Alarm Techs NZ

Alarm Techs NZ The leading NZ page for Security, Access Control and CCTV technicians to learn about new products, industry trends, and share better work stories.

Graeme McKenzie started installing security alarms in 1983, while completing an Electricians Apprenticeship for the New Zealand Post Office. Since then, he has worked for NZ Telecom, been self employed, and has worked for Alarm Watch for the last 23 years. He found himself in the role of assisting technicians all around the country, and this page is an extension of that. The aim of this page is to share information, and also to help raise the quality of work that technicians can achieve.

14/05/2026

At over $5000 a day, there’s gotta be some room to do some of this work electronically with cameras?
How many cameras could you lease to put in and monitor for say, $1000 per day ? Or $2000 per day?

“Maintaining 7 wardens per shift (day and night) has been considered appropriate given the nature of the site. The cordon surrounds a large, high-risk area with a long and irregular (weaving) boundary, which requires continuous monitoring across multiple access points. The site has a history of high public use, and experience has shown there is a consistent need for visibility and active enforcement to prevent unauthorised access. This resourcing level is therefore based on risk management, public safety requirements, and the physical characteristics of the site, rather than surplus capacity.”

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=122221223654322351&id=61559670535756

Teltrac are looking for lead tech in Southland
10/05/2026

Teltrac are looking for lead tech in Southland

We're looking for an experienced Lead Technology Technician with a great attitude to help lead our branch alongside the Regional Manager.

Just watching this episode of Coffee Break With Jake,  and heard a couple of great quotes :  “the greatest inefficiency ...
08/05/2026

Just watching this episode of Coffee Break With Jake, and heard a couple of great quotes : “the greatest inefficiency is being really good at doing something that doesn’t need to be done “ , and: “why don’t we start quoting for how long the job actually takes vs how long we want it to take”.

In this Dealer Spotlight edition of Coffee Break With Jake, Jake Voll sits down with Taylor Sears, COO of Silent Guard in Kentucky and Davis HVAC, to talk ab...

man that time has flown past...!!!
08/05/2026

man that time has flown past...!!!

Uh oh …!
01/05/2026

Uh oh …!

Technical problems at around 90 cell towers are thought to be to blame.

Just had another work anniversay so thought it was a good time to show the humble beginnings of Alarm Watch .  Birthed i...
30/04/2026

Just had another work anniversay so thought it was a good time to show the humble beginnings of Alarm Watch . Birthed in this cupboard in a house on a farm. Neil Campbell worked his ass off to make the company succeed. Sell all day, arrange the installs and the techs and the service work - invoice all night No computers or cellphones yet, they came a couple years later. Handwritten index cards for the all clients we installed alarms for was as flash as it got.
We hired more techs, and we outgrew the cupboard in a year or so, and got a real desk. Then another desk - and an office admin. Then a move into town a few years later to a real office - and Neil finally got his evenings off.. And then we started the monitoring station a year or so after that. There went the spare time again.
And that’s another story altogether !

Most businesses come from humble beginnings. A lot of sacrifice, drive and determination is what makes them survive and grow.

That office in the cupboard is still used by Neil - it has a computer now, and is used to run the farm. He’d rather be there - or on his tractor - than in the real office in town .
It’s worth a mention that the entire time he grew the security business from nothing, he was also full time running a farm with his brother… and he bought his first brand new Ute only 5 years ago when his 1982 Mazda B1600 truck became too expensive too keep running.

Starting a business isn’t meant to be easy - otherwise someone else would have done it already.

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Whanganui

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