Glossary.

A

Access control

The system that decides who may pass a given door, gate or turnstile using a credential the person carries — a card, a fob, a code or a biometric — and keeps a log of it. Distinct from an intercom, which asks a person inside to make that decision about a visitor.

Alarm handling

The part of a security installation that receives signals from detectors and decides what happens next: sound a local alarm, notify the guard station, or both. In a condominium it usually covers plant rooms, roof access and the perimeter.

As-built drawing

A drawing showing what was actually installed, as opposed to what was designed. It is the single most useful document a building can hold about its own systems, and the one most often missing.

As-found survey

A record of what is installed in a building today, in what condition, before any work is proposed. It is the basis of any honest scope, price or maintenance agreement for an existing system.

B

Backbone

The main cabling route that carries traffic between the major parts of a building's network — typically fibre between plant rooms or between blocks, with copper distribution from there.

C

CCTV

Closed-circuit television. Cameras, the cabling that connects them, the recorder that stores footage, and the retention setting that decides how long it is kept. The last of those is invisible and is the one buildings most often get wrong.

Common property

Under Malaysian strata law, the parts of a development not comprised in any parcel — lobbies, corridors, car parks, plant rooms and the building systems that serve them. Security systems in the common areas are common property, which is why the JMB or MC is responsible for them.

Containment

The trunking, tray, conduit and ducting that cabling runs inside. Spare capacity in containment is what makes a future upgrade a device job rather than a construction project.

D

Door station

The unit at an entrance that a visitor uses to call a resident — the outdoor half of an intercom system. A building with three entrances has three of them, often on three separate cable routes.

E

ELV

Extra Low Voltage. The category of building systems that carry signal rather than mains power: CCTV, access control, intercom, alarm and perimeter, guard tour, key management and the structured networking underneath them. A trade category, which is why it appears in tender documents and rarely elsewhere.

F

Fibre optic transmission

Carrying signal as light along glass fibre rather than as current along copper. Used for the backbone between blocks or plant rooms, where distance or electrical interference makes copper impractical.

G

Guard tour system

A system that records that a patrol actually took place: checkpoints around the site, and a device the guard registers at each one. It produces a record of rounds walked, which is its entire purpose.

H

Head end

The central equipment a distributed system reports to — the recorder for CCTV, the controller for access control, the exchange for an intercom. When everything on one system fails at once, the head end or its power is usually why.

I

Identification vs observation

Two different requirements for a camera. Observation shows that something happened; identification shows who or what did it. They demand different camera counts, positions and lighting, and a scope of works that does not say which will be priced as the cheaper one.

Intercom

The system that lets a resident speak to, and in a video system see, a caller at an entrance before releasing the door. In a high-rise it spans door stations, riser cabling, a head end and a station in every unit.

J

JMB

Joint Management Body. Under Malaysian law, the body formed to manage the common property of a strata development in the period before a management corporation is established. In practice, the committee a contractor deals with.

K

Key management system

A cabinet and record system that controls custody of physical keys: who took which key, when, and whether it came back. Still relied on heavily in buildings with plant rooms and service risers.

M

Maintenance account

The fund a strata building uses for day-to-day upkeep of common property. Scheduled servicing and repairs to a working security system usually come from here rather than from the sinking fund.

Making good

Repairing the fabric of the building after work — patching cores, reinstating finishes, sealing penetrations. A line item that is genuinely expensive and is frequently omitted from a quotation.

MC

Management Corporation. The body that takes over management of a Malaysian strata development once strata titles are issued, succeeding the JMB.

P

Perimeter intrusion detection

Detectors along a boundary, roofline or other line that should not be crossed, which raise an alarm when it is. Repeated false activations are usually a placement or alignment problem rather than a faulty detector.

R

Retention

How many days of recorded footage a CCTV system keeps before overwriting it. It is a setting, not a property of the equipment, and it falls silently when resolution rises without storage rising with it.

Riser

The vertical service shaft that carries cabling between floors. In a high-rise it is the single most important constraint on any ELV upgrade, and the one a management committee never sees.

S

Scope of works

The document describing what a building wants done and the conditions the work must meet, in enough detail that separate contractors pricing it are pricing the same job. Not a list of part numbers.

Security control room

The room from which a building's security systems are actually watched. Where systems come from different vendors, this is where the mismatch becomes an operational problem for the person on duty.

Sinking fund

The reserve a Malaysian strata building holds for major, infrequent capital expenditure. End-of-life replacement of a security system, and extending coverage to areas never previously covered, usually come from here.

Strata Management Act 2013

Act 757, the Malaysian legislation governing the management and maintenance of common property in strata developments, including the maintenance account and the sinking fund.

Structured cabling

A standards-based cabling system, rather than a proprietary one, designed so that different services can share it and successors can work on it. It is what keeps a building's next tender genuinely competitive.

T

Takeover

A contractor assuming responsibility for maintaining equipment installed by somebody else. It begins with an as-found survey, because scope and price both depend on what is actually there.

U

Unit station

The intercom handset or screen inside a residence. The most numerous item in a high-rise intercom system and a minority of its installed cost.