​This week we’re sharing some new reports, a new video, a reminder that you should never sign a long-term contract for fire alarm monitoring, and a few other updates.

​A couple of newsletters ago, we mentioned that we were developing a range of new reports that incorporate floor plans where they’re available.

The example below shows one of the new reports, displaying the detectors that have changed state between two points in time, along with the relevant details for each detector.

We think these reports will be particularly useful for annual surveys, commissioning and general troubleshooting. As always, we’d welcome any feedback on them and ideas for how you’d like to see them used.

We’re not currently the largest fire alarm monitoring company in New Zealand, but we are the fastest growing. We believe that’s down to the service we provide, and the time, energy, and money that we reinvest back into providing new solutions and features for customers and the wider fire industry.

Our contract terms are deliberately simple and fair: a three-month minimum term and a three-month cancellation period. That’s it.

We’d rather customers stay with us because of the value and service we provide than because we’ve locked them into a long-term contract.

We’ve become aware that one of our competitors is locking in customers on extremely long term multi-year contracts. If they were innovating in any way other than how to charge their customers more money that could be explained, but they’re not. They’re also nearly always more expensive than us.

All but one of the fire alarm monitoring providers in New Zealand offer terms broadly similar to ours. So if you’re not currently with AFAM and your provider asks you to sign a long-term contract, just say no.

There’s simply no need to lock yourself in. Migrating to AFAM is free, and you’ll generally be financially better off as well.

Before you sign a multi-year contract, talk to us first.

​Anastasia and Becka have put together a short introduction video. You may have already seen it on LinkedIn, but if not, click on the image below to have a look.

​As mentioned in our last newsletter, Fire NZ 2026 is being held in Christchurch from 8–10 September.

Anastasia and Kieron will be attending the conference as delegates, while the rest of the team will be visiting the trade show at various points throughout the event. If you’d like to catch up with anyone from the team, just let us know.

We also enjoy showing people around our Christchurch office and giving them a first-hand look at how we’re set up, what we’re working on and what we have in development.

Our office is only about a 15-minute drive from the Fire NZ venue. If you’d like to visit while you’re in Christchurch, let us know and we’ll put the kettle on.

​Our post a couple of newsletters ago generated a few questions about the 3D spatial building models we’ve been working on.

As a reminder over the past few months we've been quietly exploring ways to transform our existing two-dimensional floor plans into fully interactive 3D building models, with every detector accurately positioned using latitude, longitude and elevation coordinates. 

Traditionally, creating models like this requires every detector to be individually surveyed using GPS or laser measurement equipment, making the process both time-consuming and expensive. We've developed a much faster and lower cost approach that derives the 3D model directly from the existing floor plans.

If you click on the image below you’ll see a short video of a model of a real multi-storey building in Wellington rendered in 3D space.

The questions we received were mainly about how the models could actually be used.

The 3D rendering itself, while interesting to look at, isn’t something we see having much practical application on its own. Where we see the real potential is using the underlying model to enable other functionality, particularly augmented reality applications.

For example, a technician could point a phone running the AFAM AlarmTech App at a ceiling and instantly see the detector above them, along with its current status, history and other relevant information through an augmented reality overlay.

Another potential application could be for FENZ. Imagine being able to see which detectors have activated inside a building before deciding whether and where to enter. This could be particularly useful when responding to false alarms.

While that might sound a little far-fetched, developing what we already have to provide this type of functionality isn’t actually a giant leap into uncharted territory. Much of the underlying technology would already be in place.

For now, there’s limited demand for this type of functionality, so it will remain in our ‘future development’ pile. But we’re always looking ahead. If customer needs change, we’ll already have much of the technology required to make it possible.

Over the next fortnight, members of the AFAM team will be visiting Auckland, Dunedin, Hamilton, Wellington, Invercargill, and Christchurch. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks!

If you’d like to arrange a meeting, grab a coffee, book a demonstration or discuss how AFAM can provide greater visibility across your fire alarm portfolio, we’d love to catch up.

​In our next newsletter, we’ll share more of what we’ve been working on and what’s happening around AFAM.

​This week we’re sharing an update on the next-generation CTU, along with a few other things happening around AFAM.

The electrical and manufacturing design of our new CTU is now complete, and we’ve ordered the first pre-production prototypes of the final design for testing. 

We expect to have these within the next month and, once we’ve completed our in-house testing, we’ll move into field trials shortly afterwards.

The image below shows a render of the new CTU.

While you’ll notice we’ve carried over some of the layout and concepts from our current CTU, the new design is quite different. It uses a two-board architecture, with a main board containing the common components and a mezzanine board carrying the display and optional components.

We already have several mezzanine board variants designed to support different installation types and provide different expansion capabilities.

As a reminder, the new CTU will give us the platform to deliver features and functionality that simply aren’t possible with our current hardware.

Key enhancements include:

• A significantly more powerful processor for faster performance and greater capability.
• Bluetooth connectivity for direct access through the AlarmTech App, making commissioning and troubleshooting much easier onsite.
• Multiple general-purpose outputs, extending the CTU’s capabilities beyond monitoring.
• Networking capability, allowing multiple CTUs to work together and enabling entirely new functionality.
• Analogue inputs for devices such as pressure sensors, temperature sensors and other monitoring applications, including sprinkler systems.

​Fire NZ 2026 is being held in Christchurch from 8–10 September.

​We won’t have a stand at the trade show this year, but you’ll see members of the AFAM team there as delegates and visiting the exhibition.

If you’re attending and would like to catch up, feel free to contact Anastasia or our office. And if you’d like to visit our office and meet the team while you’re in Christchurch, you’re always welcome.

We enjoy showing people around and giving them a first-hand look at how we’re set up, what we’re working on and what we have in development. The Christchurch office is an easy 15 minute drive from the Fire NZ venue.

​We’re delighted to welcome Max Reid to the AFAM team as our new Management Accountant.

Max brings extensive experience in senior accounting roles with organisations including ANZCO Foods, Tumblar Products, and Tyco Electronics. She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role and has already hit the ground running, applying that experience across a number of areas as we continue to grow and develop the business.

It’s great to have Max on board, and we’re looking forward to having her as part of the team.

Welcome to AFAM, Max!

Last year we decided to pursue ISO 9001 accreditation.

AFAM has operated under a quality management system since we were founded in 2005, so the principles and benefits of a defined quality system aren’t new to us. However, as we’ve increasingly worked with international customers over the past couple of years, we’ve found that formal ISO accreditation makes some of those relationships and processes easier.

We’re pleased to say that we’ve now completed and passed our first Stage 1 audit, with our second audit scheduled.

Our goal is to achieve full ISO 9001 accreditation before the end of this year.

If you’re a regular visitor to our website, you’ll notice some changes over the coming weeks.

We’re updating the site to make it more mobile-friendly and to better highlight how easy it is for property owners and managers to move their monitoring to AFAM.

If you’re a service agent, don’t worry you’ll still have access to all of the installation resources, training videos, brochures and other information you use today. These will continue to be available in the Resources section.

Over the next fortnight, members of the AFAM team will be visiting Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Tauranga and Christchurch.

If you’d like to arrange a meeting, grab a coffee, book a demonstration or discuss how AFAM can provide greater visibility across your fire alarm portfolio, we’d love to catch up.

​In our next newsletter, we’ll share more of what we’ve been working on and what’s happening around AFAM.