The Electronic Call Handling Operations (ECHO) digital service was launched at the CSL Industry Forum at the Informa Building, the home of IFSEC, in London last week.
Launched around the campaign ‘Go Digital, Get ECHO’, the directors and partners of the project spoke to an audience of installers, alarm receiving centres (ARCs), police, and insurers. The aim; to deliver a central, automated electronic call handling service. That’s intended to reduce the pressure on the emergency services and ARCs by reducing call handling times, and errors that can occur from a manual response.
The launch focused on the growing demands on police control rooms and the need to ensure the security industry keeps pace with change and to meet the deadline of April 2020. Then some police forces will prioritise digital alarm signals that meet National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC, formerly ACPO) security systems requirements.
After due diligence involving both technical and operational scrutiny by ECHO Directors and others in the sector, AVR Group will partner with ECHO to deliver the service.
David Wilkinson, Director, said: “ECHO is a modern, proven and highly effective technology, backed by leading industry bodies. Currently, the speed, quality and volume of alarm calls varies significantly, and delays to calls being answered can have serious consequences. History shows that mistakes can be made by both parties, with telephone alarm messages being misheard or misunderstood, so adopting ECHO will go a long way to streamlining and evolving the process.”
ECHO plan to promote the service at events across the UK.
About ECHO
The industry initiative is led by the fire and security trade bodies BSIA, FSA and FIA whom are all directors of the business. Echo is also supported by other industry bodies: NSI, SSAIB, JSaRC, BAFE, British APCO, NFCC and NPCC. Visit www.echo.uk.net.
