Tim Palmquist

We live in an era of Big Data. Surrounded by a flood of information, more companies are looking for ways to analyze that information (data) and systematically extract intelligence that can help them operate more efficiently and profitably. The data obsession has extended to the physical security industry, too, where large amounts of data have historically been a little-used byproduct of our access control and even video systems. But the picture is changing. We asked this week's Expert Panel Roundtable: What impact are data analytics having on the security market?

They say that every choice has a cost. It's a basic principle that, economically speaking, nothing is free. If it doesn't cost actual money, it may be expensive in terms of time, attention and/or effort. These are interesting observations to keep in mind as one peruses the various "free" video management system (VMS) offerings available on the market. Some are provided by camera companies to unify their products into a "system", even if it's a small one. Other free VMS offerings are entry-level versions offered by software companies with the intent of the customer upgrading later to a paid version. For more insights, we asked this week's Expert Panel Roundtable: What is the value of “free” video management systems (VMSs) and how can a customer decide whether “free” is the right price for them?

The beginning of the school year and upcoming seasonal changes remind us that demand for security systems, like almost everything else, is seasonal to some extent. Making improvements to educational facilities during the summer months – including installation of security systems – is the most obvious example of seasonal demand, but there are others. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Which vertical markets for security are impacted by seasonal changes in demand?

Where does the time go? Before you know it, here we are at mid-year reflecting on an eventful first half of 2018 in the physical security market. It’s also a good time for our Expert Panel Roundtable to pause and look ahead at what we might expect in the second half of the year. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What technology development will have the greatest impact in the second half of 2018?

Hospitality businesses work to provide a safe and pleasant customer experience for their guests. Hotels offer a “home away from home” for millions of guests every day around the world. These are businesses of many sizes and types, providing services ranging from luxury accommodations to simple lodging for business travelers to family vacation experiences. Hospitality businesses also include restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other venues. Security needs are varied and require technologies that span a wide spectrum. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What are the security challenges of the hospitality market?

Finding the exact right technology to solve an end user’s problem is challenging, but the rewards are great when an integrator gets it right. A wide range of available product types, price levels and added features increases the likelihood of identifying a technology to solve any problem. But with so many technology and product choices in the marketplace, identifying that one solution can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. We wondered whether a vast range of product choices is always a good thing. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Are security integrators and end users overwhelmed by “too many choices” related to security equipment and systems? How can they make sense of it all?

Consolidation – a decrease in the number of companies in a market achieved through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) – has been an important trend among manufacturers in the physical security market for many years. More recently, the trend has also appeared to extend to the integrator market. Larger integrators have been buying up other large integrators; in some cases, they have also been buying up smaller, regional integrators to expand their geographic coverage area. We wondered if this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable has noticed the trend. We asked: Has consolidation among security companies shifted to the integrator/installer market? What is the impact?

Knowledge shared among peers is often afforded more credibility than information from manufacturers. An approximation of that principle is at work in the use of case studies as marketing tools in the physical security industry. Case studies are aimed at telling real-world success stories – from actual customers – about how various technologies are used to accomplish security goals and make the world a safer place. But how useful are they? We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What are the benefits of case studies as a marketing tool in the security industry?

You could say concerns about privacy are “trending” in our increasingly data-driven world. Unease about how Facebook and other high-tech companies use and share data dominates the news, and the full impact of new European Union (EU) regulations is about to be felt around the world. By May 25, companies that collect data on EU citizens will need to comply with strict new rules around protecting customer data, as enumerated in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). But how do the new regulations, and broader concerns about privacy, affect the physical security market? We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How do privacy issues and regulations, such as GDPR, impact physical security systems and how they are managed?

How much does a security system cost? We all know that total costs associated with systems are substantially higher than the “price tag.” There are many elements, tangible and intangible, that contribute to the costs of owning and operating a system. Taking a broad view and finding ways to measure these additional costs enables integrators and users to get the most value from a system at the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). However, measuring TCO can be easier said than done. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable to share the benefit of their collective expertise on the subject. Specifically, we asked: How should integrators and/or end users measure total cost of ownership (TCO) when quantifying the value of security systems?

The landscape for end-to-end solutions is not designed to address thelong-term evolving needs of customers The video surveillance industry has reached an important crossroads where manufacturers can choose to continue in one direction that solely focuses on their own products and profits, or to move forward in another direction that emphasises building partnerships for the greater good of the community. On one side lies the short road of end-to-end, proprietary solutions from companies looking to protect their own interests by locking customers into their products alone. This road dead ends fast when a customer wants to add new functionality to their system, and it has not yet been created by their single vendor (and may never be). This limited short-term way of doing business puts existing investments in jeopardy and places integrators in a very awkward situation. On the other side lies an entire network of roads that stretch far and wide with open platform solutions designed by a collaborating community. This choice is filled with components from technology partners that work together to create a comprehensive solution to meet each customers’ evolving needs. At any time, solutions can be upgraded or added as partners develop new technologies and functionality while maintaining existing investments. The industry is at this important crossroads and Milestone Systems is forging confidently forward to continue blazing the trail of open platform solutions. We are taking the next step in this evolution by moving from the open platform company to the open platform community. Milestone’s Open Platform Community Serves Customers Best With the open platform community, we’re putting the focus on partnerships first. This move from an open company to an open community can best be illustrated by comparison with a small town. Envision a town center with a courthouse and city hall, a bank, doctor’s office and school, the local market – all anchored by Main Street where the community gathers to do business. As time passes, small towns grow into cities. But in order to accommodate the growth and thrive, two key elements must be in place: leadership and critical infrastructure. The landscape for end-to-endsolutions is not designed toaddress the long-term evolvingneeds of customers. It’s designedto address the sale of the day First, it takes leadership with a vision for growth to move forward. Second, it takes critical infrastructure—water, power, electricity, bridges, streets and highways—to grow and scale out a town. With leadership and critical infrastructure in place, the small town can grow and welcome more people, new industries and jobs over time. At Milestone, we’re building our global community with solid leadership and a commitment to expand the infrastructure needed to underpin the open platform scalability. From a technology perspective, the critical infrastructure is having an application programming interface (API) built into our software that is purpose-built for communication with third-party solutions. It’s also the software development kit (SDK), the toolbox of resources, that allows developers to create third-party solutions. By virtue of moving from the open platform company to the open platform community, we are doubling down on the critical infrastructure that reinforces the community. We’re putting our SDK on the roadmap and investing more resources toward building more tools needed for third parties to have an easier, more streamlined way to create integrations with our products. This will greatly accelerate development in the overall marketplace, increasing the size and well-being of the community. Additionally, a Milestone Developers Forum will act as a fulcrum for technical stakeholders to openly share their successes and learnings as a way to help move innovation forward and expand value for the customers. We’re working to build an even stronger community of open platform development partners, to highlight and recognize their progress, and dedicate resources to further develop new opportunities together. Milestone are building a global community to expand the infrastructure needed to support the open platform scalability Partnerships Move The Industry Forward The market and customer requirements can change drastically over time. These evolving needs necessitate new innovations and technologies that allow customers to implement additional functionality in a way that maintains their existing investment. This is best accomplished with open platform technology, where APIs, SDKs and people in an organization are dedicated to working with third parties to encourage development and build up the community. Certification that tests and documents solutions from multiple manufacturers further reassures customers and integrators that the components of their customized solutions will work together. There are many companies that claim to provide an open platform, but at Milestone we prove our commitment in the way we embrace and enable third party partnerships in the community. Today there are integrations with 152 different brands of camera manufacturers with device driver support at 5,000 and growing - and only one of those is the ONVIF driver, which supports many thousands more. There are over 360 known solutions integrated with the Milestone XProtect platform today and 170 of those are documented on the Solutions Finder for commercial use. One year ago there were just over 100 on the Solutions Finder — evidence the community is growing quickly. As of Q1, 2016, 45 solutions have been tested and certified with documentation for best practice in operation, with 35 more in the certification queue. We are working to scale this certification faster as it’s clear there is demand in the marketplace: we have more than 1,600 enrolled solution partners and over 5,500 SDK downloads. One year ago there were only 3,500 downloads, meaning our SDK has been downloaded 2,000 times in the last 12 months. As we look at innovation in the market, we see amazing things happening. So many unique and powerful integrations are presented on our website: laser, radar, sound, traffic analysis, license plate recognition, vehicle brand ID, gunshot locator, live incident tracking, retail analytics, video synopsis and more coming constantly. All of these new innovations are available to add on to existing Milestone video deployments to meet the unique needs of individual customers and facilitate their needs of tomorrow. Open platform communities allow for collaboration and innovation by working and integrating with third parties Why Open Solutions Win Imagine if the technology landscape was filled with manufacturers who believed only in end-to-end solutions. What if their sole focus was putting together a VMS, cameras, access control and analytics, to solve the end customer needs today, but not thinking much about how their needs will evolve? The landscape for end-to-end solutions is not designed to address the long-term evolving needs of customers. It’s designed to address the sale of the day. End-to-end solutions are inherently limited because a manufacturer can only deliver so much technology on their own. These short-term solutions create a vulnerability for the customer and for the system integrator that deploys an end-to-end solution. The integrator is put in a particularly perilous position when they deploy an end-to-end solution because it is unknown whether the solution will be able to evolve with the customer’s needs, whether it’s next year or ten years down the road. Meanwhile, open solutions built within a wide and diverse community of partners are a win-win for customers and integrators alike. Open solutions and partnerships create great long-term value for customers. In turn, integrators can feel confident about the solution they are selling and installing, without fear of future repercussions. Technology is quickly evolving. The Milestone community’s ability to deliver innovation to the marketplace and address customer demands is key to maintaining investments for the long term. End-to-end solutions are not well suited to do this because they are a short-sighted business approach that’s really about the manufacturer first. The community model is about putting the customers and the partnerships first. End-to-end is truly a dead end. The open platform community is a philosophy we live by. Putting partnerships first is a mentality, and it has always been a key part of our business model. The road to the future is open — let’s go there together.

Milestone Systems announced a webinar panel discussion of safety and security professionals, including representatives from Nemours Children’s Hospital Health System in Jacksonville, Florida, and The City of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. They will share insights and ideas on how to address change, support their core mission and assist other parts of their respective organizations. The webinar will focus on how these three different organizations are using their video management system to help ensure a safe environment for their employees, students, patients, and the general public. Integrators and developers The panel will be hosted and moderated by Tim Palmquist, Vice President of the Americas at Milestone Systems. “Our goal with this webinar is to bring together security professionals to help them share their thoughts, concerns, experiences and new best practices with their peers,” said Palmquist. “These are unprecedented times, and I’m sure their insights will be valuable to users of any industry, as well as integrators and developers within our industry.” Remote video monitoring Topics slated for discussion include remote video monitoring, social distancing, queue management, people counting, access control and other tools that may be beneficial. The 45-minute webinar will be streamed Tuesday, September 15, 2020 with a Q&A session immediately following.

The Security Industry Association (SIA) welcomed a new chairman, announced its 2020 executive committee and welcomed five new members to the SIA Board of Directors at The Advance, SIA’s annual membership meeting, held virtually on Tuesday, March 17, 2020. SIA’s The Advance SIA ratified the selection of Pierre Trapanese, CEO of Northland Controls, as SIA’s chairman of the board. Trapanese has 33 years of international project and financial management experience in the security industry. He has been the sole owner of Northland Controls since 2005 and has transformed it into a global service provider with 250 Northlanders spread across offices in 5 countries. During The Advance, SIA also announced the addition of five new voting members to the SIA Board of Directors to serve terms from 2020 to 2022: Jonathan Aguila, director – systems and technology, Facebook – Global Security Stacy Deveraux, president, Electromechanical Solutions Group, ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions Mike Mathes, executive vice president, Convergint Technologies Erica McBride-Rapp, logistics manager, Allegion Tim Palmquist, vice president, Americas, Milestone Systems Following the ratification, the SIA Executive Committee for 2020 includes: Chairman: Pierre Trapanese, CEO, Northland Controls Director of Technology: Kim Loy, Vandebilt Treasurer: Scott Dunn, director, business development, Axis Communications Secretary: Lynn de Séve, president, GSA Schedules Inc. Immediate Past Chairman: Scott Schafer, principal, SMS Advisors New additions to SIA Board I am thankful to SIA for welcoming me as SIA chairman and entrusting me with the responsibilities of this role" Additionally, three existing SIA board members – Janet Fenner, chief marketing officer at Intelligent Security Systems; John E. Mack III, executive vice president, co-head of investment banking and head of mergers and acquisitions at Imperial Capital; and Tom Nakatani, vice president of customer monitoring technology and product development at ADT – renewed their involvement in the SIA Board of Directors for an additional term. “I am thankful to SIA for welcoming me as SIA chairman and entrusting me with the responsibilities of this role,” said Trapanese. “We congratulate the new and returning members to the SIA Board of Directors and the SIA Executive Committee – this is a remarkable group of security leaders poised to guide the association and industry forward.” SIA Board of Directors The SIA Board of Directors is comprised of industry professionals representing a broad spectrum of interests in the security industry. The full list of current board members can be found here. During The Advance, in addition to announcing the new board chairman, new and returning board members and executive committee, SIA shared market intelligence for the year ahead and presented its annual membership awards – the SIA Chairman’s Award, Sandy Jones Volunteer of the Year Award, Committee Chair of the Year Award and Member of the Year Award.

Milestone Systems, a global pioneer within open platform video management software (VMS), withdraws from 2020 Expo Seguridad Mexico, the largest exhibition for security products and solutions in Latin America. Due to recent developments of COVID-19 in Mexico as reported by the Mexican Ministry of Health, Milestone is enacting this proactive health measure. “The health and well-being of our partners, employees, and customers is our top priority at Milestone,” said Tim Palmquist, Vice President for the Americas at Milestone Systems. “As COVID-19 continues to unfold worldwide, we are taking this precautionary measure for the benefit of all our stakeholders in Latin America and are withdrawing from Expo Seguridad. We are in the process of considering alternative ways to share the essential information we prepared for the show.”

Milestone Systems’ annual MIPS event this year brought together a rich community of video, security, and technology solution partners focused on advancing innovation. 2020 MIPS conference Milestone Systems, a globally renowned provider of open platform video management software (VMS), hosted the 2020 Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) conference, in Dallas, Texas on February 17-19, 2020. More than 800 Milestone technology partners, end customers and influencers came together to discuss the future of video management systems. “At Milestone, we've been making choices since 1998 and the most consequential choice that we've made is the choice to support partnerships with an open platform versus going in alone,” said Tim Palmquist, Vice President for the Americas at Milestone Systems. “Our belief in creating a community with the freedom to choose is a philosophy that we've held dear from the very beginning — and we embrace this wholeheartedly. It’s now up to the integrator and the end-customer in how they choose to best deploy their VMS solutions.” Arcules-XProtect Hybrid VMS Solution The Arcules-XProtect Hybrid VMS Solution offers performance built on enterprise-grade infrastructure and security Milestone announced a new integration with sister company, Arcules, an integrated, cloud based video surveillance (VSaaS) and access control solutions (ACaaS) solutions provider for enterprises. Organizations wanting to centralize their security operation across remote branch offices and main premises can benefit from the flexibility of VSaaS and the functionality of on-premise VMS. The Arcules-XProtect Hybrid VMS Solution offers performance built on enterprise-grade infrastructure and security. Milestone Marketplace 2.0 Milestone also revealed plans to launch version 2.0 of the Milestone Marketplace in mid-2020, which enables end-users to find resellers and integrators that deliver video solutions. Integrators are invited to promote their installation experience in solving real-life customer challenges while connecting with technology partners on Marketplace. By showcasing proven installation experience along with software and hardware optimized for XProtect, the real power of Marketplace unfolds. It provides access to trustworthy and up-to-date community innovations as well as to integrators that include them in their video management solutions. VMS solutions provider Finalists in Milestone's annual software innovation contest demonstrated their visions, and MIPS 2020 participants voted for their favorite software coder with the winner being announced during the gala dinner. Milestone believes in inspiring talent to make the world see through connecting new technology ideas, business strategy, and innovation.

Milestone Systems, a pioneer within open platform video management software (VMS), withdraws from ISC West 2020, the largest converged security industry trade show in the U.S. Due to recent developments of COVID-19 in the United States, Milestone is enacting this proactive health measure. “We have been monitoring this situation very closely since MIPS Dallas concluded three weeks ago,” said Tim Palmquist, Vice President for the Americas at Milestone Systems. “At the closing of MIPS Dallas, we canceled our upcoming MIPS Dubai that was scheduled for April 20 – 22.” Carefully observing the activity of COVID-19 “Based on the unfolding conditions in APAC and EMEA at the time, we felt this was the best decision for the benefit of all our stakeholders. Since then, we have been carefully observing the activity of COVID-19 in the United States as it relates to the upcoming ISC West event in Las Vegas.” “We have, at this point, concluded that we are prioritizing people over the benefits of our participation in this event. We believe that we are making the most responsible decision to withdraw from ISC West.” Milestone Systems is considering alternative ways to share the essential information it prepared for ISC West 2020.

We live in an era of Big Data. Surrounded by a flood of information, more companies are looking for ways to analyze that information (data) and systematically extract intelligence that can help them operate more efficiently and profitably. The data obsession has extended to the physical security industry, too, where large amounts of data have historically been a little-used byproduct of our access control and even video systems. But the picture is changing. We asked this week's Expert Panel Roundtable: What impact are data analytics having on the security market?

