Physical security - Round table discussions
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) describes standards as guidelines or characteristics for activities or for their results, aimed at achieving the optimum degree of order. They might include product standards, test methods, codes of practice, guideline standards, and management systems standards. In the security marketplace, there are many standards currently used, including those from organizations such as ONVIF, PSIA and ASIS International. Might the value of standardiza...
Meeting a customer’s expectations is a key component of success for any business, including the physical security market. However, understanding customers’ expectations is a big challenge, which is made even more difficult because those expectations are a moving target. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How are customer expectations changing in the physical security market? Their wide-ranging answers highlight elements from technology expectations to adaptability to...
As security industry buzzwords go, “convergence” is perhaps the best known and most pervasive. We have been hearing about convergence in our market for almost 20 years. We have heard it’s happening soon. We have heard it’s inevitable. And yet, for all the talk of convergence, it has sometimes seemed there has been more talk than action. We wanted to check in with our Expert Panel Roundtable and get their latest takes on this most enduring of industry buzzwords. We asked t...
Once again, ISC West has come and gone. The show continues to please exhibitors and attendees. Reviews are generally glowing and enthusiastic. For all its successes, however, there is a certain repetition from year to year – a lot of the same players, the same technology trends (not to mention the same venue every year, but who doesn’t like Vegas?) But even among the repetition, there is usually at least one element that is surprising. Perhaps it’s the unexpected elements that...
Lower equipment prices (with less margin) are one industry trend leading more integrators to seek out new sources of revenue. With margins shrinking on lucrative, but unpredictable, “project-based” business, integrators are looking for more revenue stability. One solution is recurring monthly revenue (RMR), which is already common in the related field of alarm monitoring. But where does RMR come from? Creating more RMR also requires that integrators change how they do business, from...
The minutes are counting down to one of the biggest security industry trade shows of the 2017 calendar. Expectations are high going into ISC West 2017 in Las Vegas: Last year’s show was very well attended and highlighted lots of new technologies. Looking ahead to this year’s show, we wanted to get the Expert Panel Roundtable’s take on what news will dominate the show. So we asked our panel: What do you expect to be the big news at ISC West 2017?
Changes in our industry’s technologies are reflected in the language we use. Over the years, more than one industry trend has been tied to associated buzzwords – for better or worse. As the technologies change, so does the language. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What are the industry’s newest “buzzwords” and what do they reflect about the changing market?
Open systems are great at providing freedom for end user customers. But does the term “open system” mean the same thing throughout the industry? In the bad old days before the introduction and broad acceptance of open systems, security vendors produced proprietary systems that used only their own hardware and software. This locked in a customer to a specific vendor’s product line, and if another vendor offered a better product, the only way to get it was to switch to that vendo...
Some Expert Panel Roundtable topics are more challenging than others. Occasionally a question will “stump” the panel – i.e., no one will choose to answer it. Other times, only one or two panelists will step forward to answer a question. One comment does not a “panel” make. Taken together, however, these varied comments offer their own range of insights into the evolving physical security market. Let’s look at some of these assorted Expert Panel comments over t...
The end of the year is a great time to reflect on what the security industry has accomplished and to look ahead. We invited our Expert Panel Roundtable to weigh in on what they expect looking forward to the new year. Most industry-watchers are familiar with the major trends, but how will those trends play out in 2017? Specifically, we asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What will be the biggest headlines for the security marketplace in 2017?
In a fast-moving market like physical security, sharing information is an essential component of growth. However, there often seems to be more information available than an integrator or end user could ever digest and put to use. How does one go about finding the information he or she needs in an environment that can seem to be drowning in information (sometimes the wrong information). We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable to share their strategies and suggestions. Specifically, we...
We in the physical security market tend to watch closely how the buying decision is made. If anything, the buying process has become more complex in recent years. We have seen the impact of security systems extending beyond the core security department, and with greater impact come more stakeholders. “Buying by committee” is more the rule than the exception, and the committee is getting rather large in some situations. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Who should be...
When a big security breach occurs, the phones start ringing at security companies, or so the expectation goes. The nature of security is that it takes a security breach, or even a high-profile tragedy, to convince managers of the need for security technology. When a school shooting occurs, schools take note. When terrorism strikes a soft target, other vulnerable institutions notice. Same for hospitals and airports and even nightclubs. When an event occurs, it gets attention that could translate...
IP network dependability matters in physical security and safety applications, given that a company’s assets and people are at risk. There have been strides in the areas of network dependability, fault-tolerance, reliability, and survivability. However, networks (or affordable ones, at any rate) still cannot ensure near-100 percent uptime, which is why system designers acknowledge and plan for the possibility of a network outage. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How can/...
Big security trends are driving change in the physical security market. We see change happening around us every day, and much of it is disruptive to the status quo. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What has caused the greatest disruption to the physical security market in the last 12 months?
