Home security systems have come a long way over the last 10 years.
This journalist remembers when he was an account executive and, briefly, a manager for a wireless, computerized home security system company in the late 1990s. In those ancient days, a computerized security system that had wireless components and did not need to check on your house by making a telephone call — it was a direct feed from an independent monitoring station — was an advanced piece of security technology that seemed like something out of Star Wars.
The windows did not need to be wired as they did for all other home security systems offered in those days. They were watched by wireless contacts. Wireless motion detectors, strategically placed, looked at the doors and main passageways of the home. If any unusual movement was detected in the home-or if the electronically advanced smoke detector went off-a professional monitor spoke directly through a speaker in the wall-mounted unit.