Will I really need that thick note pad this year, I thought on my way up to IFSEC 2009?
It’s got to be a much quieter show this time. Probably fewer presentations, fewer product launches, fewer appointments, more subdued all round.
After all, we are in the depths of the worst recession in living memory.
The security industry may be not be on its knees like some others, but it’s got to reflect the national depression hasn’t it? Probably a fair amount of doom and gloom for four days.
Well, how wrong can you be?
While acknowledging the necessity for realism, caution and a certain amount of strategic re-thinking, exhibitors at IFSEC 2009 showed they were facing up well to changed circumstances.
New ideas, initiatives and products were coming out of the temporary chipboard walls – far more than I can ever mention in this feature. (I’ll include more in future editions – and keep visiting our website www.info4security.com).
Fewer visitors? It didn’t seem that way to me.
Trying to make quick headway across the halls one afternoon because I was late for an appointment, was like trying to cross Trafalgar Square on New Year’s Eve.
OK, with almost every exhibitor I visited, the recession was a part of the conversation. If not, it was the elephant in the room.
How could it not be?
But the upbeat nature of the show and the obvious willingness of exhibitors to face up to difficult circumstances seemed to belie all those depressing headlines we’ve been reading since this time last year.
Strangely perky
Strangely, the whole thing felt upbeat – more perky, I thought, than in recent buoyant years.
How could this be? Was it the old ‘British grin and bear it’ bubbling up?
Not very likely, considering the high proportion of overseas exhibitors and visitors.
No, to me, it seemed more likely a realisation by people in this industry that we are in a comparatively strong position compared to practically any other sector – either service or manufacturing. Right through the chain, from the execs to the delivery boy, there’s the distinct feeling that it could be a lot worse – you could be working in another industry.
Despite a huge drop in demand for electronics worldwide – particularly the body blows to the Japanese export market – there is a welcome acknowledgment that the security industry has a certain amount of natural resilience built in.
This is not recession “proofing” as some originally touted at the outset. That idea was quickly batted down in the light of security acquisitions, reduced profits, staff cuts, the much tightened customer budgets – all of which we’ve reported extensively in this magazine.
But even taking this bad news into account, you cannot get away from the fact that this industry’s services are guaranteed to be in continual demand – no matter what happens to the economy. Probably more in demand in tough times.
And if an industry is the people in it, then security people have shown they are not afraid of a challenge.
More evolution than revolution
Because of IFSEC’s pivotal position, if you can get a handle on this show you can get a handle on how the global industry will develop in the coming year.
This year, undoubtedly due to the slowdown, I did not feel there were any big technology advances that would dramatically change the market. No doubt some will disagree with that!
A number of people I spoke to agreed that this year’s major themes mostly centred around “evolution” or improvements to those hot technologies that found themselves in the spotlight last year – megapixel, analytics, evidence retrieval, thermal imaging, H.264 compression.
But there were a number of fresh ideas and some very useful pointers to new business areas for installers, and I include some of those here.
So, against a surprisingly positive backdrop, what were the top five themes I picked up from my four days trekking around the new IFSEC halls?
1. High on hybrid: A reluctance to rip
Not quite gone, but diminishing, it seems, are the days of the evangelical IP hard sell.
Suddenly, and no doubt partly as a result of recession-hit customers not being over keen to rip out all that expensive analogue legacy kit, the industry is high on hybrid.
My colleague, Anthony Hildebrand (editor of info4security) and I tried to squeeze in at least a dozen good stand visits per day.
In almost all of the CCTV providers’ presentations/launches the concept of hybrid technology was well to the fore.
I was so surprised when Bosch UK got through their press preview without mentioning the word that I asked MD Paul Wong if there was some significance in that.
He answered No, it was so fundamental to them that they didn’t feel it necessary to mention it!
Sony Professional went so far as to launch a “Go Hybrid” campaign.
Said Simon Nash, senior European marketing manager at the launch: “We see that 70 or 80 per cent of the market is still analogue so, in recognition of the fact that the world is still predominantly analogue, we’re positioning Sony as the manufacture of choice that is able to provide the hybrid solutions.”
This applied right across the Sony range.
Said Nash: “This offers customers real choice because maybe they’ve already made an investment in their CCTV system. It’s very hard for people to explain that they need to take out all of that investment, throw it away and re-equip with IP. That’s not realistic.
“What we are offering through our ‘Go Hybrid’ campaign is the choice for customers to utilise their existing investment and, on the new technology side, move to IP.”
Vineet Nargolwala, EMEA MD of Honeywell Systems, said they were also taking the hybrid approach.
Users were being “more discerning” about the value that IP brings: “Whereas, in the past, people may have treated IP as a silver bullet because it’s fashionable and that’s the latest thing, people are asking: Is it really that much value for me to upgrade from analogue to IP or is analogue doing the job?
“So the recession is obviously going to affect the take-up. But IP is going to continue to grow because there are pure benefits. But where somebody might have taken a rip- and-replace type of approach, they might just take a hybrid approach and add on to their existing installation.
“That’s been our approach. An analogue system is perfectly fine but they can still add on IP where they need it.”
Commenting on the emergence of ONVIF as an IP standard at last year’s IFSEC, Nargolwala said that, at some point there will have to be convergence of the three current forums on IP standards.
“With more and more people clamouring for a standard there will be a critical mass and there will be, at some point, the emerging of one common protocol which most major manufacturers will have to adhere to.”
2. IP at a slower rate: Economic trickle down effect
In the wake of various reports saying the march of IP is, understandably, slowing down in a recession, at both the press conferences of Dedicated Micros and Norbain there was more of a realistic assessment of where IP now was.
More realism does not mean you suddenly become anti-this or that, and both Norbain and DM were at pains to stress they were not “anti-IP”, both companies being well in the forefront of this technology.
But Pauline Norstrom, DM’s director of worldwide marketing, said hidden network upgrade costs, the cost of software licences and network downtime was making some security managers so disillusioned that they were considering replacing their IP cameras with conventional analogue models.
The company was launching its “revolutionary” Integrated Camera Recorder, a de-centralised concept combining a megapixel or standard IP camera with a video server.
Said Norstrom: “There are also underlying large scale network upgrade costs which involve the installation of high performance IT servers.
“None of this is revealed to the users when they choose the IP NVR solution. