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Hi, everyone. My name is Paul Romanelli from Suffolk Security Systems. We are the premier security alarm company on the North Fork of Long Island. Our business covers mostly the North Fork, Shelter Island, and the South Fork, primarily the East End of Long Island. We've seen a tremendous amount of growth and change out here in the North Fork, and with that comes a lot of unique experiences and things that we see that are different from other parts of the country on what people need for protection.

 

Of course, there's a big second homeowner market out here, lots of clients that have homes in New Jersey or New York City or Connecticut and come down to the East End of Long Island, the North Fork, to experience the summers and falls here and have a second home.

 

We're fortunate that not everybody has a fire in their home and not everybody a burglary in their home, but sooner or later, everybody has a heating system failure. Believe it or not, it is our number one alarm call out here. And when that happens, no matter what your fuel is, it could be disastrous. We've seen homes where frozen pipes have done far more damage than anything a fire or a burglar would ever do in a home and can cause significant damage.

 

Furthermore, because of the second homeowner market and the increased value of homes out here, a lot of insurance companies today are requiring temperature monitoring at a second home and sometimes even water shutoff alarms, which we work with as well. That's why all of our systems that we install include low temperature monitoring.

 

Some other things that we look at here on the North Fork that are important when we're assessing a home for security or surveillance is the fact that we live in a really salt air environment. The products that we use around the house and particularly the exterior of the house really need to be able to take the weather, right? We've all seen corrosion from salt air out here, and that's important. Our cameras are protected from that. We make sure that anything we install is sealed properly so we don't get moisture or problems with any of the products that we install.

 

For those of you that have homes on the North Fork and frequent out here as a second homeowner, we really pay close attention to what your needs are and what your concerns are. One thing that North Forkers enjoy out here is the ability to control their home remotely from anywhere. And I'm not just talking about a door lock, but all things around the home. And the new products from Resideo under the Honeywell home brand does incorporate a lot of different products that you can control remotely.

 

So you can arm and disarm your alarm system. That's a natural. You can allow somebody else to go in. You can add and delete user codes. All the things that a typical security system can do on a keypad, you can do remotely on an app on your phone. Whether it's an Android phone or an Apple phone, it's easily handled.

 

But it goes further than that. There are cameras that you can view remotely. So you want to look at the outside of your home and see if the driveway needs to be plowed or if the landscapers showed up to clean up before Memorial Day, or if you have a pet at home that you leave, you can have an indoor camera to keep an eye on your pet with a microphone and speaker, so you can even talk through the cameras as well. There are thermostats, of course. That is super popular with us. We sell hundreds of thermostats a year for remote access, integrate them with the alarm systems, door locks, and lighting.

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The one product in here, there's a technology called Z-Wave that is integrated into the system, and that allows other manufacturers to integrate with the system. So you can have one app that controls everything, from garage doors to locks to lighting in your home, and a host of other things including sprinkler irrigation. So you can take this product as far or as simple as you want it to be. You could start with none of those features and add them over time if you feel they're necessary. So there's really a great functionality to it.

 

Over 80%, closer to 90% of false alarms are user error. Our belief really is that any system we put in should be seamless. You shouldn't have to think about it. It should be easy for you to turn on and off, it should be easy for others to be able to use, and it shouldn't give you any real hassles at all. Whenever we install a system, we spend a good solid hour with you making sure you fully understand how the system works, how to prevent false alarms, and how to move forward in a way that's going to make the system easy for you to maintain and monitor without issue. We went as far as even working with our local police department here in Southold town to rebuild and recreate the security alarm permit that you must have for your home. That alone helps reduce false alarms and maintains systems properly.

 

Just to give you an example of a scene that you can create, so you can automate things in your home to make things easier. In my own home, personally, at night, every night at sunset, which is calculated every day for the change in times, my outdoor lights come on. We know the house is safe on the exterior. We can see things going on at a certain time every night. Our locks in our home automatically lock, so everybody's safe and in the home. And of course, if somebody has to come in, they have a code to get back in the house.

 

We can create simple scenes. I'm going to give you an example of one scene here that I simply labeled and called "nighttime". So at night, I want my doors to lock. I want my lights to come on. I want my security system to arm. And by simply activating that scene, which I just did, you'll see... You'll hear those doors lock. You'll see the lights come on. And the alarm system is arming. It's in an exit delay now, so it still gives somebody time to get out of the home if they need to. And when I come back in or in the morning, I want to turn that alarm off, I can do the same thing with the scene. Very simple. Or I can select that scene and I can do it from my phone, remotely again, or manually from the keypad which I'm doing here. And that scene in the morning will turn the lights off, unlock the doors, and turn the alarm off in the home.

 

Now, those scenes can be completely customized by you, which is fantastic because you can set it up that when you arm the system to "away", it will lower thermostats, it'll turn off lights, it'll do all sorts of things that you want it to do to make sure that your home is secure. And not only that, but you could also turn on a feature called geofencing, and you can set the distance so when you pull away from your home, if you forgot to turn your alarm system on, your phone will remind you and say, "Hey, did you want to turn that alarm on? You've left." And it'll know. It also has features to make it even easier in today's world, where we're so concerned about COVID and spreading germs, where you can have touch-free arming and disarming. So only on your phone that you can arm and disarm the system, you never have to touch a keypad, or you can enable Bluetooth arming as well.

 

Total Connect has been around since 2007. We were one of the first people to start introducing it in the United States and the product's come a long way and we'll continue to support it. On top of that, everything we install is backed up with our UL-rated central station. It is a 24/7 operation where we handle thousands of signals every day in that central station. And there's never someone asleep at the wheel there, you can be assured.

 

I'd really like to thank you for taking the time to listen to me today, and I hope you learned a little bit about my company and alarm systems that are available to you here on the North Fork. There's plenty of information available on our website. You can call us at (631) 765-5262, or email us directly at info@suffolksecurity.com.

 

We're always here to help and answer any questions at all about security systems and give you our perspective on what's available and what we can do to help your home or business stay safe.

 

Thanks very much.