First off, I am no expert on this subject and will talk in general terms as to be honest I forget our details at the moment. IMO surge protection and protection from direct lighting strikes are two different technologies.
We put in "whole house" surge protection from SECO and then have individual surge protectors on our "high value" items, computers, TV, etc. Most also came from SECO or our lightning "guy".
In addition we had lighting protection installed on the roof. Sad to say I forget the name of the company, there are at a few reputable companies around TV. I am sure there are threads around on TOTV if you are interested, search for lightning.
Does lightning protection work? Some argue it does not, some smart people say it does, I will only know for sure if my house gets struck. It gives us some comfort for the price...
If a neighbor tells you that his house is now safe because all lightning goes to my "rods", be nice and make sure he has access to google to search a bit on that
