Lyric Security System: First Impressions

Hi, DIYers. Sterling with Alarm Grid here. And today we're very proud to introduce to you the brand new Honeywell Lyric System. This is the next generation of all-in-one wireless security systems. This is a control panel, a touch screen keypad, it's got built-in Z-Wave, built-in Wi-Fi, it supports cellular, it has a siren built-in, it has a camera built-in, it supports wireless zones and two hardwired zones. And so it's basically the next level or the next generation of the LYNX Touch panels. Well, the LYNX Touch panels started out with the L5000, jumped to the L5100, and then the L5200, and the L7000. Those panels are still going to be sold, still going to be supported, new features I'm sure will still continue to come out. But this system is really a brand new evolution of the all-in-one wireless system.

We were invited out to Vegas for the ISC West Tradeshow by Honeywell just to be a part of this Lyric beta program. That was towards the beginning of the year, we were introduced to the system, got our first look at it, we're able to put our hands on it, and now we're in the beta program. We're one of a handful of companies across the country that has access to this system before full release. And we've been able to test it in the lab, and we've actually done a few installations. And this one we're going to install here and show you exactly what's involved with installing a Honeywell Lyric system.

Our first impressions of the panel are that we're very impressed. Obviously, the case design is a little bit different. This style at the bottom, when we look at all the sensors, you'll notice is kind of the Lyric line of sensors, they all have this kind of hole-cheese, Swiss cheese design here, both on the Glass Breaks and the Sirens and various devices like that. The system, just like the LYNX Touch as I said, is all-in-one, self-contained unit. On the backside you've got the battery backup, you've got your internal screw terminals to connect your power wires.

One thing the panel, we feel, is a little bit of a downgrade is that it does not offer a DC or a barrel plug input on the back. So if you've seen the LYNX Touch and you've seen our videos on installing with the LT cable, which has the barrel plug that just plugs into the back which made is a lot easier for DIYers. This panel, you do have to strip your wire and actually land it to the screw terminals, so we'll show you that in a little bit. Not difficult but certainly something we feel like Honeywell should bring into a later version of the system.

The camera feature is really nice. When you disarm the system it can send a snapshot of who disarmed the system out to the Total Connect service. So now when your kids come home from school, instead of just getting their code you can actually see a video and see that it's them, not video but a picture, see that it's them and that they don't have a bunch of friends with them, for instance, so that's a really nice feature.

It supports 130 total zones, so that's even more than the L7000 which did 80 zones. Two of the zones are hardwired only. The next set of zones all the way up to 129 would be regular wireless zones. You can use existing 5800 series sensors, so the same type of sensors you would've used with a LYNX Touch panel or with a Vista system that has a wireless receiver. Any of the traditional 5800 series sensors will work with this system, but also, and probably the biggest difference from this system to the prior Honeywell wireless systems is that this uses SIX sensors. So you've heard us refer to RF sensors or 5800 series sensors. The new range of sensors that are used with this system are called SIX, S-I-X. And the SIX sensors work on the 2.4 Gig frequency range, which is a typical Wi-Fi range. The sensors themselves have a 16-digit MAC address unlike the 7-digit serial number that you're used to with the 5800 series sensors. And basically, each sensor is its own little microprocessor, own little computer. The sensors themselves can get firmware updates, so it's not just the panel that gets a firmware update, the actual SIX sensors can get a firmware update.

So they already have plans to introduce new features to a sensor that you have now, and all of a sudden in a few months, that sensor could be able to tell you the temperature in that room even if it's just a regular door contact. So we're really excited about the potential for that and the future proofing of this system because once you buy the equipment the idea is you'll be able to firmware update the sensors and the panel as Honeywell introduces new features. And a lot of these features are already on the roadmap, so like I said that temperature sensing one, they're going to have every single sensor that works with this panel that's a SIX sensor be able to give you a temperature reading which is really nice.

