Surprisingly, the jobsite has a significant bearing on the conditions of installation. The main issues include:

Most important of all are Jobsite Safety Rules. Construction areas are accident prone. Hard hats, steel toed shoes, and careful behavior all contribute to a safe workplace. Maintenance of headroom in work areas, tying off belts when working above, and other safety considerations also help to prevent accidents. Each jobsite has its own rules. It is best to observe them all.

Operationally, it is astonishing how many points of coordination are required to successfully complete a security system project. No other system has as many points of coordination with other trades as an integrated security system. Trades to coordinate with may include:

Additionally, as the project nears completion and it begins to be occupied, any work that requires access may need access permissions. It is important to place high consideration on coordination to complete a successful installation.

Many new installers forget that they must have a safe place to store their goods on site. You will have to provide one or more lockboxes to keep tools and materials stored safely. These in turn will need to be stored in a secure location.

Keeping work areas clean goes a long way in maintaining a safe and secure work area as well as enhancing the reputation of the integrator on the jobsite and with the client.

Conduit is expensive, so it would seem to make a lot of sense to eliminate it whenever possible, right? But that is not always the case. Generally, security system cabling should be contained within conduit. Why? Because in most cases, integrated security systems are mission-critical systems, and cables that are not within conduit are frequently damaged by workmen working on other systems. Conduit prevents damage to security system cables.

When running bare cables above a ceiling, in most cases these must be plenum rated cables in order to comply with fire codes. These cables are much more expensive than standard cables. So yes, you can save some money by not using conduit, but you run the risk of reducing system reliability in the process.

We have already discussed the need to observe the way security devices interact with their environment, such as mounting card readers to a steel building in a way that will not cause them to overheat. This is one of many device installation considerations that are “not in the manual.” Here are some other examples:

These are just a few cautions about device installations. As you talk with “old timers” who have been installing systems for many years, you will learn even more.

Proper documentation is essential to a good quality installation and to the installer's profitability. Every single decision about where and how to mount wire devices throughout the entire facility is an engineering decision, and they will be made either by a qualified engineer or by a guy with a screwdriver in his hand. You cannot buy a more expensive engineer than a guy with a screwdriver!

I have been to sites where the same circuit was wired four different ways on different floors of the building, because there were no design drawings and each installer used his own ideas about how to implement the idea. In that case they used different parts, which they each left the jobsite to go to buy on their own (four times the cost for acquisition), and different wiring, making the same circuit much more difficult to troubleshoot when failures occur.

Additionally, no matter what the situation, good as-built documentation is critical to be able to maintain a successful working system. Pity the poor technician who arrives at a complex facility to troubleshoot a problem with no system drawings available.

After installing and wiring devices system testing begins. The first step is to test connectivity. Does every device show up on the computer or monitoring panel to which it is connected? Do all alarm-sensing devices show all four alarm states? Do all locks work? Do all Request-to-Exit devices unlock the doors? Do all card readers work with a sample card?

Additionally, the following work should be performed:

To do this type of testing, send a worker around to every alarm sensor and door and have him exercise the device while observing its operation on the Alarm/Access Control System workstation. Once the operation of every device in the system is confirmed, you can move on to Database Setup.

Most alarm-sensing devices should be set up on a schedule such that they are armed at some times and bypassed at other times. The schedule should be set up in close coordination with the system owner/operator.

Many access control readers also operate on a schedule providing for the door to be under access control some times and unlocked at others.

The primary database is the User Access Database. This includes a record on all access users in the system (everyone who will have an access credential). Each record in the User Access Database will include fields for Name (First/Middle Initial/Last), Title (Mr./Ms./Mrs./Jr./PhD/MD, etc.), address, city, state, zip, organization the user is related to, department, access level, and other pertinent data.

Most users are not granted unlimited access everywhere 24/7/365. They are usually granted access to a limited number of doors and only during certain hours. There are two ways to program access privileges for users. The first way is to program each user individually to specific doors and to specific times. The second way is much more effective — assign individual users to one or more User Groups. For example:

Then, assign individual doors to the Access Area groups corresponding to their areas and functions, for example, Building 1, Department X. After that, you simply assign User Groups to Access Area groups.