Milestone Systems’ annual MIPS brings together a rich community of video, security, and technology solution partners focused on advancing innovation. Special guests including Milestone officers, industry leaders, renowned futurists, authors, and a popular TEDx speaker will share their inspirations. Milestone will also showcase three start-ups from its Kickstarter Contest with compelling technologies and businesses that comprehensively address pressing security and societal issues. Milestone Systems, a global provider of open platform video management software (VMS), is hosting the 2020 Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) conference, in Dallas, Texas on February 17-19, 2020. Partners, customers and influencers are invited to register for the special two-day event. Applied innovation in video surveillance Milestone will feature a variety of speakers and topics, including TEDx speaker Anders Sorman-Nilsson, and one of the Top Ten Futurists in the world, Gerd Leonhard. The event will also include an exhibition pavilion featuring products and programs from partners including Axis Communications, Dell, Intel, Herta, Lenel S2, and Seneca Data and an innovation showcase with the three most promising ideas from Milestone’s incubator program, Kickstarter. We glimpse at the future through the ideas of our Kickstarter contestants" “MIPS is a one-stop destination for applied innovation in video surveillance,” notes Tim Palmquist, Vice President for the Americas at Milestone Systems. “Each year we hear from an array of speakers that challenge our thinking about today’s technology and the new frontiers of tomorrow. We see new products and programs from the most innovative companies in our industry. Together with XProtect, they serve the needs of our many customers. Finally, we glimpse at the future through the ideas of our Kickstarter contestants. MIPS is a hub for business, network connections and, above all, novel ideas!” Video analytics Leveraging the power of the open platform, the Milestone XProtect video management software (VMS) is compatible with more than 8,500 security and surveillance devices, and more than 450 software integrations from over 3,500 technology partners. Technology partners include providers of network video cameras, cloud solutions, DVRs and NVRs, servers and storage equipment, alarm and detection systems, video analytics, GPS technology, laser and radar scanners, emergency call boxes and more. “The open platform provides an opportunity to innovate freely as circumstances and opportunities dictate, not as a VMS provider dictates,” says Palmquist. “This freedom of innovation has already yielded some of the very best technologies and collaborations in the security industry. It has also resulted in scalable and future-proof systems in healthcare, education, city surveillance and other verticals where Milestone is the platform of choice and where professionals accept nothing less than freedom of choice to do their jobs at the best of their capacity.” Milestone Marketplace 2.0 Integrators will promote their installation experience and connect with technology partners on Marketplace Milestone will launch version 2.0 of the Milestone Marketplace on its website which will enable customers to find resellers and integrators that deliver video solutions based on their pain points or location. Integrators will promote their installation experience and connect with technology partners on Marketplace hereby allowing end-users to access information on the latest innovations. “By launching Milestone Marketplace 2.0, we are inviting customers to search for the latest and greatest technologies in our community. Milestone supports the co-creation of solutions, allowing our community to supply best-in-class technology for a variety of customer needs,” says chief sales and marketing officer at Milestone, Kenneth Hune Petersen. Integrated cloud-based solutions A large part of the MIPS 2020 Dallas event focuses on the many advantages of an open solution, with the Milestone XProtect VMS platform enabling reliable and efficient integrations with thousands of third-party hardware and software products. Detailed discussions of solution applications as well as previews of new integrations and partnerships help integrators, resellers and partners of all types to shape the future of their own businesses. Cloud-based services and integrations will soon take video management systems to a new level MIPS 2020 promises to usher in new integrated cloud-based solutions, which will greatly impact the future of how video systems are designed, deployed, and monetized. Cloud-based services and integrations will soon take video management systems to a new level, expanding how security professionals think about technology and their own business models. Open for startups Additionally, three finalists in Milestone's annual Kickstarter contest will demonstrate their visions. MIPS 2020 participants will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite software coder with the winner being announced during the gala dinner. Milestone believes in inspiring talent to make the world see through connecting new technology ideas, business strategy, and innovation. Three 2020 finalists will have a chance to showcase their visions directly to the Milestone Community of partners and customers at the MIPS2020 conference and beyond. They are: Benoit Koenig is the co-founder and COO at Veesion. Benoit was confronted with shop-lifting on a regular basis in his family-owned supermarkets. During his studies in Artificial Intelligence, he saw the great potential of deep learning applied on video data, which inspired him to start Veesion with two other engineers. Veesion are developing a gesture recognition technology to detect shoplifting in the retail industry. Commenting on Benoit’s idea and company, Palmquist noted, “Veesion is what MIPS is all about. This is an innovation that addresses a major commercial issue for retailers around the world but does so using technology in a respectful, considerate and intelligent manner. I am proud and encouraged that Veesion is enabled by the open platform.” Jennifer Ivens is the founder of Canscan, a technology company that provides automated container inspection services. It was impatience and ambition that prompted her to leave her position as a logistics analyst for an ocean carrier to go into this business for herself. Canscan’s idea is the next-level shipping container checking system, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) called Virtual Checker. “Jennifer and her team have come up with an innovation that addresses many social, economic, and criminal issues. It has the potential to avert some of the human tragedies we hear of and see on television across the globe each year,” Palmquist said. Zeljko Tepic has over 15 years of experience in the development of client/server and cloud architectures. He works on projects involving advanced algorithms, signal processing, Artificial Neural Networks, deep learning, generic algorithms, fuzzy logic, spectral analysis, and more. Venzo Secure’s idea is to provide seamless awareness of critical events by transparently displaying an intuitive “alert timeline” on top of the XProtect Smart Client camera views. The solution will give customers the option to dynamically arrange a view of the cameras in the Smart Client which are closest to the event at hand, and to handle any related events, alarms, analytics or metadata inside the Milestone XProtect video platform, including those from third parties. “Smart city managers, emergency responders, and police will benefit from this new technology enabling them to better respond during a crisis. This technology is poised to save lives, and I am proud that Milestone is supporting Venzo through our Kickstarter program,” commented Palmquist. Over 750 attendees are expected to attend MIPS 2020 at The Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center on February 17-19, 2020 in Dallas, Texas.