The SIX sensors are actually two-way bi-directional sensors. So with the old 5800 series whenever the sensor had a transmission or fault, an alarm, a trouble it's just sending the signal out into the air, and it's not knowing which system to talk to, it's just sending it out. And the system that has that sensor programmed can listen and hear that sensor. So you could have a sensor programmed to more than one system, and if both systems are in range both systems would hear that fault of the sensor or that alarm, and the panel would act upon that signal.

With the SIX sensors, they're bi-directional and only to the system that they're enrolled in. So that means this system can talk to the sensor and the sensor can talk to the system. So that bi-directionality is a big difference. And beyond that they're also encrypted which is very important. While there's some debate about how important the Honeywell sensors, or any wireless sensors in the industry now, being encrypted there's been the debate about how important that is. We've never heard of a confirmed RF signal jamming, or RF spoofing, or some of these technologies, or hacking that you may have heard about that could defeat a 5800 series wireless system. Basically, those sensors communicate on one channel back to the panel, and so with the right kind of technology, which is typically not a legal technology, but doesn't mean you can't get. So with the right type of technology, there are ways to defeat those old systems.

With the Lyric sensors they can communicate encrypted on many different channels, and, therefore, it's near impossible to block a transmission from a SIX sensor, or spoof the transmission of a SIX sensor to make the panel behave in an unexpected manner, so this is a really big security advantage. And even though historically we haven't seen a lot of this RF jamming or RF spoofing, as technology advances, if you have one of those older systems it's something to keep in mind that this system is encrypted and more secure. And while you can use the 5800 series sensors with this panel, they won't be encrypted because they're 5800. You would have to have SIX series sensors with a Lyric panel if you wanted a full encrypted system, and we'll have more information about the SIX technology and how it works, but that's kind of a quick and dirty overview of the difference between the wireless sensors that the LYNX Touch panels and the Honeywell Wireless Vista panels would use and what the Lyric uses.

We haven't proven this yet, but we're told the range is also much better, wider range where they don't even have a repeater yet for this because they don't think you'll ever need that. So we're expecting 300 to 400-feet range from a sensor back to this panel. Whereas on a LYNX Touch, we would say more like 200 feet. So almost double the range in most applications which is kind of why they got rid of the repeater because the repeater used to double the range itself.

So we've got Z-Wave built-in, Wi-Fi built-in, camera built-in, encrypted wireless technology, backwards compatible to the old 5800 series, supports cameras, supports garage door control, supports Total Connect. The cellular communication option on this system is going to be AT&T, and they're also, which we're very excited about, going to have Verizon or CDMA option. So if you've ever tried to use a Honeywell system and a cell communicator historically you would've been using an AT&T Communicator, one that uses AT&T's network. If you're in an area with poor AT&T coverage, then you might not have been able to use cellular and maybe you're using Wi-Fi or internet only.

With the Lyric, as soon as that Verizon Communicator is available you'll be able to put in a CDMA Communicator that would work on the Verizon network. So if you happen to be in an area with Verizon coverage and no AT&T, the Lyric's going to give you the option to have a cellular-based system. And if you're not in one of those areas you'll have the option to choose AT&T or Verizon. So if you try one and the signal is poor, you could always try the other. So that's a nice feature as well. Although we expect Verizon communicators to come to all Honeywell systems, but they're making a point to have it for the Lyric.

So, that's kind of a rough breakdown of the new features that this system will support. And we're now going to show you how to actually install this system on the wall and get it connected to an outlet. It's got a plug-in power supply, the same power supply that the LYNX Touch used. So if you've seen our LYNX Touch L5100 installation videos, a lot of this will seem similar, but these panels are slightly different and we're going to break down those differences in that installation video.

We hope you liked this introduction to the Lyric. We invite you to email us support@alarmgrid.com. If you have any questions on the Lyric, we can get you on a mailing list so that once this panel is released we can let you know it's available. And please subscribe to our channel so that as we release new videos on the Lyric you'll be up-to-date with everything that's coming with this brand new exciting system.