Articles by Larry Anderson

Helping utility companies meet the new CIP-14 standard is an urgent new challenge On April 16, 2013, snipers fired for 19 minutes on PG&E Corp.'s Metcalf electric power transmission station near San Diego, California, knocking out 17 giant transformers that supply electricity to Silicon Valley. At least 100 rounds were fired from at least one high-powered rifle. The power grid was rerouted to avoid a blackout, but it took 27 days to make repairs and get the substation bac...

I took an extra camera with me on vacation this year. It was a tiny thermal camera that FLIR gave out at a press event earlier in the year. It’s about 2 by 3 inches or so and contains their new micro-camera thermal core. Obviously the little camera is just a way for them to demonstrate how small (and inexpensive) the new technology is. I figured a trip to the beach was a good time to try it out. The sensor in my little toy camera is the same small, inexpensive thermal camera core that ena...

A video demonstration from Axis highlights the image stabilization capabilities of their latest network cameras. Image stabilization isn’t new, of course, but the ability to deal with extreme situations like this results from Axis’ innovation to provide “robust, real-time image stabilization.” The video shows a demonstration Axis presented at IFSEC. The capability is the result of the “introduction of efficient gyroscopes in combination with cutting-edge software p...

The security market it clearly sold on the value of video, but customers shouldn’t depend solely on video to protect their premises. Rather, they should implement a combination of video systems and other sensors for a more effective approach overall. That’s a message I heard when I visited the Optex booth at the IFSEC show. The supplier of many different types of sensors says a “deeper and wider” integration of video with sensors provides a higher level of security requi...

Conventional wisdom has been that analog video has remained popular at the lower end of the security market because of the complexity of installing IP systems. The proliferation of NVR appliances, self-configuring systems and end-to-end solutions today addresses the requirements of even small systems and has overcome issues of complexity. The new systems are plug-and-play and require little expertise on the part of the installer. Ease of installation was among last obstacles to total IP adoption...

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” So said Herbert A. Simon, American Political Scientist, Economist, Sociologist, Psychologist, and Professor. I heard that quote at the Avigilon presentation at IFSEC, repeated by Ian Povey, Avigilon’s director of product marketing and product management. He used the quote to support the need for more (accurate) video analytics. In other words, without analytics, there is so much video information that the operator&rsquo...

Camera manufacturers are coming up with new ways to use the intelligence inside today’s IP cameras. We all know that cameras now have chips inside, and Moore’s Law (look it up) tells us that processing power increases every two years, which means today’s cameras should be (and indeed are) much smarter than the IP cameras of several years ago. Some of that intelligence is being used to accommodate higher resolutions in many of today’s cameras, and it is making possible mo...

The best standards are often baseline, common-denominator standards that leave room for innovation The collaboration between ONVIF and SIA to develop new access control standards is just the latest standards-related news from the Security Industry Association (SIA), the American trade association headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., near Washington, D.C.  In fact, SIA has a long history and tradition of standards development, dating back to the 1980s. SIA has produced 1...

While riding the Tube in London during IFSEC, I came across an attention-grabbing headline in a newspaper someone left in the next seat: “Coming To a Workplace Near You: RoboOfficeCop.” The article was about a robot that can patrol an office, checking that doors are shut and desks are uncluttered, using cameras and scanners to see whether anything is out of the ordinary. If something is amiss, the 6-ft-tall machine can store information to a hard drive to be reported later to a huma...

The next generation of access control standards will be developed by the recently announced collaboration between the Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF) and the Security Industry Association (SIA), the American trade association headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., near Washington, D.C. Both organizations have staked a claim in the area of access control standards, and now they’re seeing their interests converge. SIA’s Open Supervised Device Protocol (OSDP) standard addresse...

The third day of a trade show is when you start feeling like Bill Murray in that movie "Ground Hog Day." It's like you're living the same day over and over -- the same waiter at breakfast, the same (or at least interchangeable) crowds on the London Underground, the same frowning man waiting to scan your badge, the same frantic search to find your badge among multiple pockets (coinciding with the same brief moment of panic). Another day, another group of suppliers to visit, and some of the theme...

I am visiting IFSEC for the first time in several years, and one revelation is how well the event reflects the increasingly global -- and diverse -- nature of the security market. On the second day of the show, I was struck by the diversity of attendees, apparent in the many languages you hear spoken in the exhibit hall. I also kept coming upon confirmation of the variety of global security companies from around the world who are exhibiting at the event -- another reflection of a thriving worldw...

It took a crowded ride during rush hour on the London “Tube” to get me there, including multiple transfers, but the first day of IFSEC at its new venue, the ExCel in London, yielded a couple of newsy announcements and busy traffic at many of the stands. The industry is still reeling from bombshell news last week of the acquisition of Milestone by Canon. The ink may be barely dry, but the agreement was celebrated at IFSEC with a press event and big photo opportunity involving Rokus v...

You can depend on the National Rifle Association (NRA) to enter the conversation after almost any high-profile violent incident, and such was the case recently after a 22-year-old college student went on a deadly rampage outside the main campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Thirteen were injured and six young adults lost their lives, including the perpetrator. After the tragedy, “NRA News Commentator” Dom Raso took issue with what he called “inaccuracy of the...

Another week, another school shooting. Or so it seems recently with all the incidents in the U.S. news media. Just this week there was another one in Troutdale, Ore. In fact, the organization Everytown for Gun Safety says there have been roughly 74 school shootings since the well-remembered tragedy in Newtown, Conn., about 18 months ago. Counting just the weeks school has been in session since then, the number is more than a shooting a week. The organization lists the shootings on their web sit...

