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Hi, DIYers.
Joe here from Alarm Grid.
And today we're going to talk about the difference
between Proprietary and Free and Clear alarm systems.
Now, if you are in the market for an alarm system,
you're going to notice that there's
tons and tons of different systems available,
and there's lots of different companies
that are in the alarm market.
Proprietary systems, in most cases,
can only be used with the company that
has manufactured them.
In most cases, they have their own monitoring service set-up.
They are the only company that's able to provide tech support
for the system, and any other service
that is with the particular system
is usually funneled through them--
being proprietary.
The downside to this is that in most cases,
these proprietary systems, they can't be used with other alarm
monitoring services.
They're very difficult for other alarm companies
to troubleshoot them or provide tech support for them.
And in many cases, they're not able to use different alarm
devices from other manufacturers.
This can create a big problem in the future
if you do want to try to take the system
and activate it with another alarm company.
We've seen that.
Many of our customers who have come to us
with one of these systems, they get-- and understandably so--
frustrated when they find out that their system
that they paid for isn't able to be monitored by another alarm
company.
This isn't to say anything bad about the particular system
or the service.
It's just it reduces the amount of options
that you'll have as an end user with your alarm system.
A Free and Clear alarm system, on the other hand,
can be monitored by different alarm companies.
In many cases, they can use different devices
made by other manufacturers or third party manufacturers.
A lot of times, as the information is widely available
for them and they're used by many different companies,
troubleshooting and finding troubleshooting service
for the systems can be easier.
And also, the systems that are able to be monitored
by many different companies, they
can have remote troubleshooting and remote diagnostics
run on them from the alarm company remotely.
These systems-- having that flexibility
to move from one company to another,
it not only gives you more options
when you run into a company that you don't want to work with,
or if you want to go to another alarm monitoring company,
but as time goes forward into the future,
it gives the panel more of a lifespan.
Because it's not relying on that one particular proprietary--
or the one particular company--
to monitor it and provide services
for it, which you will have on a proprietary system.
All the systems that we sell here at Alarm Grid,
they work on either the Honeywell server, which
is the AlarmNet service; the Alarm.com service, which
is called Alarm.com; or they can use the Telguard cellular unit.
What the Telguard is, it's a third party device
that you can attach to most alarm systems,
and it gives them a cellular communication
to a central station.
And they also have a remote app that you can use with that.
The Telguard is a nice unit, because you
can attach it to most alarm systems that
do have a POTS connection.
And if you do have an older system in your house
and you do want to get that cellular monitoring on it,
the Telguard is likely going to be your best option if there's
no current compatible cellular communicator for that system.
Just to go over some examples of what these Free and Clear
systems look like, behind me I have a whole bunch of systems
mounted on the board.
They use different services such as-- the Honeywell
VISTA over here uses the AlarmNet server,
whereas the IQ2, made by QOLSYS, this
uses the Alarm.com service.
But even though they use different services,
as they're open and free alarm systems,
I can take it as an end user from one alarm
monitoring company to another alarm monitoring company,
as long as they are--
as long as there are dealers for these particular systems.
Another benefit to the Free and Clear systems
is that as the companies that make
them know that they're going to be out
and being used for many, many, many years, in most cases,
these systems also have firmware updates available for them
that continually come out.
They're supported by the companies that do make them.
And you'll find that as opposed to a free system, which
is made for a particular market, and it's
just as it is, these systems, as time goes on,
they're still supported by their manufacturers.
And you're going to get a lot more use in life out of them.
Here at Alarm Grid, we do prefer Free and Clear systems,
because those are the systems that we are able to monitor.
And even with selling systems, we only
will sell those systems to any customers,
as we want them to have the ability to go to any monitoring
company that they choose.
Those are the biggest differences
between Free and Clear and Proprietary alarm systems.
Thanks for watching.
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Again, we hope you enjoyed the video, and have a great day.
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