Milestone Systems, globally renowned provider of open platform video management solutions, has announced that James Eastwood has joined its Americas leadership team as the new director of regional marketing. Eastwood’s primary responsibilities include direct oversight of Milestone’s regional marketing program (such as brand management, demand generation, event marketing, and sales enablement), as well as leadership and mentoring to the regional marketing team. Optimising channel relationships  We took a thoughtful look at how to posture our regional marketing team for 2020 and beyond" "We took a thoughtful look at how to posture our regional marketing team for 2020 and beyond. Our goal is to provide the sales team with meaningful and engaging marketing tools that they can use to optimize channel relationships and sales, as well as work closely with our global partners to develop specific marketing plans,” said Tim Palmquist, Vice President, Americas at Milestone Systems. Tim adds, “James’ understanding of integrated marketing and his ability to develop strategies that effectively build brands makes him well suited to take our marketing program to the next level.” Implementing integrated marketing strategies Eastwood has spent over two decades in the marketing industry, with an emphasis on leading teams to develop and implement integrated marketing strategies that build awareness, elevate brand perception, drive demand generation, and help achieve revenue results. Eastwood has served in a variety of roles for such respected brands as Adidas America, Major League Soccer, and The Oregonian. Most recently, he worked with the University of Oregon to develop a multichannel digital marketing strategy to help increase awareness of University of Oregon programs in target markets and grow undergraduate student recruitment. Renowned VMS solutions firm “It’s an exciting time to join the Milestone family,” stated Eastwood. “Milestone is well-positioned as an internationally renowned VMS solutions provider with many new projects on the horizon. This is an ambitious and talented group and I’m looking forward to our Americas marketing team helping to propel Milestone into its next phase of growth.”

BriefCam, the provider of VIDEO SYNOPSIS® and video content analytics solutions, announces the availability of the BriefCam Starter Kit Program. The tightly coupled appliance-based solutions, enable low-touch deployments in less than five minutes as a result of a pre-configured and a certified hardware appliance, seamless integration with the deployed VMS software, powerful and intuitive user interface and administration tools, and full access to BriefCam’s cloud-based learning management system for user and administration training. High-Value video content analytics The BriefCam Starter Kit Program is designed to meet the market demand for high-value Video Content Analytics" “The BriefCam Starter Kit Program is designed to meet the market demand for high-value Video Content Analytics, seamlessly integrated with industry leading VMS solutions with virtually plug-and-play deployment capabilities,” said Trevor Matz, BriefCam President & CEO. “This channel-friendly solution enables BriefCam and its VMS partners to rapidly deliver best-of-breed forensic analytic solutions to the sub-200 channel of the video surveillance market.” The BriefCam RapidReview Starter Kit is based on the BriefCam’s RapidReview product, with support for VIDEO SYNOPSIS, robust multi-camera search capabilities including 27 classes and attributes, as well as color, size, speed, path, direction, and dwell time, face recognition and appearance similarity. Collaborative case management quickly and effectively organizes all video assets of an investigation to further accelerate and optimize the video review process. VMS IP Address configuration Visual layers support activity level, dwell time, common paths and background changes, round out an ever increasing and powerful set of hundreds of search combinations for accelerating video investigations. The Starter Kit enables a low-touch, 5-step, 5-minute deployment for rapid time-to-value The Starter Kit enables a low-touch, 5-step, 5-minute deployment for rapid time-to-value. The simple process consists of license activation, VMS IP Address configuration, camera activation, SSO enablement/user creation and VMS plug-in installation. The Kit includes out of-the-box support for on-demand and scheduled analytics, and scales to support a maximum of 200 channels. Upgrade paths to BriefCam’s Insights and protect products are also available. Open platform community The BriefCam Starter Kit Program is available to the BriefCam’s VMS partner ecosystem with an initial offering available for Milestone XProtect. Starter kits for additional VMS partners will be available in the coming months. “Milestone enables an open platform community intended to drive innovation and collaboration across the partner ecosystem, and we are delighted to be one of the first BriefCam VMS technology partners to participate in the BriefCam Starter Kit Program,” said Tim Palmquist, Milestone Vice President of the Americas.

Milestone Systems has also been a member of the Lenel Open Access Alliance Program since 2011 Lenel, a provider of advanced security systems for over 20 years, announced that it will begin selling Milestone Systems video management software (VMS) solutions directly through the Lenel Value Added Reseller (VAR) channel in North America. This alliance will reduce the total cost of ownership for users by offering both the Lenel OnGuard access control and the Milestone XProtect VMS solutions through the same channel with reduced licensing fees. Lenel and Milestone Systems have a combined 40 years of industry experience in providing customers with open security solution technologies. Lenel is part of UTC Climate, Controls & Security, a unit of United Technologies Corp. Lenel Open Access Alliance Program Both Lenel and Milestone Systems have been committed to providing open platforms that provide customers with the flexibility to select the optimal solutions to meet their needs. Since 2011, Milestone Systems has also been a member of the Lenel Open Access Alliance Program (OAAP), which provides customers a tight coupling between the Lenel OnGuard access control system and Milestone XProtect VMS. “Enabling users to obtain both Lenel OnGuard and Milestone XProtect platforms through our VARs will provide them with a unique value proposition,” said Ron Virden, Managing Director, Global Access Solutions, UTC Climate, Controls & Security. “Not only can the solution be more cost effective, users will also be able to take advantage of a unified support infrastructure for their complete access and video system. And, the strong interface between the OnGuard and XProtect systems ensures customers will have an industry-leading security system today and into the future.” Video Verification Of Access Events "The most critical elements of a robust and powerful security solution are the access control and video management systems" “As the sophistication with network technology continues to expand, customers want to take advantage of open platform interoperability—in this case, for video verification of access events, both live and recorded, as evidence. Lenel’s move to reduce the total cost of ownership of the combined OnGuard and XProtect solution eliminates barriers to using this best-of-breed integration for improving security operations,” said Tim Palmquist, Vice President Americas, Milestone Systems. Virden went on to say, “The most critical elements of a robust and powerful security solution are the access control and video management systems. The significant technology advances achieved by OnGuard and Xprotect provide customers with a feature-rich, proven security system for protecting their people and assets. As security threats become more sophisticated they demand continuous innovation across systems, and strong interfaces between industry leaders, which is what this alliance delivers.” To hear more about this exciting alliance at ISC West 2017, visit the UTC booth, #18019 or Milestone booth, #18053.