Low-light imaging has historically been a problem for megapixel cameras. Arecont Vision, like other megapixel camera manufacturers, has struggled to solve the dilemma of low-light images, which are plagued by noise, smearing of video, high bit rates (requiring additional storage) and loss of color. Arecont Vision says it now has the answer, dubbing it STELLAR technology. The “LL” in the middle of STELLAR stands for “low-light;” the entire acronym stan...

The security market is awash in stories about how big companies sought to step in and transform the market, from GE to Cisco to several cable or telecom companies. There is generally a lot of hand-wringing over “what it means” when you hear about a big company entering the market. So far the impact of bigger players on our status quo as a fragmented market has been minimal, but it still causes waves when a big company sets its sights on security. Such is the case with Apple, the late...

My last few airplane trips have included a fun surprise at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security screening line – I was invited to enter the TSA Pre-Check line, where you get to keep your shoes on and your laptop in your bag, among other benefits. It’s also a shorter line that goes faster. I had heard about the Pre-Check line from my neighbor, who described his complex process of applying for the perk. What I have since deduced is that the TSA has also been allow...

“Our mission should be to avoid the unmanageable and manage the unavoidable.” I heard that sentence in a completely different context recently, but it seems to summarise well the mission of the security market. If a security professional can avoid the unmanageable, (by logic) he or she can manage whatever else happens (the rest). Avoiding the unmanageable involves using whatever deterrents or preventive measures (including various technologies) to keep things from happening that ca...

Thermal cameras provide images that reliably show the presence of people in any lighting situation FLIR Systems broke a historic threshold in thermal camera pricing when it announced a thermal camera for $499 at the ISC West show in April. Before that announcement, the lowest-price thermal camera was $2,000, which was itself much lower than the $10,000 price just a few years ago in 2005. The price decrease resulted from FLIR’s R&D efforts specifically aimed at loweri...

We don’t usually write about cybersecurity on this site, but it’s obviously part of the bigger picture. Always looking to learn more, last week I logged onto the GovDefenders Cybersecurity Virtual Event, sponsored by DLT Solutions, a technology reseller to the public sector. There were several interesting “sessions” during the day – I managed to “tune in” a couple of times off and on. Listening to one session in particular reminded me of how much the ph...

Could Drones Be Used for Civilian/Commercial Surveillance Within Five Years? Drone strikes in war zones are reported routinely now in the news, but unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones are still not common in commercial and civilian applications. Commercial uses may still be several years away, but is it too soon to start thinking about the possible security applications? Currently in the United States, Congress has directed the Federal Aviation Administration to come up with a plan by Se...

We keep hearing about the “Internet of Things” (IoT) and wondering how it will impact the physical security industry. It turns out the Federal government is working now to direct development and testing of such systems with an eye toward a variety of future applications. The U.S. government calls such technology “Cyber-Physical Systems” (CPS) and is looking for ways they can be used to improve safety, sustainability, efficiency, mobility and the overall quality of life....

“Lifestyle services” become the norm with home security: One of the trends driving growth in the home security market is the concept of “lifestyle services”.  Home security systems today can offer new benefits and features that go beyond protection to also encompass convenience. All the home security companies are now embracing ways they can expand system functionality to enhance their customer’s safety as well as lifestyle. Examples include the ability to lock...

ADT is looking to "bring the voice of the customer" into the continuing development and expansion of Z-Wave, the radio frequency (RF) communication and product-level interoperability technology that enables wireless networking of battery-powered devices in the home. ADT is the newest Principal Member of the Z-Wave Alliance consortium. Z-Wave is one of the enabling technologies of ADT’s Pulse security and home automation system, which enables a home's electronics to communicate with each o...

Every Security System Has a Story Our industry’s technology solutions are at work almost everywhere, if you think about it. You might see Kelvin Hughes high-resolution radar pictures providing protection for Maryland’s oyster beds. At the 2014 Oscars, Axis pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras kept watch around the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. At The Marque, an exclusive membership club in Houston, Texas, MorphoTrak 3D facial recognition technology secures access and enables the club to be &...

Privacy or Security? Privacy: Does it really exist? Does it matter? You still hear about privacy concerns in our market, but in many ways the privacy ship has sailed. A session on privacy at ISC West reminded me how much privacy expectations have changed in the era of Facebook. Now people think nothing of posting personal information in a public forum that clearly identifies who they are. What a shift from the days when anonymous screen names both protected identities and encouraged greater c...

From being a buzzword today, Big Data is poised to have a large impact on the physical security market with numerous practical applications in preventing and fighting crime. I’ve been hearing a lot about "Big Data" and its impact on the physical security market. Wikipedia tells us that Big Data involves using larger and larger sets of data points to find correlations that can “spot business trends, determine quality of research, prevent diseases, link legal citations, combat crime,...

Pelco is making its big comeback with renewed vigor and new lines of surveillance products to set it apart from the rest Working to Regain Momentum in a Changing Market: Most observers agree that Pelco lost momentum in the video surveillance market after the acquisition by Schneider Electric in 2007. Hervé Fages, senior vice president of Schneider Electric's video business, is looking to regain that momentum, guiding the surveillance giant in new directions as the marke...

Visiting with the youngest "old company" in the security market: One of the newest companies at this year’s ISC West show is 130 years old. Allegion launched in December 2013 as a standalone, publicly-traded company following the spinoff of the commercial and residential security businesses from Ingersoll Rand. Making its high-profile debut at ISC West in Las Vegas, Allegion sponsored the kickoff ceremony and featured a big booth full of familiar brands like Schlage and Von Duprin. I cau...