Here we are already at mid-year, and 2016 has been an eventful one for the security marketplace, dominated by mergers and acquisitions and lots of new products coming to the market. But what’s the outlook for technology in the second half of the year? What technologies will draw the most attention and drive the market into 2017? We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What technology buzz will dominate the security industry in the second half of 2016?
Does seeing video cameras at a location make you feel safer or less safe? Do you feel better to know that video surveillance is capturing everything that happens, thus discouraging crime? Or do you think: What kind of neighborhood (or store) is this that needs a CCTV camera watching everything? Do you feel more secure when the security guard at the hotel elevator asks to see your room key? Do airport screenings ease your mind about getting on an airplane with 100 strangers? The “perception...
How mobile telephones have transformed into “smartphones” is one of the great technology stories of our time. What once was a single-function device now can do almost anything – display video, pay for groceries, monitor our health. The smartphones we carry in our pockets today have more computing power than the “super computers” of yesteryear, and that power has found many uses in a seemingly endless array of “apps.” Some of them are directly related to...
As more security equipment categories become commoditized, a previously rich source of income for integrators and installers – markup – is becoming harder to come by. Less expensive products with little to no perceptible value differentiation leave integrators with few options, not to mention the growth of pricing transparency that comes courtesy of the Internet. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Given the increase in commoditized hardware (i.e., lower profit margin...
The security market in the United States has been in a collective state of exhilaration since ISC West. The (possibly) unprecedented success of the big trade show has left us all feeling optimistic about the year ahead. Members of our Expert Panel Roundtable are joining the chorus of compliments for the show as they answer this week’s question: How successful was ISC West 2016? Did it meet your expectations?
Cities are increasingly connected using information and communication technologies, a trend often referred to as “smart cities.” In much the same way, “safe cities” initiatives are uniting businesses, city officials, law enforcement and other stakeholders in an effort to maximize the safety of businesses and citizens and to minimize theft and crime. Safe cities programs seek to leverage a variety of resources, including public-private partnerships, to make urban communiti...
Women in Security will be a focus at this year's ISC West in Las Vegas, including targeted conference sessions and the Women in Security Forum Breakfast on Friday, April 12. As a preview of the upcoming events, let's revisit an Expert Panel Roundtable on this subject. We asked: How is the role of women in the physical security market changing and expanding?
Terrorism is in the headlines all over the world. After any such incident, many of us in the physical security market find ourselves asking: What could we have done to prevent it? Assessing risk and preventing catastrophes before the fact are part of our market’s DNA; and yet, too often the random nature of terrorist attacks and their targeting of public places leave us unsure of anything anyone could have done. How can we translate the benefits of our industry’s products into real-w...
We hear that everything is going to the cloud – or is it? Security end users can be understandably confused by conflicting claims in the market from proponents of cloud-based or server-based systems. A number of major security companies are offering cloud video surveillance solutions apart from the traditional server-based systems. At the end of the day, how do you choose? What factors should be considered? We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What factors should a customer...
As the security industry continues to evolve and come up with innovative technologies, it has also thrown open the doors for competition among manufacturers of security systems and products. Price wars are emerging in the physical security market, while manufacturers and integrators are looking for new ways to offer greater value and better service. It’s one thing to fight it out for a new customer, but nobody wants to lose an existing customer based on price, or any other factor for that...
Will 2016 see faster adoption of video analytics? Will cyber-security have more impact on physical security? Is the market likely to see greater use of cloud-based products and services? Will technology help to drive greater involvement by everyday citizens in public safety initiatives? Could the market focus shift from selling products to selling solutions? We asked this week’s SourceSecurity.com Expert Panel to look ahead to 2016, and these were some of the surprises they see in o...
The connected workplace, increase in “bring you own device” environments and even the rise in telecommuting have served to blur the lines between an employee’s private life and his employment. The idea of an executive’s obsessive need to check his Blackberry while on vacation has crept into the popular culture and is now a familiar cliché that is as old as, well, Blackberries. The blurring of lines has also created a blurring of expectations. Now employees expect t...
People using computers to surf the Internet is "so 20th century". Today, the big trend involves machines using the Internet to communicate, exchange and analyze data in what has widely become known of as the Internet of Things. Various security devices are among the IoT components, and how devices connect effectively using the Internet – even devices not related to security – will constitute a large part of the future business of security integrators and installers, whether in the re...
With more physical security systems using Internet protocol and being connected to the enterprise IT network, it’s not surprising that the corporate IT department is more involved than ever in the buying decision – for better or worse. Does the IT department bring valuable resources to the table, or are they an impediment to the sales and integration process? It’s not a new issue, but an increasingly important one as the industry changes. We asked this week’s Expert Panel...
Most of today’s video surveillance cameras are capable of providing audio, but when should it be implemented? Acceptable uses of audio surveillance, as opposed to video, are a different concept in many jurisdictions worldwide. Privacy laws regarding audio may be more stringent than those for video, but both tend to center around the concept of an “expectation of privacy,” which may mean something different in the case of audio versus video. How can system designers and end user...