Milestone offers the widest integration range with Bosch products in the security market At the Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) event in San Antonio, Texas, Milestone Systems named Bosch Security Systems its Americas 2016 Camera Partner of the Year. The long-standing partnership between the two companies has resulted in seamless integration and support for advanced features of Bosch IP video devices within the XProtect Video Management Software and Milestone Husky Network Video Recorders. And the partnership continues to grow, as Milestone now offers the widest integration range with Bosch products in the security market. Milestone Open Platform Community Camera Partner “Bosch is an exemplary Milestone Open Platform Community Camera Partner, showing a concentrated effort to increase the number of integrations with Milestone video management software, with Bosch Video Analytics, Access Control, Intrusion Detection, and Building Management Systems—and soon Forensic Search,” said Tim Palmquist, Vice President – Americas, Milestone Systems. “As such a strong Community Partner, they have diligently pursued innovation and worked to expand marketing and sales activities to increase the awareness of their solutions operating with the Milestone platform. With heartfelt appreciation, we congratulate our Americas 2016 Camera Partner of the Year: Bosch Security Systems.” Additional Integration Capabilities “The strength of our partnership with Milestone ensures ongoing development to bring additional integration capabilities to our mutual customers,” said Brad Eck, Integration Manager - North America, Bosch Security Systems. “As our executive, engineering, sales and marketing teams continue to collaborate, we are delivering even greater advantages to our channel partners. This includes opening up new sales opportunities for our customers by ensuring integration support for more features and more products that provide enhanced benefits for end users.” To see a live demonstration, visit the Milestone Systems booth #18053 at ISC West.

MIPS 2017’s theme ‘Together We Make the World See the Future’ reflected a newly clarified company purpose Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), held its 12th Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) this month in San Antonio, Texas, with over 500 attendees. It is an open platform community event engaging hundreds of channel and alliance partners, customers, media people, Milestone experts and management. Milestone business activities and product innovations were shared, and 60 solution partners showcased their integrated offerings and services. Community Focus On Combined Solution Power This year’s event theme ‘Together We Make the World See the Future’ reflected a newly clarified company purpose. The emphasis is on community focus for the combined solution power of the Milestone open platform and its partners. CEO & President Lars Thinggaard appeared virtually as the audience put on VR headsets to visit beautiful landmarks of Denmark as inspiration to ‘see the future’. “We can only do this together,” said Kenneth Hune Petersen, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Milestone, from the stage. “We believe that the co-creation of value is unique to our open platform community.” Milestone Community Initiatives Petersen presented the three pillars of the new Milestone community initiatives begun last year, and more are planned in future. The Milestone Marketplace will start with new developments for the Milestone Store, the Solution Finder is evolving into the Solution Portal, and the Developers Forum is expanding. The afternoon was devoted to touring the Community Innovation Lab where Milestone Solution and Technology Partners demonstrated the latest innovations in the industry. After more VR fun watching introductions for the exhibit sections, each group was led by Milestone managers, and feedback walls in each category throughout the hall journey invited brainstorming. Milestone’s open platform community offers a framework to succeed – together – leveraging each other’s innovations Key Note Speeches On day two, Milestone VP Americas Tim Palmquist gave his keynote speech, further developing his topic from last year’s MIPS event: End to End is a Dead End; The Road to the Future is Open. He questioned whether the glory days are over for the surveillance market and recommended a more realistic look at today’s maturing IP market which is experiencing a natural consolidation, product price wars and other competitive factors. “It’s no longer fast growth and ‘easy money’ like the early phases in a technology lifecycle, so new business models must be developed to encompass the next market disruptions that will come. Milestone’s open platform community offers a framework to succeed – together – leveraging each other’s innovations,” said Palmquist. Digitization Of Security Systems Mike Sherwood, Milestone Director of Technical Operations, Americas, spoke on ‘The Engine of Innovation’: “We are driven to see one another succeed: we cannot develop in a vacuum. The best companies understand that it takes more than just one company alone to really succeed. I would reword Neil Armstrong’s famous moon landing remark, that we believe in many small steps to make a big leap!” DELL VP Ron Pugh took the stage to talk about the digitization of everything in our lives and how the Internet of Things (IoT) can unlock the potential of the unconnected by bridging IT and Operational Technology (OT). Milestone Partner NMS presented the breakthrough SpotterRF compact radar surveillance integration with XProtect VMS that gives aerial and ground views for perimeter protection. Milestone Open Platform Solutions Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport shared knowledge gained from growing their systems on the Milestone open platform, including RFID readers to manage taxi traffic, and a Unified Command Vehicle with six cameras as well as a Mobile Camera Trailer with solar power. Jamie Ritchie said: “We are building for capacity with a focus on multi-purpose solutions. In our work, we always run into the unknown: the future is just the next exit away – and with the open platform, we are excited about it!” Breakout sessions in the afternoon had parallel Technology and Business Tracks covering such topics as ‘New Cool stuff in the XProtect platform’, ‘Advances in Technology Evolving the Business Model’, Video Enabling IoT with Metadata’, ‘Public Safety & Transportation Interoperability’, ‘Video-Verified Access Control’ and ‘Cloud Solutions that Work with Today’s Technology’. "The feedback we are getting from our community is a key element for setting the direction in our product development" Global Advisory Board In early 2016 Milestone created a new global Advisory Board with the first of several groups focused on the Advanced products. Others are being formed to focus on the Business Ready portfolio, overall Business Strategy and the Developers Forum. Each has members that represent the spectrum of stakeholder roles: end users, partners and Milestone staff. Monthly questionnaires have been sent (in addition to the annual global partner survey), and quarterly meetings held. “The feedback we are getting from our community is a key element for setting the direction in our product development. We see a big opportunity for high-performing, platform-centric products with strong connectivity. This shift from product to platform thinking applies to both our software and hardware offerings, and is initially addressed in the XProtect 2017 R1 release,” said Milestone CTO Bjorn Eilertsen. Awards And Recognitions The final night of MIPS announced the following awards: Anixter: Distribution Partner of the Year (Americas) Wesco: Distribution Partner of the Year (USA) Southwest Microwave: Solution Partner of the Year Quantum Corporation: Technology Partner of the Year Differential Networks/ Spotter RF/ NMS: MIP Integration of the Year Convergint Technologies (Seattle, WA): Installation of the Year Brady Integrated Security: Education Partner of the Year Convergint Technologies (Houston, TX): Retail Partner of the Year Tactical Micro/Benchmark Electronics: Transportation Partner of the Year Tech Systems: Healthcare Partner of the Year Stone Security: City Surveillance Partner of the Year App-Techs Corporation: Regional Partner of the Year AND Government Partner of the Year Prosegur Technologia (Argentina): Regional Partner of the Year Presidio: National Partner of the Year Bosch: Camera Partner of the Year, Americas Axis Communications: Supported Camera #6,000 in Milestone Device Pack release 9.0 The first-ever Milestone Community Kickstarter Contest Winner of awards valued at $50,000 was Parking Spotter. Milestone Systems will be hosting MIPS Community events in Macao end of February and in Dubai early May, as well as other Milestone events in many regions throughout the year.

