Editorial

I refer, of course, to the imminent (September anyway) introduction of the European Standards and the withdrawal of the existing BS. As if installers haven't been beaten around the head enough with DD243, we now have the prospect of the Euro Norms creating a whole new structured approach to alarm installation. And suddenly it seems to have brought out a barrage of opinion for and against. This issue of Installer focuses on the Euro Standards in a big way ... September is not far off and for many proprietors and engineers there will not only be the learning curve of working to the ENs but the necessity to get all staff qualified ... a new requirement. How can the industry gear up for this in a few short months, you may wonder? The BSIA is also concerned that it can't be done in this time and says it is an "unrealistic deadline" (page 9).

Many people in the industry see the sense of the Euro Standards. The will go a long way to increasing the professionalism of this industry and help to give it a grading structure that, theoretically, will make it easier to install and assess systems. It should ease the pressures facing professional companies to compete on price with the cheapo alarm providers. Nobody would argue that we shouldn't have a qualified work force. How ludicrous is it than anyone can set up in this business without any sort of qualification, providing a sub-standard system that may be a matter of life or death to some unlucky customer? Our columnist, Mike Lynskey, (page 21) welcomes the concept of giving installers the say on the system rather than doffing the cap to the paying customer. But he, like the BSIA, believes it is too soon. Our other opinion writer, George Mullaly (page 25) calls into question the whole decision process that has brought us the Euro standards and has started a campaign against their "piece meal" introduction.

Security Installer, as ever, has room for all views ... and for those installers who suspect they will have to conform to the standards anyway, so it might be very sensible to learn about them now rather than later, we continue with our "Euro Standards in Close-up" feature (page 41). This is the sort of part work – like our recent training series on DD243 – that we know you will want to keep for reference. Also (page 18) we detail a whole raft of training seminars organised by the SSAIB and at this year's IFSEC there will be a special area dedicated to standards.

Our other new feature this month is the start of our "Ask the Expert" on-line service. We've lined up Baxall and the SSAIB as our first experts and we look forward to seeing your questions. See overpage for full details of this great new free service for readers.