area. The sensors can be connected to different types of security systems depending on customer needs. Possible systems include wired or wireless intrusion detection panels to trigger alarms, audio systems to play recorded or live voice messages, or video systems for visual verification.
Fast and reliable detection is crucial to detect intruders before it’s too late, and prevent damage and losses. At the same time, there must be no disruptive false alarms.
Protecting driveways
A secured driveway increases the overall level of protection of a property, as both the garage and the entrance are given additional protection. A gate can deter and delay intrusion, but it is no substitute for intrusion detection sensors.
Light barriers form a virtual perimeter line. If a person or vehicle passes this line, the alarm is triggered. They can be used in addition to the physical gate, or when access to the driveway is open. For garage protection, there are compact curtain sensors that detect people at the gate.
Doors and windows
With many intrusion detection systems, there are physical door and window contacts that will sound an alarm if forced open when the system is armed. However, these alarms are only triggered when the intruder has already passed the last barrier. The person could therefore still have enough time to steal car keys, wallets or bags before fleeing.
External sensors can be used to detect intruders already outside the house. Homeowners thus gain time for reactions that prevent the intrusion attempt.
Garden access
Intruders often target access to a property via because they are less visible to passers-by and residents. Fences and walls around the property form a physical barrier, but usually do not provide sufficient protection. The use of outdoor intrusion detection systems, on the other hand, is an accurate and reliable way to detect intruders.
Sensors can cover multiple access points. For example, they could be placed on a wall or fence to detect people climbing or jumping over. A proximity detector could cover a larger area or a narrow area on a wall. OPTEX offers a wide choice: low mount, high mount, pet tolerant, dual technology (PIR and microwave) for suitability in strong sunlight and fluctuating plants, detection angle narrow, 90°, 120° or 180°.
Indoor detection
OPTEX has led the way in indoor sensing technology and recently launched its new FlipX range. With the latest technology, FlipX allows the user to flip the lens from a wide angle to a curtain detection. Equipped with a unique pyroelectric element for increased accuracy and performance, FlipX provides superior pet tolerance to mitigate false alarms.
Good reasons for sensors
In view of almost daily media reports about video surveillance systems, the question is obvious why intrusion detectors should be used instead of cameras. Although the quality of cameras is constantly improving, there are still some difficulties with intrusion detection via video analysis. Changes in lighting conditions, changing shadows, inclement weather, insects crawling across the lens, falling leaves, etc. are all factors and elements that can affect video-based detection and lead to many false alarms. Unfavourable lighting conditions and lack of contrast at night or dusk can cause missed detections.
OPTEX has over 40 years of experience in developing outdoor sensors that are not affected by changing light conditions or inclement weather. The sensors have pet tolerance features and algorithms to analyse changes in environmental conditions. They are reliable and trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers around the globe.
