Starting on July 25th, 2011, OMNI ran the following ad on Houston’s local radio show, AM950,  during the Michael Berry program:

OMNI Shotgun offer – home security  <CLICK LINK to hear our radio commercial.

The ad offers a free shotgun with our ULTIMATE ALARM PACKAGE.  Yes, we are serious.  In today’s world, we feel like families have the right to protect their loved ones in their own homes against intruders.

Anyone who purchases the package will have to meet the State and Federal requirements of gun ownership in order to receive the shotgun.  If you’re interested, it is a Mossberg home defender type shotgun, 20 gauge, with a pistol grip.

Of course, if you want a home security system, and don’t care for the shotgun, we also offer other packages, less the shotgun.

We welcome your comments on our facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/OMNI-Fire-and-Security-Systems/246894465608?sk=wall

Texas Department of Public Safety
May 11, 2011

DPS warns of aggressive summer door to door alarm sales

The Texas Department of Public Safety is urging Texas residents to make sure that any alarm salesperson, company or alarm installer that they hire is licensed by the DPS Regulatory Services Division.

Historically, some alarm salespersons have aggressively marketed their services to residents in municipalities—primarily going door to door in neighborhoods. DPS is working with the alarm industry trade associations to provide information to citizens regarding licensed companies and individuals.

“If someone offering alarm-related services shows up at your door unsolicited, ask them for their DPS Private Security pocket card, which will also have their picture,” said Assistant Director RenEarl Bowie of the DPS Regulatory Services Division. “Do not accept any other form of identification as proof you are dealing with a licensed salesperson or installer.”

Alarm companies and installers must be licensed to operate legally in the state of Texas. The licensing process includes a criminal background check to help ensure the safety of the public.

To check whether a salesperson or installer is licensed in Texas, please visit the following link:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/psb/individual/individual_search.aspx

To check whether an alarm company is licensed in Texas, please visit the following link:

http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/psb/company/company_search.aspx

“Beware of aggressive tactics, or of someone trying to push you into making a decision immediately,” said Bowie. “We have had numerous complaints of substandard work and broken promises in these situations.”

In case you haven’t heard, there has been a rash of air conditioners being stolen and vandalized throughout Texas. I am hearing of these crimes on almost a daily basis now.

The crooks are stripping A\C units of their copper, while destroying and vandalizing the units. Often they are climbing on top of large one and two story buildings to find their targets. Endangering their own lives stripping out copper on live units with 220 volts and higher service.

Home and business owners are having to pay large sums to replace these units, even if they are insured, they are paying some healthy deductibles,

Is there an electronic deterrent for this criminal activity?

Yes! We have been protecting A\C units for many years, using one “old school” alarm solution, and, a very new high tech wireless solution. This is a reliable, stable system that has helped catch dozens of these crooks over the past 2 years.

Call today, and one of our estimators will come and survey your property and give you a free, no obligation estimate.

We provide affordable security systems for Houston homes and businesses.

For years there has been a missing piece in the electronic security industry. We can install cameras for our clients. We can also install alarm systems to detect intruders. They can certainly supplement each other.

But what happens when, particularly outdoors, an intruder is not in an area where there is alarm coverage, and we get footage that indeed shows theft or vandalism?

From time to time, a client will call and tell us: “We had an intruder in our storage yard, and we have video of him stealing/damaging our” (Fill in the blank). It gives us a sinking feeling. Now, our client, who spent a few hundred dollars on that camera, has a somewhat worthless video of someone committing the crime.

Sure, we could use the built in video motion sensor to email them photos of the event. But after a few videos of spiders crawling across the lens, lightning, wind blown objects, etc, the client will tire of being awakened at all hours by these common events. However, what if we have a live person from the monitoring center to respond to these events? Additionally, what if, every hour while the business is closed, we have an operator spend 10-15 minutes doing a virtual video tour of your facility, looking for unauthorized people or vehicles? They could also notify the client, a private guard response, or the police. Perhaps we could have them intervene using a voice\speaker system, and warn the intruders to leave before the damage was done? This would offer our clients much more value than simply providing a video after the incident.

We have developed very cost effective way of providing such a service that would cost up to 90% less than the cost of an on-site guard, along with our monitoring service providers and our equipment manufacturers. If you would like to be part of a test pilot program, for a limited time we will be offering this service at 50% off our regular pricing.

We can utilize the cameras you already have in place. With this new capability, you may wish to add cameras, and even upgrade to newer longer range night vision cameras.

Call today for a free consultation, and we will come out and discuss your situation. 281-591-1944.

Keywords: Texas, Houston, remote video, video guard patrol, CCTV, security cameras, virtual guard patrol.

What is the difference between dealing with the large national “mega” alarm companies and a local dealer like OMNI?

