Alarm Services
11 October, 2023
NOW-IP is the emerging digital alarm protocol for group living accommodations in the UK. What is NOW-IP and how can group livings benefit from it? Read our blogpost to find out!
NOW-IP is an IP communications protocol for social alarm systems optimized for group living environments. It is based on the British standard BS8521-2:2020 and addresses the need for an openly defined standard for information and control exchange between social alarm equipment and alarm receiving centers (ARC) over a public or private IP network. NOW-IP is only relevant in the UK market.
In the increasingly expanding and fragmented telecare market with new players entering, it is of utmost importance to ensure compatibility between different systems that are critical for people’s wellbeing and life.
NOW-IP provides the common signaling protocol ensuring that social alarm systems from different manufacturers exchange essential information and controls in a compatible manner.
Complying with the NOW-IP standard enables solution providers to offer a modern, reliable and secure alarm and voice communication service for group living environments.
It brings a number of benefits, such as:
A group living is an accommodation that provides independent living for persons (often elderly) who require additional measures to secure their safety and wellbeing.
Social alarm systems for group livings must be designed to support multiple users sharing a common social alarm infrastructure. Usually, these systems contain multiple local units (sensors, devices etc) that are connected to a single control unit. Other deployment alternatives may exist, however.
The NOW-IP protocol is specifically designed for transmission of alarms, faults, control signals and communications monitoring in the group living environment, and enables communication of:
iotcomms.io provides a cloud-native communication platform for critical alarm, voice, and video communication services. We have long experience and deep knowledge in real-time alarm communication, and specifically the challenges when migrating from analog-based alarm communication to IP-based.
The cloud-based platform serves as an independent link between the group living’s control unit and the ARC and takes care of the alarm communication between the two ends.
The platform’s Alarmbridge service supports a wide range of analog and digital alarm protocols (e.g. NOW-IP BS8521-2:2020, SCAIP TS50134-9/CENELEC, BS8521:2009, SIA), and with its protocol conversion capability it ensures that providers easily can offer NOW-IP compliant alarm communication.
The protocol conversion enables alarm communication to seamlessly interwork across different protocols and allows a more open and vendor-independent telecare environment.
Modern CPaaS built cloud-native from ground up – we run the operations for you so you can focus on your customers’ experience.
Built for mission critical alarm, voice & video services – delivering superior reliability, security and availability.
Built with serverless functions in AWS for unlimited scale, reach and global deployment – extend to new markets quick and easy.
