Milestone Systems recently hosted its annual Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) in Hollywood, Calif., a partner event that attracted several hundred integrators, manufacturers, distributors and other value-added resellers. Held at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel & Spa (a stone’s throw from the Kodak Theatre, home to the Academy Awards), the 7th annual event was chockablock with networking and knowledge-sharing sessions, technology presentations, workshops and training certifications. Milestone President and CEO Lars Thinggaard addressed the assemblage during the opening general session and provided a forcefully optimistic business update for the company. After taking aggressive actions in 2008 to safeguard its finances in...

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The significance of the California Alarm Association’s (CAA) positive impact on installing security contractors was on fine display during its winter convention in San Francisco.   Held Dec. 10-12 at the Hilton San Francisco near Union Square, alarm company operators from throughout the western region were joined by manufacturers and other service providers for an intensive three days of networking, educational sessions, vendor exhibits, and a poignant life achievement tribute dinner honoring George DeMarco.   With more than 300 registered attendees and 65 exhibitors, Matt Westphal, CAA president, proclaimed during the general session the association had attracted...

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As 20-year anniversaries go, Honeywell’s First Alert Professional convention in sunny San Diego was one impressive get-together. Held Nov. 19-22, more than 700 attendees from among First Alert’s 340 or so independent dealer companies convened at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel for the...

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I have to say I was pleasantly surprised, as were just about all the exhibitors, with the turnout of last week's (Oct. 27-28) ISC East at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York. The fact that the first game of the World Series at Yankee Stadium coincided with the opening of the show added to the buzz. Granted, the floor space had been wisely consolidated some to account for fewer exhibitors and smaller booths but the activity was nonetheless healthy despite crummy, rainy weather. What's more is that, as was the case with ASIS in Anaheim, Calif., this past...

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During the recent ASIS event in Anaheim, Calif., I attended HID Global's 90-minute press conference in which company President and CEO Denis Hebert delivered a status report and overview of the access control solutions provider's business and operations. The session was well attended and included case study history presentations from three satisfied HID Global customers. Hebert stressed how a leading driver for the business today is going beyond hardware to deliver security via secure access tokens and software-driven applications. He identified HID's development strategies as spanning physical access, logical access, secure issuance and contactless transactions. Supporting those are the implementation of...

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ADT Security Services recently hosted its 4th annual Media Summit, this year in Dallas, which I attended and covered in another Under Surveillance posting. One of the many presentations I sat in on involved some local police chiefs discussing the municipal surveillance systems that have been put into service within their jurisdictions. I thought they provided interesting perspectives and wanted to share them with you here in the only in depth coverage of this session of which I am aware.   This blog is an extension of sorts of the end-user roundtable article in the November issue of SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION...

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Just back from a nearly two-week business trip to the West Coast that included taking in the 55th ASIS Int'l show in Anaheim, Calif., in the shadow of Disneyland. My jaunt also included a working breakfast with SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION's Editorial Advisory Board and SSI's 2010 planning meetings. Consequently, I am very excited about what we have in store for our readers in the coming year. You can get a sense of some of it by checking out our new media kit. As for ASIS, there was no question about the traffic being down and exhibitors (fewer in number and taking up less floor...

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Last week I had the pleasure to participate in the 2009 ADT Media Summit, which this year was held in Dallas. As a lifelong Cowboys fan it was to my great lament that the trip did not include a game or even a glimpse of America’s Team’s fancy new $1.5 billion stadium. However, I was nevertheless delighted to be able to participate in this event for the first time since ADT began hosting them four years ago. This experience was enjoyable, enlightening and productive.   The two-day summit included an overview of ADT’s commercial business, a tour of the company’s Carrollton site including...

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I recently had the pleasure of spending about 90 minutes knocking around some ideas and discussing the latest industry and business trends and challenges with the CEOs of four leading systems integration companies. Tim Feury of Altec Systems in Marietta, Ga., Jim Henry of Henry Bros. Electronics in Fair Lawn, N.J., Chuck Lesnewski of Cam Connections in Lakeland, Fla., and Gary Venable of All Systems in Kansas City, Kan., discussed favoring recurring revenue and billable hours over selling boxes, supply chain conflicts, and much more. You can read a lot of the roundtable discussion in the pages of SSI's August...

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Fresh back from my first trip to Baltimore as an exhibitor and attendee of last week's Electronic Security Expo (ESX). In its second year, this National Burglar & Fire Alarm (NBFAA) and Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) produced event enjoyed good news and bad news. The exhibit, which had been so absent of attendees last year (in Nashville, Tenn.) as to allow vendors to become intimate acquaintances, was up 30 percent according to ESX Chair George De Marco. However, attendance for many of the educational seminars, which was the real bright spot in ESX's inaugural 2008 incarnation, was down significantly. Some sessions were...

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The second Electronic Security Expo (ESX) is set for next week (June 22-26) at the Baltimore Convention Center. This event, which is organized jointly by the National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association (NBFAA) and Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA), is striving to develop into a must-go show approaching the level of ISC or ASIS. It certainly could hardly have been introduced into a more hostile business environment, being launched in 2008 as gasoline prices were soaring, the economy was reeling and the banking industry was on the verge of collapse and ready to take Wall Street down with it. And although...

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The PSA Security Network hosted another successful PSA-TEC event at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Ill., last week. This has always been my very favorite industry event due to the unique combination of outstanding industry training, exhibits and relaxed networking opportunities. It was especially enjoyable this year as SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION for the first time served as the conference's Elite Media Sponsor. Perhaps not so coincidentally despite widespread economical challenges PSA-TEC 2009 surpassed last year in both attendance and the number of companies represented. Furthermore, there was a high level of first-time attendees to a tradition with a legacy stretching back a...

