“If it doesn’t hear from them, it sends an alarm message in the form of a relay output that can be put onto any control panel,” he says.

While wireless devices are more expensive than wired, labour costs are lower, says Jarman. For a 200-square-foot distribution centre with 140 sensors, for example, he estimates it would cost $34,400 to install a hardwired system, while the Inovonics system would be $21,800.

Many businesses are finding that their existing security system, designed solely for interior detection, is not enough, says Jarman. With an add-on receiver, a client can add a perimeter beam around the edge of a property. Outdoor wireless systems are being used in supply compounds, at cell towers, and at any site where the danger of electrocution makes it important to detect someone before they get over a fence.

Inovonics transmitters are put into infrared-based beamed detection devices, made by Optex, and mounted outdoors, around the perimeter of the property. The technology of the perimeter beam is very good, Jarman says.

“Optex and we and a lot of dealers are gaining a great a deal of confidence in their efficacy to detect someone penetrating the property.”

Sometimes, wide range radio technology is the right option simply because it can go where wired systems cannot. That was the situation in a commercial area of Albuquerque, N.M., where storeowners often arrive in the morning to find their electrical systems gone. But then, the security company of one store, Accent Southwest Windows and Doors, installed Inovonics devices inside the outside utility box, and thefts at the store stopped completely.

“We added the switches inside the enclosures, and as soon as someone tries to tamper with the enclosure — even before they can begin to cut the wire — we’re getting a signal. And that signal is being transmitted to our central monitoring station so that our officers can be begin responding,” says Dave Meurer, president of Armed Response Team.

With the wireless devices, they overcame the main problems they faced with a wired system: mixed voltage and the need to drill through the steel enclosures. After testing many wireless products, they selected Inovonics, mostly because of the range of the transmission signal, says Meurer.

“It’s not a line-of-sight situation; it’s inside a steel enclosure, so you have to make sure you have an adequate signal strength to get that message to connect back to an alarm receiver inside the building,” he says.

Wilson says Sonitrol is producing better and faster video transmitters, as well as stronger audio sensors, while Meurer describes the Inovonics wireless as the “game-changer” in his search to devise an alarm. That’s good news as copper theft is likely to continue — at least until metal prices go down. And right now, there’s no sign of that.