New CTU, Fire NZ 2026, and Updates

This Week

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

Update on the New CTU

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

​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.

Welcoming Our New Christrchurch Based Management Accountant

​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!

ISO 9001 Accreditation

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.

Website Update

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.

Out and About

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.

Next Time

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