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I wanted to share with you a few of the cool technologies and opportunities to be on the lookout for as a result of my meetings at ISC West 2009 in Las Vegas. This is the final installment of four summaries. ON-NET SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS (OnSSI) Jeff Knapp clued me in about Ocularis Video Synopsis, an optional module resulting from a collaboration between OnSSI and BriefCam, that uniquely enables the compression of video activity into a very short timeframe for faster identification of key events. A day of video footage can be compressed into a 60-second video clip. I saw this in action and it was quite...

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I wanted to share with you a few of the cool technologies and opportunities to be on the lookout for as a result of my meetings at ISC West 2009 in Las Vegas. This is the third of several summaries. ALTRONIX Spent some quality time with Alan Forman, president of Altronix, for an enlightening presentation on how the industry's best-known manufacturer of power supplies is keeping up with networked technologies. NetWay is a midspan PoE solution designed to deliver greater functionality and efficiency for IP video systems in one-, eight- and 16 port-configurations that accommodate both PoE and conventional IP cameras – including...

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I wanted to share with you a few of the cool technologies and opportunities to be on the lookout for as a result of my meetings at ISC West 2009 in Las Vegas. This is the second of several summaries.   RISCO GROUP I had an interesting sit-down with Len Friedman, former marketing manager for Bosch who is now president and CEO of RISCO Group. RISCO who? RISCO is the parent company of long-time Israeli intrusion sensors leader Rokonet. That brand is being folded into the RISCO name in an effort to better reflect the company's new multifaceted suite of offerings that span...

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I wanted to share with you a few of the cool technologies and opportunities to be on the lookout for as a result of my meetings at ISC West 2009 in Las Vegas. This is the first of several summaries. HONEYWELL SYSTEMS Honeywell Systems revealed that it is taking the trepidation and guesswork out of offering remote managed access control by giving dealers what the company is calling a Playbook. As the familiar football jingle goes, Are you ready for some access? Senior Manager of Honeywell Access Systems John Smith told me how this guide will provide dealers with everything they need to...

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I bring good news from the desert where I encountered an oasis of relief from the recession blues in the form of ISC West Las Vegas. Even if you did not attend you may have heard the deafening din of exhibitors' (and show organizer Reed Exhibitions) collective exhale once the event got under way April 1. Vendors -- many of which have experienced as high as 30- to 40-percent dropoffs in business this year -- that had braced for the worst by downsizing their exhibit booths and sending fewer people to the show were not only ecstatic to see busy attendee traffic but also...

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Well howdy, sports fans! I have been SO busy preparing for the big ISC West show in Las Vegas next week, including our SAMMY Awards event. This year's SAMMYs, which I am hosting, promises to be extra-special. Not only will there be a great presentation of the industry's finest sales & marketing materials, installations, business practices and false alarm programs but also the official inductions of this year's SSI Industry Hall of Fame selections. It's a fun and outstanding networking event that draws some of the industry's top movers and shakers -- and it's FREE and includes food and beverages! I hope to see...

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One of the educational sessions held during Honeywell’s First Alert Professional Convention at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes Resort Nov. 13-16 was “Ensuring Your Company’s Financial Health.” The class, led by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Safeguard Security and Communications CEO and SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION’s Editorial Advisory Board member John Jennings, reviewed the critical components of a security company’s financial statements. This 75-minute session was brought alive by Jennings, a lively and engaging speaker who has grown his company 10-fold since the early 1990s. He opened up the discussion by invoking the wisdom and pertinence of the Serenity Prayer: God,...

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Apparently no one has told Honeywell or its hundreds of First Alert Professional dealers that times are tough. At least that’s how it appeared at the annual First Alert Professional Convention, held at the luxurious JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes Resort Nov. 13-16, where no expense was spared, spirits ran high and optimism prevailed. With an overall theme of “Creating Magic,” the event was anything but Mickey Mouse. Although the downturn in lower-end residential business was acknowledged, dealers seemed ready and eager to focus more heavily on the high-end residential and commercial markets, areas Honeywell made clear it was well...

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With the economy as it is and Manhattan being as outrageously expensive as it is, most were quite skeptical of how this year’s International Security Conference (ISC) & Expo East would fare. What has been clear is that anyone expecting this event to match its grandeur of earlier this decade are destined for disappointment as the show has long since scaled down from being one of the industry’s largest national conventions to being one of the most substantial regional gatherings. Most industry professionals have settled on springtime’s ISC West in Las Vegas and the late summer’s...

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In general, I think the keynote speeches or presentations at events in our industry suck. That's right, I said it. Most of the time these keynote speakers are from outside or the fringes of the electronic security industry. What can some celebrity, politician or former military official tell me about our industry? What insight do they have into the trends, technology and business challenges affecting installing security contractors? In all likelihood, zilch. How are they going to help me make more money, reduce costs or improve operations? They aren't. I don't know about you, but I don't have the time, inclination or money...

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So the consensus from this year’s ASIS show in Atlanta was that exhibit floor traffic was down noticeably from recent years (about 21,000 according to that organization). However, those who did attend were very serious about their security. It seems the recent hurricanes, gas prices and shortages, and overall economic strife weeded out the fringe element. That was the sentiment expressed to me from among the many exhibitors I met with, including Honeywell; Dedicated Micros; Bosch; Optelecom; HID; NVT; Lenel; Canon; Pivot3; VideoIQ; Verint; Tyco; Stanley; Axis; Digital ID Solutions; Cernium; ADT; DMP; Panasonic; Intransa; AES-IntelliNet; Ingersoll-Rand; Samsung/GVI;...

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