Security system configured to provide video and/or audio information to public or private safety personnel at a call center or other fixed or mobile emergency assistance unit

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG.
1, a security system 100 constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention and configured to provide video and/or audio information related to an alarm condition occurring at a monitored premises to a safety call center will now be described in greater detail.
As used herein, the term "security system" refers to a system for monitoring a premises, e.
g.
, for the purpose of discouraging and responding to burglaries, fires, and other emergency situations.
Such a security system is well suited for use in conjunction with a variety of applications, including residential homes, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, businesses and/or any other type of physical premises or geographic locale for which the detection of alarm conditions and/or the acquisition of video, audio and/or other types of information would be desirable.
Further, as disclosed herein, the safety call center to which video and/or audio information related to an alarm condition occurring at a monitored premises is provided is a public safety call center.
It should be clearly understood that it is fully contemplated that the video and/or audio information may instead be provided to a private safety call center or other public or private facility charged with providing the services disclosed herein.
As may now be seen, the security system 100 includes plural sites 110, 130, 140, 150 and 180 coupled together by a data network 120, for example, the Internet.
Broadly speaking, each of these sites is either a "serving" site which provides security services to other sites within the security system 100 or a "served" site which receives security services from one or more "serving" sites of the security system 100.
As disclosed herein, the site 110 is a served site while the sites 130, 140, 150 and 180 are serving sites.
As further disclosed herein, the plural sites 110, 130, 140, 150 and 180, respectively, are a monitored site 110, a central monitoring station 130, a public safety call center 140, an emergency response vehicle 150 and a data center 180