This section provides answers to some of the most frequently asked questions around Solink Video Alarms.
How are alarms triggered?
Alarms use your existing camera infrastructure to detect motion during your business’ off-hours. You can configure a motion zone for each of your cameras, so only a specific part of a camera view is detecting motion.
Will Solink dispatch police when an alarm is triggered?
If you are subscribed to Solink's Video Alarms Monitoring Service, the following scenario can potentially lead to dispatching police:
When an alarm event is triggered, the Solink platform sends a video clip of the event that triggered the alarm to the monitoring service.
The monitoring service reviews the video and verifies whether or not there is suspicious activity at the location or if the alarm is a false alarm (not suspicious). If the video shows nothing suspicious, the alarm is canceled.
If the video is suspicious:
The monitoring service calls the primary alarm contact and sends them a text message with a video clip of the alarm event.
If the primary alarm contact informs the monitoring service that the police are required, the monitoring service immediately dispatches the police to the location.
If the primary alarm contact informs the monitoring service there is no problem and police are not required, the alarm is cancelled.
If the monitoring service does not receive a response from the primary alarm contact within 60 seconds:
The monitoring service sends a text message, including the video of the alarm event, to the two secondary alarm contacts.
If the monitoring service receives a response from the secondary or tertiary alarm contacts indicating that the police are required, the police are immediately dispatched.
If the monitoring service receives a response from either of the secondary alarm contacts indicating there is no problem and police are not required, the alarm is cancelled.
If the monitoring service does not receive a response from the secondary alarm contacts, the police are dispatched.
If you are not using Solink's Video Alarms Monitoring Service, the Solink platform sends a text message with video of an alarm event to the alarm contact(s) for the location. In this case, the responsibility for evaluating the situation and dispatching police for a location rests entirely with the alarm contact(s).
What does "video verification" mean?
Video verification refers to the ability to review video and determine whether or not an alarm event is suspicious. With Solink's video verification capabilities, customers can see what occurred at a location when an alarm is triggered and what is currently happening at the site.
How is an alarm administrator role configured?
A Solink representative enables the alarm administrator role. The individual who is assigned this role at your business is given access to the Alarms page and can set up an alarm system and configure additional settings.
What is the difference between an alarm contact and an alarm administrator?
An alarm contact receives important notification messages that contain links to a video alarm events whenever an alarm is are triggered.
Alarm administrators are able to configure the alarm system for a location, including specifying the alarm contact(s). Alarm administrators can configure an alarm schedule and set specific regions of interest for each camera to detect motion when the alarm system is armed.
A single person can be both an alarm administrator and an alarm contact, although there is no requirement for these roles to be performed by the same person.
How many alarm contacts can I have per location?
The number of alarm contacts you can assign to a location depends on which type of subscription you have.
If you are subscribed to the Self-Service Video Alarms service (all Solink users are subscribed to this service by default), you can assign one alarm contact for the alarm system. You can change the alarm contact whenever you wish.
If you are subscribed to the Video Alarms Monitoring Service, you can assign a primary alarm contact along with two secondary alarm contacts. These alarm contacts can be changed whenever you wish
What happens if the video verification service is offline and cannot respond to an alarm event?
If the video verification provider is unavailable in the event of a rare, unpredictable scenario, during which Solink detects an alarm event at your monitored location, the Solink alarms service instead sends a text message (including a link to video of the alarm event) to the primary alarm contact.
What happens if my location loses power or internet connectivity?
Solink video alarms require power and internet connectivity. Backup power should be provided for Solink's on-premise device, video cameras and any associated equipment.
Where are Alarm Events located?
Alarm Events are located on the Alarms page in the Solink platform. The image below displays the Recent Alarm Events tab within the Alarms page:
To learn more about Alarm Events, see Recent Alarm Events.
Note: If you are using the Solink app on a mobile device, there is an Alarms filter on the Events tab that will show alarm events.
How are users notified when an alarm is triggered?
Your alarm contact(s) receive an SMS text message for every alarm event detected by the system. These SMS messages include a link to a video recording of the alarm event, which allows your alarm contact(s) to review the video and determine whether or not to dispatch authorities.
With the Video Alarms Monitoring Service, alarm contacts are notified of alarms via text message and/or a phone call from the monitoring service. The monitoring service will review and ignore alarm events that are false or not suspicious. For more information about video monitoring services, see Video Verification for Alarms.
How do I arm and disarm the alarm?
You will likely want to use an alarm schedule to ensure your alarm system operates automatically. The alarm schedule automatically arms and disarms the alarm system based on the configured day and time. To learn more about alarm schedules, see Create a Schedule.
You can also manually arm or disarm the alarm. To learn more about manual arming and disarming, see Alarm FAQs.
How does Guest Access work?
The Guest Access feature allows authorized “guests” to change the alarm status via text message so they can access the location. You can configure guest access in Solink; once configured, the guest is immediately sent an SMS message that contains an access code which allows them to arm and disarm the alarm. Since the guest’s access code is stored in the text conversation, the guest is not required to remember their access code.
See Guest Access for more information.
What are the different offerings for the video alarms service?
There are currently two tiers of the video alarms service:
Self-Service Video Alarms: This is the default Video Alarms subscription offered to all Solink customers. You can assign one alarm contact to receive notifications of alarm events via SMS, push notifications and/or email whenever an alarm event triggers.
Video Alarms Monitoring Service: This service requires an additional subscription.
With the Video Alarms Monitoring Service, video alarms are reviewed by an agent to determine if an alarm is suspicious or not. If it is a false alarm, the monitoring service cancels it. Otherwise, the monitoring service sends the video to the alarm contact(s) and calls to discuss the situation. The alarm contact and the monitoring service jointly decide whether or not to send the police. For more information, see Video Verification for Alarms.