Are the glory days of IP video behind us? Not by a long shot, if you listen to the upbeat message at ‘Milestone Community Days’ in San Antonio this month. Pledging to ‘Make the World See,’ the community of technology partners, distributors, integrators and customers joined in a celebration of past successes, with an emphasis on future possibilities, at the yearly gathering hosted by the video management system (VMS) vendor. Milestone Software Integrations "The industry is changing and it's not a time for business as usual," said Bjørn Skou Eilertsen, Milestone Systems Chief Technology Officer (CTO). "Our Open Platform Community is changing the way video technologies are used." Milestone has completed more than 150 software integrations using its platform, supports more than 6,000 camera models and is deployed in more than 150,000 surveillance installations around the world. The emphasis on community – how multiple companies can work together on systems built around the Milestone platform – has become a familiar theme at the yearly Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS), this year re-dubbed ‘Milestone Community Days.’ Unified And Integrated Experience There was a lot of talk about ‘co-created innovation’ and ‘co-created value’; the premise being that a ‘community’ working together through successful partnerships can accelerate collective innovation, combining best-of-breed solutions into a unified, integrated experience for customers. The community strategy creates an external ecosystem to generate complementary products and service innovations and to build positive feedback between the complements and the platform. The emphasis on community has become a familiar theme at the yearly Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) "If you rely on your own employees, you will never solve all your customers' needs," added Eilertsen. "No matter who you are, most of the best people work for someone else. If you believe you have all the smart guys in your organization, you are wrong. We need the whole community to engage." There are more glory days ahead for video, according to Milestone. Video is changing the way companies are working, automating and driving compliance. It is becoming part of every industry and companies are using video in new ways. The Milestone community works to ensure continued innovation through a developer program, technology adoption programmes, advisory board and other initiatives. In effect, the community approach will continue to fuel growth, even if "the easy money is over," as Tim Palmquist, Milestone vice president, Americas, acknowledged. Virtual Reality Technology was a big part of MIPS 2017, including an exhibition of industry partners showing their contributions to the collective innovation. It was called the ‘Milestone Community Innovation Lab.’ A tour of the exhibition focused attention on each category of partners – storage systems, cameras, video analytics, etc. Attendees were provided with virtual reality (VR) goggles to view videos positioning Milestone's approach to each category, and then had time to meet with the various partners. The VR goggles were also used to view Lars Thinggaard, Milestone's president and CEO, addressing the group in a VR video produced at Milestone's headquarters in Denmark, formatted into the full virtual reality experience. One technology topic was hardware acceleration, which can increase surveillance system performance at the client level, at the recorder and/or for a mobile server application. Hardware acceleration involves leveraging the power of a graphics processing unit (GPU) to ease the computing load on the central processing unit (CPU). It is seen as an important enabling technology for the larger computational loads of higher camera count systems, and higher resolution/4K cameras. Milestone testing has confirmed a massive improvement in video processing using hardware acceleration. “Video is changing the way companies are working anddriving compliance. It is becoming part of every industry" Milestone Solution Portal Pre-recorded buffering in RAM (random-access memory) is one of the ways Milestone is improving performance and lowering costs of storage solutions. Buffering extends the life of the hard drive with minimal impact on RAM. Milestone has committed to provide a ‘solution portal’ as a peer-to-peer resource to promote greater innovation, such as bundling together solutions from various companies. Enabling co-selling among partners, the portal makes it easy to explore and combine elements with a global reach. A ‘Milestone store’ portal is also being devised, providing fast configuration, efficient order handling through distribution and encompassing the complete product portfolio. Applications beyond security are growing, with more on the horizon. "More than 35 percent of global installations have purposes instead of, or in addition to, surveillance," says Eilertsen. "It's changing the way companies are working, automating and driving compliance. Video is becoming part of every single industry." Plenty of reasons to be optimistic – and in the case of Milestone, ambitious: "We want to be a part of every surveillance installation in the world through video technology,” said Kenneth Hune Petersen, Milestone's Chief Sales and Marketing Officer.