This is what our clients tell us:

1. They don’t like wading through touch tone phone menus to reach a person.

2. They prefer not to have a different tech come to their home \ office when they call for service.

3. They don’t want to get put off for weeks when calling in for service.
If you have an urgent issue, we can typically come out the same day.

4. If you check the BBB, most of the large corporate alarm companies have MANY complaints on file. We have none. We are A+ rated by the BBB. There is a reason for that.

The process for dispatching alarms is about to improve in Houston, Tx.

For the past 20 years or so, when an alarm was activated, the operator at the alarm monitoring center would verbally call in the alarm to the police dispatcher.   The dispatcher would input the alarm data into the police system, and then send out the call to a patrol car.

Beginning in January, 2011, this process will become automated.   The alarm dispatcher will still call the premise to rule out false alarms and give the client an opportunity to cancel.  This remains a crucial step in lowering false dispatches.  If the alarm is not cancelled, now the operator will electronically forward the dispatch information, including the address, permit number,  occupants name to the police dispatch center.

This will not only be a faster method of delivery, but, it will also greatly reduce the chance for errors in typing and also in hearing the information verbally through the telephone.  This should save both time and money for the police department, at a time when government money is really strapped.

Our hats go off to both the City of Houston and our monitoring center partner, United Central Control (UCC)  for being on the front wave of what will surely become a national trend.  This system is  already in place in Richmond Va and York, Va.  Our monitoring center (UCC)  made a considerable investment to be one of the pioneers to help develop this interface and introduce this technology to our clients.

For more information on our wide array of monitoring services,  please contact us at 281-591-1944.

Order up some pizza! Turn off the TV! Get the family together for a fire escape plan party!

Seriously, are your children safer at school than at home? Think about it, at school they probably have a monitored fire alarm, AND they practice exiting the building during fire on a regular basis.

When is the last time you did that at home? Have you tested your smoke detectors lately? Watch the short video below, then, gather your family for a discussion about it. Then take a few minutes to practice. Blindfolded? In a matter of seconds, visibility in a fire can become zero.

Here’s the challenge. Talk about what to do. Have a family discussion. Then wait about 2-3 minutes after everyone goes to bed. (Not TOO long.) Turn off all the lights. Then set off your smoke detectors. Watch what happens!

A long standing issue for capturing vehicle images at night has been the tendency of the headlights to overpower the imaging chip, leaving the end user with videos of a bright set of headlights, with little or none of the vehicle.

Solutions to this have been spotty and expensive. There is however, a new technology to address this, and this example is called “eclipse”. As you can see, it’s quite a difference, and best of all, it’s priced very competitively!

Special offer for the Houston area, replace an existing camera with a 2 week free trial! Call for pricing and installation.

My installers often tell me that they left the window decals with the client, as they wanted to put them up themselves.  Often the decals are never put up.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “I don’t want a bunch of advertising stuck on my windows” or “the stickers will make the crooks think I must have some really nice stuff to try to protect.”

I’ve seen reports in the trade magazines that suggest that a home  or office with alarm warning signs posted is up to sixteen times less likely to have a break-in than a propery without warning signs.  In fact, this research based on five years of study at Rutgers University in 2009 supports this thinking http://tinyurl.com/3xhbhff

Can you ignore those odds?

So, you ask, where should I put them?  For homes, I recommend  a visible window decal on every approach to the home, and at least one yard sign visible from the street.  Put yourself in their shoes.  Would you rather break into a property with alarm warning signs, or a property next door with no signs?

Tastefully placed on the bottom corner of a window, the decals really aren’t that much of a distraction, if any at all.

So if you need help placing your decals, or some new ones to replace sun faded ones, please call us at 281-591-1944 and we will send you some out! (This offer limited to OMNI clients)  Or if your decals are worn and faded, or, if you need a new yard sign, we’ll get you out a new one.

For commercial applications, or interested residents, we can also supply larger fence-mounted signs to help keep potential crooks from choosing your property.

A properly placed yard sign, or fence sign can make a would be burglar think twice about going into a property and getting caught.

Imagine, a futuristic alarm system, that has a built in video camera.  Anytime your alarm is activated, a ten second video clip is transmitted to the monitoring center, and emailed ot you.  The monitoring center views the video, if there is a person present, the dispatching process begins.

If there is no person present, no dispatch.  False alarms from pets and ballons; gone forever. 

When the police are called, they are advised that it has been video verified that someone is on the property.  This is now upgraded to a higher priority than a regular “blind” alarm call. 

While we are imagining, lets make all the motion cameras wireless, and, lets send all the alarm data and video via cell phone, a truly wireless system. Just for grins, lets give it two way voice communications between the detectors and the monitoring center.

Sound pretty cool?  The coolest part is, this is avaliable now!   Call today for a no obligation estimate.