No matter how sophisticated of a residential installation you may have ever been involved with it is unlikely to approach the scale of the home featured in a new story posted on the MainStreet Web site this past weekend. Titled, "The Safest House in the World," the article details how the $7.6 million Los Angeles residence is equipped with a panic rooms (yes, plural), remote-controlled semi-automatic weapons, extensive surveillance and "safe cores" within the structure to gain protection from nuclear, biological or chemical attack. Incredible, right? Check out the full story here. Scott Goldfine Editor-in-Chief SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION

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Axis Communications has shaken up the video surveillance industry by becoming the first provider of relatively inexpensive, fully networked thermal imaging cameras. Thermal imaging, which creates images based on the heat that radiates from any object, vehicle or...

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Shortly before the end of the year, I had the opportunity to speak with Steve Walin, chairman and CEO of Carrollton, Texas-based GVI Security Solutions, and Lloyd Trotter, a founder and managing partner of New York-based GenNx360 Capital Partners, about GVI being acquired and taken private. The deal, which was finalized earlier this month, reunites former GE Security executives in a business focused on providing Samsung and GVI branded video surveillance solutions for markets including government, retail, financial and education. This is the second of two parts of my conversation with GVI Security's new leadership and dwells on Samsung's unified rebranding...

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Pending any regulatory issues, after seven some odd years, GE has bowed out of the security industry, having agreed to sell its GE Security holdings to United Technologies Corp. (UTC) for $1.82 billion. This marks the industry's most substantial deal since GE got into security in the first place when it purchased Interlogix in 2002. It also brings to a close GE's vision of making security systems as commonplace in American homes as appliances and other household electronics branded with the ubiquitous GE "meatball" logo -- and having them all communicate with each other. Having been in this industry since...

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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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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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I realize I may be late to the party, but I finally made the leap from using videotapes for recording television programs to digital recordings. It’s unusual for me to take so long to embrace new technology as I am somewhat of a gadget/electronics freak but VCRs worked fairly well and the tapes made it easy to playback on machines in different rooms of my house. But after a recent stay with relatives who had a DVR and getting my first chance to really experience the interface and take in the full measure of its capabilities, I knew I had to...

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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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Fire/life-safety work scare you a bit? It’s OK, you’re not alone. Go ahead and admit it, you’re among friends now and no one is going to think any less of you because of it. Feeling all comfy, cozy, warm and fuzzy and secure now? WELL WAKE UP AND GET WITH THE PROGRAM! The fire/life-safety market has never been a more viable option for electronic security professionals seeking to maintain a steady stream of business during these dire economic times. Sure, there are more codes, standards and regulations to deal with, along with perhaps increased liability exposure and having to deal with...

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Another 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 “Selling IT,” about the hottest topic out there right now. The class was presented by a pair of industry friends of mine who are also featured in the November issue (“Intrusion Breaks Into the Network”) of SSI: Honeywell Security Director of Commercial Sales Development Dave Combes and Business Development Manager Michael Linebarger. The 75-minute course was designed to help dealers promote and sell the use of network communications for security solutions. Attendees learned how improved testing...

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Although there were lots of pressing issues swirling around throughout 2008, it turns out it was another vibrant year for security technology. The upcoming December issue of SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION features our annual Top 30 Technology Innovations of the year, which for 2008 range from video, access control and detection solutions aimed at the high end of the marketplace to modest installation tools. The picks by SSI Technical Writers Bob Dolph (“Tech Talk”) and Steve Payne (“Convergence Channel”) and yours truly champion products that represent breakthroughs, moneymaking opportunities or timesavers to improve efficiency. In some cases, they...

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In these trying times when — like many businesses — installing security contractors are struggling to remain profitable, it ought to be some relief to realize there are viable courses of action to help stem the tide. This will be particularly compelling for residentially focused companies and those married to the builder market, some of which have seen their business atrophy by as much as 70 percent. There are many strategies to take during times like these, but I am going to suggest one here (with more to come in other postings). The first is targeting residential subdivisions. These...

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Earlier this year, ADT Security Services broadened its reach into the petrochemical, education and banking industries by purchasing commercial security systems integrator FirstService Security, a division of publicly traded FirstService Corp., for about $187 million. Headquartered in Collegeville, Pa., FirstService Security operates under the Security Services & Technologies (SST) brand name in the United States, and under the Intercon Security brand name in Canada. FirstService possesses a roster of Fortune 1,000 companies and large regional institutions that include Ernst & Young, Manulife Financial, Royal Bank of Canada, University of Pennsylvania, Shell,...

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