Tracy Little comes to Milestone Systems with more than 18 years of management experience in the physical security industry Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), has announced Tracy Little as the U.S. National Sales Manager, East Region. He resides in the Twin Cities metro area near St. Paul, Minnesota. As a member of the Milestone Americas Sales Team, he reports directly to Mike Taylor, Director of Sales, Americas. Tracy Little comes to Milestone Systems with more than 18 years of management experience in the physical security industry. He has held leadership positions as Vice President Enterprise Accounts Americas at IR Security & Safety, Director National Accounts North America at AMAG Technology, as well as the Regional Security & Fire Sales Manager for the Northwest Region at Johnson Controls. His experience in both manufacturer and integration firms has been helping Fortune 500 companies achieve their security and safety goals from unique perspectives. Tracy Little is a member of the ASIS International organization, and has achieved certificates in Entrepreneurial General Management, Project Management Mastery, Lean Six Sigma, and Organizational Strategic Change at Duke Corporate Executive Education. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. “Tracy has a proven knack for attracting, negotiating, developing and growing new and existing accounts,” says Tim Palmquist, VP Americas at Milestone Systems. “His deep background makes him exactly the type of leader we need for managing multiple sales activities in the very dynamic Eastern region. His knowledge of the industry will prove valuable as we broaden our network and deepen our channel sales support to achieve and exceed our mutual goals in the coming year.”

Event provided the distribution partners with an opportunity to network Milestone Systems, the open platform company in IP video management software (VMS), held it’s first-ever summit devoted solely to distribution partners. The theme for the event was ‘Winning Together’. This is the Milestone focus for 2015 to signal an even greater dedication to the Milestone partner ecosystem. Opportunity to distributors The summit took place at the global headquarters in Denmark and provided the Milestone distribution partners with an opportunity to network and learn more about all the ways that Milestone supports expanding their business. Attendees discovered the latest Milestone partner tools, dove deeper into Milestone product offerings, discussed industry-shaping trends and shared ideas for better serving the market’s needs through open platform video solutions. During the two-day event, Milestone executives and experts addressed the group about utilising open platform technology advantages to foster growth. There was a focus on how distributors all over the region can accelerate their activities more effectively by leveraging Milestone’s expertise and selling tools. Summit awards The Milestone focus on increasing the indirect sales channel started in 2014. To celebrate the outstanding results achieved in EMEA, several awards were given out during the summit: Milestone EMEA Distributor of the Year 2014: NIT Milestone EMEA Strategic Project Win 2014: Smartwares Milestone EMEA Partnership Award 2014: Ulkem Milestone EMEA Open Platform Excellence Award 2014: Elmat “We are delighted to recognise these Milestone Distribution Partners with these awards as a testament to their innovative approach, dedication to open platform technology and strong customer relationships,” said Thomas Lausten, Milestone Systems VP EMEA. “Milestone is a company based on the premise of partnerships: the energy and the dedication to work even closer with Milestone was an uplifting experience for us all at this summit.” Latest addition to Milestone The Milestone focus on distributors is not limited to EMEA - this is a global strategy. Milestone is constantly expanding the organisation’s approach to improving business with the indirect channel. The latest addition to this organisation is Shane Loy, Distribution Manager Americas, Milestone Systems.                          “Milestone is a company based on the premise of partnerships" Shane joined Milestone Systems at the end of February 2015 after 17 years with HID Global in numerous roles, most recently as Vice President of Sales, Secure Issuance & Distribution Channels for North America. While working at HID, he moved up through the company in the following roles: Regional Sales Manager; Senior Regional Sales Manager, Central USA & Canada; Director of Sales, Distribution, North America; Vice President of Sales, Distribution Channel, North America.“Shane brings a wealth of experience in the physical security marketplace, as well as an excellent reputation. He is already well known to many of the Milestone distribution partners, and he brings important expertise and understanding of the nuances of selling products through the distribution channel,” said Tim Palmquist, VP Americas at Milestone Systems. “We are looking forward to Shane’s contributions and proud to welcome him to our team of industry professionals.”

WLANmall was recognized because of the sophisticated surveillance systems it planned, built and implemented WLANmall and its parent company, Continental Computers, were named Milestone Systems’ 2014 Regional Partner of the Year at the 10th Annual Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) 2015 in Las Vegas. Milestone Systems is a global industry leader in open platform IP video management software. WLANmall Customers: WLANmall was recognized because of the sophisticated surveillance systems it planned, built and implemented throughout the US, which included Milestone Systems open platform IP video management software (VMS), for a variety of customers, including: A sprawling technology campus with multiple locations that required facility control/monitoring (Milestone XProtect® Professional/Milestone XProtect® Access Control Module); Numerous law enforcement agencies for both covert (i.e. undercover investigations) and overt (i.e. public space observation) surveillance (Milestone XProtect® Corporate); Several municipalities to ensure public safety (Milestone XProtect Corporate); and Elementary, secondary and tertiary educational facilities for student protection and early notice of suspect activity (Milestone XProtect® VMS). “We are honored to receive this award from Milestone Systems, which is such an innovator in the IP video management space,” said Ronen Isaac, vice president of WLANmall. “Milestone continues to expand its offerings of leading edge, scalable and reliable solutions that have been the cornerstone of our end-to-end security and surveillance systems that help keep our customer assets secure and municipalities safer.” “WLANmall is the winner of our Regional Partner of the Year award for 2014 for showing dedication to the Milestone brand and for a strong mutual partnership that has produced significant revenue growth year over year,” said Tim Palmquist, VP Americas for Milestone Systems. “Their commitment to achieving and maintaining Milestone’s Expert Certification in its staff has resulted in exceptional quality in the design, installation and support of our XProtect video management systems.”