Training, New CTU, And Features

This Week

This week we're sharing an update on our next-generation CTU, highlighting some of the work we've been doing in the training space, and covering a few other developments from around AFAM.

Foodstuffs Workshop

We recently had the pleasure of being invited by Foodstuffs North Island to deliver a three-hour workshop for their fire alarm service agents, showcasing AFAM's capabilities and services.

A big thank you to Foodstuffs for organising the session, and to all the service agents who attended and generously gave their time.

The workshop generated some excellent discussion, and we've come away with a number of actions, potential improvements, and ideas for new services that will benefit both service agents and property owners and managers.

AFAM Training

Training and the availability of resources for installers and technicians was one of the key topics raised during the Foodstuffs North Island workshop.

Over the past few months we've been running a series of free, in-person training sessions for fire alarm technicians, covering a range of topics with a particular focus on the AFAM AlarmTech App. These sessions are often held immediately after technicians' toolbox meetings, making it easy for teams to attend while they're already together.

We're always happy to run these sessions, so if you'd like some free training for your technicians, please get in touch.

We're also about to release the second video in our AlarmTech App tutorial series. In the Resources section of our website you'll also find a growing library of tutorial videos, installation guides, and training material covering the AlarmTech App, CTU, and customer portals.

Auckland Based Business Development Representative

We're pleased to share that we've found an outstanding person to join our Auckland team as our new Business Development Representative.

We're not quite ready to introduce them just yet—but stay tuned, we'll be making that announcement very soon.

New CTU Progress Update

Development of our next-generation CTU continues to make excellent progress, and we're now very close to receiving the first pre-production test units.

As a reminder, we began this project early last year with the goal of completely redesigning our monitoring hardware from the ground up. While our current CTU has proven to be exceptionally reliable and continues to meet today's requirements, the new platform gives us significantly more processing power, additional storage, and expanded input/output capability.

These improvements will allow us to deliver new features and functionality that simply aren't possible with the 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 integrating devices such as pressure sensors (ideal for sprinkler systems), temperature sensors, and other monitoring applications.

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We're excited to share more as development progresses.

Floor Plans - Assets and Features

In our last newsletter we announced the ability to add assets and features to floor plans, including:

• Fire extinguishers
• Hose reels
• Emergency signage
• Fire doors
• Hazards, such as fuel stores and gas cylinders
• And more

We also asked whether you'd like to do more than simply record the location of these assets.

The response was a resounding yes.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to provide feedback. Your input has given us a clear direction, and we'll now begin expanding this functionality to deliver even greater value.

Out and About

Over the next fortnight members of the AFAM team will be visiting Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Whanganui, Nelson, 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, while also taking a closer look at some exciting new features that are just around the corner.