Security service - Round table discussions

Assembling security solutions has long been considered the role of the integrator, whose role is to pick and choose the best technology tools and then to assemble the complete system. However, more manufacturers are offering pre-integrated end-to-end solutions that include multiple elements from the same manufacturer, designed to work seamlessly together. At the end of the day, end users want to know: Whose role is it to provide security ‘solutions’ – the manufacturer or the in...

Facial recognition is a mature technology that continues to change and evolve. New innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) are expanding facial recognition capabilities, even as privacy concerns, though often misguided, undermine wider acceptance in the market. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What are the new developments in facial recognition?

Residential security and smart homes are rapidly changing facets of the larger physical security marketplace, driven by advances in consumer technology and concerns about rising crime rates. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people spent more time at home and became more aware of the need for greater security. As workplaces opened back up, returning workers turned to technology to help them keep watch over their homes from afar. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What are the...

Since the advent of the physical security industry, access control has been synonymous with physical cards, whether 125 kHz ‘prox’ cards or the newer smart card alternatives. However, other credentials have also come on the scene, including biometrics and even smart phones. Some of these choices have distinct cost and security advantages over physical cards. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How soon will the access control card become extinct and why? 

Cost is a reality to be managed. No matter how powerful or desirable a technology may be to a customer, the sale often comes down to the basic question: Can I afford it? And affordability extends not just to the purchase price, but to the cost of technology over its lifespan. In addition to advances in technology capabilities, the security industry has also achieved inroads to make its offerings more worth the cost. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What is the physical securi...

“Deep learning” is recently among the more prevalent jargon in the physical security industry, and for good reason. The potential benefits of this subset of artificial intelligence (AI) are vast, and those benefits are only now beginning to be understood and realised. But how can we separate the marketing hype from reality? How can we differentiate between future potential and the current state of the art? To clarify the latest on this new technology, we asked this week’s Exper...

The idea of touchless systems has gained new levels of prominence during the last year, driven by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Contactless systems have been part of the industry’s toolbox for decades, while technologies like facial and iris recognition are finding new uses every day. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Which security markets are embracing touchless, contactless systems and why? 

Adoption of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by the European Union in 2016 set a new standard for data privacy. But adherence to GDPR is only one element, among many privacy concerns sweeping the global security community and leaving almost no product category untouched, from access control to video to biometrics. Because privacy concerns are more prevalent than ever, we asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What is the impact on the physical security market?

Many of us take critical infrastructure for granted in our everyday lives. We turn on a tap, flip a switch, push a button, and water, light, and heat are all readily available. But it is important to remember that computerized systems manage critical infrastructure facilities, making them vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The recent ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline is an example of the new types of threats. In addition, any number of physical attacks is also possibilities. We asked this we...

Perimeter security is the first line of defense against intruders entering a business or premises. Traditionally associated with low-tech options such as fencing, the field of perimeter security has expanded in recent years and now encompasses a range of high-tech options. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What are the latest trends in perimeter security technology?

In the past few weeks, the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel has brightened, providing new levels of hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Dare we now consider what life will be like after the pandemic is over? Considering the possible impact on our industry, we asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Which security technologies will be most useful in a post-pandemic world?

Security systems are vital to any company. Nowadays, however, they can also provide additional benefits to any enterprise beyond protecting people, assets and facilities. Specifically, systems that were previously focused on security can now be leveraged in new ways to benefit the broader enterprise. When this happens, the security department transitions from a ‘cost center’ to a repository of data that can benefit the whole company, and even contribute to the bottom line. We asked t...

When technology performs a required task effectively, there is little reason to upgrade to the ‘next big thing’. In this regard, the physical security market is notoriously slow to change. Much of yesterday’s most robust and dependable equipment is still in place at thousands of customer sites, still performing as well as the day it was installed. However, there comes a point when any technology becomes outdated. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: Which securi...

It has been two years or so since the last ISC West trade show, the biggest security show in the U.S. market. The coronavirus pandemic has caused a year’s worth of trade show cancellations, and the trend will continue for a while longer. The absence of trade shows has been transformative for the security marketplace, among others, as companies implemented a variety of alternative approaches, with mixed results. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What impact has the cancel...

The ability to treat patients in a secure environment is a base requirement of hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Whether facilities are large or small, security challenges abound, including perimeter security, access control of sensitive areas, video surveillance, and even a long list of cyber-risks. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What are the security challenges of hospitals and the healthcare industry?

Technology advancements often come with new terms and definitions. The language of our marketplace evolves to include new words that describe innovations in the industry. In the skilled hands of marketers, terms intended to be descriptive can also take a new element of ‘buzz,’ often presaging exciting developments that will drive the future. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable:  What new buzzword have you heard, and what does it mean for the industry?

The new year 2019 is brimming with possibilities for the physical security industry, but will those possibilities prove to be good news or bad news for our market? Inevitably, it will be a combination of good and bad, but how much good and how bad? We wanted to check the temperature of the industry as it relates to expectations for the new year, so we asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How optimistic is your outlook for the physical security industry in 2019? Why?

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 tech...

Social media is part of our everyday lives, and increasingly it is also part of the security marketplace. Social media can be used for effective marketing and to communicate with customers, and it can be leveraged as a tool to make us all more secure. Communicating information in a crisis is another role social media can play to promote security. To elaborate on social media’s increasingly vital presence in the security marketplace, we asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: What...

Measuring return on investment (ROI) has long presented a challenge to the security marketplace. Investment in security is often viewed as a necessary cost whose benefits cannot be measured. For example, how do you measure the value of an event that doesn’t happen (i.e., that has been prevented)? The difficulty of measuring ROI doesn’t diminish customers’ appetite for it, however. Today’s choosy customers are driven more than ever by the bottom line and expect any and all...

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...

Distributors have traditionally played an important role in the physical security market, ensuring ready availability of products that systems integrators need to complete their projects. But a changing industry has had dramatic impact all along the supply chain of which distributors are a critical link. We asked this week’s Expert Panel Roundtable: How is the role of distributors changing in the market, and what is the impact?

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...

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...

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?

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...

An eruption of violence at a church in Charleston, S.C., this June has increased awareness of the potential for such incidents at our houses of worship. On June 17 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in downtown Charleston, a 21-year-old attacker wielding a Glock 41 .45-caliber handgun took the lives of nine people. But it was far from the first security breach at a house of worship. In fact, since 1999, more than 500 people have died a violent death on church or faith-based prop...

Salesmen may face pressure to “seal the deal,” but might an overemphasis on the ABCs of selling (“always be closing”) actually work to the detriment of an unsuspecting customer coerced into buying too much (or the wrong) technology to meet his or her needs? Not likely, according to our Expert Panel, who this week address the topic of salesmanship in the security market. We asked: Can an end user trust a security salesman’s advice? Our responses are overwhelmingly in...

Rapid technology innovation in the physical security market comes with it a commensurate need to dispose of older systems as they are replaced. Some technologies can help minimize the waste, providing, for example, the ability to use existing coaxial cable with newer IP video systems. However, absent the ability to reuse equipment, how should integrators manage disposal of systems at end-of-life? Here are some responses from our Expert Panel.

The retired police officer who takes a cushy job as a security director is almost a cultural cliché. Like any cliché, the idea has roots in the real world, where police departments have often been a rich source of the security industry’s leadership talent. Former military personnel often find their way to the security industry, too, and realize that the familiar elements of discipline and command structure translate well. We wondered about the impact of this historic trend an...