An alarm that nobody answers is a noise complaint.
That sounds blunt, but it is the whole decision. Detection is largely solved. Sensors are reliable and cheap. What separates one arrangement from another is what happens in the minutes after a sensor trips, and whether anybody competent is involved.
Here is the short version. You have three realistic options. Self-monitoring sends you a notification. Back to base monitoring puts a person in the loop. Video verified monitoring puts a person in the loop who can see what is happening and act on it. The right choice depends on what an incident costs you and how fast anyone could realistically respond.
The three arrangements, honestly described
Self-monitored
The panel sends a push notification to a phone, usually yours.
What it genuinely gives you: immediate awareness at no ongoing cost, and full control.
Where it fails: at 3am, on silent, in a meeting, overseas, or when the phone is flat. It also puts you personally in the position of deciding whether to attend a site where someone may be present, which is a decision no business owner should be making at 3am alone.
Who it suits: low-value, low-risk sites where the owner lives nearby and the realistic worst case is modest.
Back to base
Activations go to a monitoring centre staffed around the clock. An operator follows a documented procedure: attempt contact, verify against the call list, escalate as agreed, request police or a patrol where the criteria are met.
What it genuinely gives you: a trained person acting on a documented process, 24 hours a day, whether or not you are awake.
Where it fails: the operator usually cannot see what is happening. They are working from signal data, which means genuine activations and false ones look similar at the point of decision.
Who it suits: most commercial sites. It is the baseline for anything with stock, equipment or data worth taking.
Video verified
Activations arrive at the monitoring centre with live vision attached. An operator watches the event, decides in seconds whether the threat is real, and responds accordingly. That response can include speaking to the person on site through a horn speaker before anything is taken.
What it genuinely gives you: a verified decision instead of a probabilistic one, far fewer unnecessary callouts, and the option to intervene while an incident is still preventable.
Where it fails: it costs more, and it requires cameras positioned to actually see the detection zones. Retrofitting it to a camera layout designed for recording rather than verification sometimes requires repositioning.
Who it suits: sites that are empty for long periods, sites with high-value or easily removed stock, and sites where a patrol callout is expensive or slow.
The question that decides it
Not “how much does monitoring cost”. This one:
How long would it take anyone to notice, and what happens in that time?
A pharmacy discovered at 7am has had a night. A distribution site discovered on Monday has had a weekend. A self-storage facility with no staff on site has nobody to discover anything at all, which is exactly why the Moorabbin site we secured runs live monitoring across 120-plus AI cameras with fifteen network horn speakers, so operators can intervene verbally before an incident escalates. That is described in full in the self storage case study.
Work out your realistic discovery window. Then ask what the site loses inside it. The answer usually makes the decision obvious.
What “monitored” should mean, and how to check
The word monitored is used loosely. There is an objective standard behind it.
Australian Standard AS 2201.2 covers intruder alarm monitoring centres. The Australian Security Industry Association Limited has run an independent grading scheme against it since 1990, and graded centres are independently audited on a regular basis rather than inspected once. The standard covers the centre’s construction, ventilation, power supply, communications, and operations and staffing.
The standard itself moved on recently. Since 25 March 2024, new grading applications and renewals require the 2022 version, AS 2201.2:2022, rather than the 2004 edition.
That matters because a monitoring centre is a single point of failure. If it loses power, loses its communications path, or is understaffed at 3am on a public holiday, your alarm is decorative.
Ask your provider three questions: which monitoring centre receives your signals, whether that centre is ASIAL graded, and which version of AS 2201.2 it was graded against. All three should be answered without hesitation.
Source: ASIAL Monitoring Centre Grading Scheme.
Comparing the three, side by side
| Self-monitored | Back to base | Video verified | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides | You | Trained operator | Trained operator with live vision |
| Available at 3am | If you wake | Yes | Yes |
| Can see what triggered it | Only if you open the app | Usually not | Yes |
| Can intervene before loss | No | Indirectly, via dispatch | Yes, including audio warning |
| False activation handling | You decide, every time | Procedure based | Resolved visually in seconds |
| Ongoing cost | None | Monthly | Monthly, higher |
| Realistic failure mode | Phone missed | Cannot see the event | Cameras not positioned to verify |
The false alarm problem, which nobody quotes for
False activations are the hidden running cost of an unverified system.
Every one of them consumes an operator’s time, sometimes a patrol attendance, and a measure of everyone’s attention. Over time they do something worse: they train the people on your call list to assume the next one is also nothing.
Video verification addresses this directly, because the operator can see within seconds whether a sensor was triggered by an intruder, a spider, a delivery driver or a door left unlatched by a cleaner. That is the practical argument for verification, and it is more persuasive than the security argument for most buyers.
Common objections
“We have cameras already, so we do not need monitoring.” Cameras record. Unless someone is watching at the moment it matters, footage is evidence rather than prevention. Those are different purchases solving different problems.
“Monitoring is a lock-in contract.” Some are. Ask directly. Forever Secure bills monitoring monthly with no lock-in, and design and install is quoted separately per site.
“Our staff would notice.” During trading hours, probably. The exposure is the hours when nobody is there, which for most commercial sites is the majority of the week.
“We are too small to need it.” Size is the wrong measure. Replacement cost, downtime and discovery window are the right ones. A small practice with specialist equipment can lose more in one night than a large warehouse with low-value stock.
“Will it work with the system we already have?” Frequently yes. Monitoring can often be added to an existing panel and existing cameras, which is usually cheaper than replacing either.
A decision framework
Answer these five, in order.
- How many hours a week is the site unattended? Under 40, self-monitoring may be defensible. Over 100, it is not.
- What is the realistic loss from one bad night? Include stock, equipment, downtime, data and the cost of not trading.
- How long before someone would notice? Be honest, including weekends and public holidays.
- Who is on the call list at 3am, and will they actually attend? If the answer is you, and you would not attend alone, that is an argument for verified dispatch.
- Do the cameras already see the detection zones? If yes, verification is an upgrade rather than a rebuild.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between back to base and monitored? In practice they are used interchangeably in Australia. Both describe activations being sent to a staffed monitoring centre rather than only to your phone.
Does monitoring guarantee police attendance? No. Police attendance depends on criteria including verification, and dispatch is not automatic. The dispatch chain is explained in detail in what has to happen before police are dispatched.
Can I have both app notifications and monitoring? Yes, and most commercial clients do. You stay informed while an operator handles the response.
Do I need new cameras for video verification? Not always. What matters is whether the existing cameras cover the detection zones with enough image quality to make a decision from.
What happens if the internet drops? Ask how the panel communicates and whether there is a secondary path. Communication redundancy is part of what the monitoring centre grading assesses, but the path from your site to the centre matters as well.
Where to start
The choice between these three is really a choice about what you want to happen at 3am. Awareness, a process, or an intervention.
FS Vision adds live human monitoring to the cameras and alarms already on site. Operators verify events as they happen, warn intruders through site speakers where that is appropriate, and escalate when it is not. Assessment is free and carries no obligation, design and install is quoted per site, and monitoring is billed monthly with no lock-in.
Book an FS Vision assessment or call 1300 232 152.
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