ALARM SYSTEM PROVIDING WIRELESS VOICE COMMUNICATION

• US 20120231758A1
• Filed: 05/18/2012
• Published: 09/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tyco Fire & Security GmbH (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Original Assignee: Tyco Safety Products Canada Limited (Johnson Controls International plc)
• Inventors: Sharma, Raman Kumar, Bogarin, Francisco
• Granted Patent: US 8,933,803 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/08 using communication transmission lines G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems

Abstract

An alarm system includes one or more audio stations, and an audio station network interface. The audio stations communicate wirelessly with the audio station network interface. The audio station network interface communicates with a monitoring center over a cellular network, to allow audio monitoring of the premises at the audio stations. The audio station network interface may be called by the monitoring center. Calls may optionally be placed by it in response to user interaction with one of the audio stations.

Claims

1. A method of processing an alarm at a premises, the method comprising:

sensing said alarm at a premises;

signalling said alarm from said premises to a monitoring center;

from the monitoring center establishing a cellular network call to a network to audio monitoring station interface at a cellular network address, at the premises;

establishing a radio channel from said network to audio monitoring station interface to at least one audio station at the premises, said audio station comprising at least one of speaker and a microphone, and bridging said radio channel to said cellular network call to establish an audio channel from said at least one audio interface to said monitoring center.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selectively establishing said radio channel from said network audio interface to a selected one of a plurality of audio monitoring stations at the premises.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a control signal from said monitoring station to said network to audio monitoring station to activate said at least one audio station.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said cellular network comprises a GSM network.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said control signal comprises a GPRS data signal.

6. An alarm system at a monitored premises, comprising:

a control panel;

a plurality of sensors in communication with said control panel, each of said sensors for sensing a monitored alarm condition;

a plurality of audio stations, each of said audio stations comprising at least one of a speaker and a microphone; and

a radio transceiver;

an audio station network interface, comprising a radio for communicating with a cellular communications network; and

a radio transceiver for establishing a radio channel with at least one of said plurality of audio stations, said radio transceiver and said radio interconnected to bridge said radio channel to a call over said cellular communications network.

7. The alarm system of claim 6, wherein said audio station network interface, further comprises control logic to activate a selected one of said plurality of audio stations in response to commands received over said cellular communications network.

8. The alarm system of claim 6, wherein said audio station network interface is operable to receive cellular network calls over said cellular communications network.

9. The alarm system of claim 8, wherein said radio transceiver of each of said plurality of audio stations comprises a spread spectrum radio transceiver.

10. The alarm system of claim 8, wherein said radio comprises a GSM network radio.