So here we are on the brink of another Super Bowl Sunday. I don’t really care who wins since my underachieving, self-destructive Dallas Cowboys have been as much of a spectator as I have been since the outset of the postseason tournament. I suppose if I have to select someone to root for in this match-up, it would have to be the Arizona Cardinals — even though teams should represent cities rather than states — since they are the underdog (about +7 last time I checked). Plus it’s all about NFC solidarity, the fact the Pittsburgh Steelers have branded...

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I came across an interesting survey in the December/January issue of Conde Nast Portfolio magazine, a new entry among business publications that I highly recommend, that I wanted to share with readers of Under Surveillance. The data reflects how businesspeople are feeling about the recession and increased pressures and stress in the workplace. When asked if they feared losing their job, more than three-fourths (76 percent) of the survey’s respondents said there was a “small” to “good” chance of becoming unemployed. Should that take place, nearly as many (73 percent) believe finding a new position would be “somewhat” to “very” difficult....

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Digital technology and IP connectivity have made video surveillance an amazingly powerful facet of security and an increasingly valuable business management tool, not to mention a huge source of revenue growth for security integrators. Continued refinements along with advancements in wireless technology, analytics, scalability and integratability, among other areas, are only serving to expand the applications and ubiquity of video solutions even more. However, for all its virtues this new era of video surveillance presents at least an equal number of challenges and quandaries — and I am not talking about commoditization. Traditionally, video surveillance has always been a...

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As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, I recently conducted a roundtable at the First Alert Professional Conference with four of the most experienced and respected CEOs from some of the installation community’s most successful companies. The two-hour discourse included John Bourque of Cranston, R.I.-based HB Alarm; Joe Hassan of Certified Security Systems in Jacksonville, Fla.; John Jennings of Safeguard Security and Communications in Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Joe Nuccio of ASG Security in Beltsville, Md. Although much of the discussion will be available in the January issue of SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION, with bonus content in...

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