Two European standards sit behind any properly insurance-compliant monitored alarm. We've already covered the broader picture - system grades, encryption, and how DualCom/Redcare/LiveTalk compare - on alarm system grades, intruder alarm British Standards, and insurance-approved signalling. This page goes a level deeper, into the specific clauses those pages don't cover.
The two governing standards
- EN 50131-10 - covers the design and manufacture of the alarm's Digital Communicator (DigiCom), also called a Supervised Premises Transceiver (SPT): its housing, tamper protection, and documentation requirements.
- EN 50136-2 - covers the Alarm Transmission System (ATS) as a whole: how signals actually get from the property to the monitoring station, how failures are detected, and how fast they must be reported.
EN 50131-10 tamper protection
A DigiCom must trigger a tamper signal if its housing is opened, if it's removed from its mounting, or (where relevant) if a wire-free unit is taken off the wall. The exact sensitivity required depends on the system grade:
| Specification | Grade 3 | Grade 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Max. tamper detection distance | 5mm | 10mm |
| Test-tool dimension used to verify it | 1mm | 2.5mm |
Required product documentation
EN 50131-10 also specifies what documentation a compliant DigiCom must ship with, including: operating temperature and humidity range, weight and dimensions, fixing details, which parts are user-serviceable, interconnection types, terminal identification, current consumption, expected power-source lifetime, permitted power sources, storage device specification, and its programmable functions.
EN 50136-2 - the ATS glossary
The standard uses a specific set of abbreviations for each part of the signalling chain - worth knowing if you're reading a spec sheet or talking to an engineer:
- ARC - Alarm Receiving Centre (the monitoring station itself)
- AE - Annunciation Equipment (the display the ARC receives alerts on)
- ATE - Alarm Transmission Equipment (the DigiCom hardware)
- ATP - Alarm Transmission Path (the actual channel - e.g. GSM, VOIP)
- ATS - Alarm Transmission System (the complete system - hardware plus management software)
- ATSN - Alarm Transmission Service Network (the provider's server infrastructure)
- ATSP - Alarm Transmission Service Provider (the company operating the whole service)
- SPT - Supervised Premises Transceiver (the on-site DigiCom hardware)
- RCT - Receiving Centre Transceiver (the ARC's receiving hardware)
Transmission time requirements
EN 50136-2 sets exact transmission-time targets by grade - not just a single figure, but a mean, a 95th-percentile, and a hard maximum:
| Metric | DP3 | DP4 |
|---|---|---|
| Mean transmission time | 20 seconds | 10 seconds |
| 95th percentile | 30 seconds | 15 seconds |
| Maximum acceptable | 60 seconds | 30 seconds |
Path checking & fault reporting
Separately from transmission time, the standard also specifies how often each path is checked, and how fast a fault must be reported once found - two failed attempts are required before a path is treated as down:
| Requirement | DP3 | DP4 |
|---|---|---|
| Primary path checking interval | 3 minutes | 90 seconds |
| Alternative path checking interval | 25 hours | 5 hours |
| Critical (all-paths) failure reporting | 6 minutes | 3 minutes |
AMCO's own installations are built around these requirements - if you'd like it explained for your specific system, our Texecom specialists can talk you through it, or see our CSL DualCom installation guide for how this is implemented in practice.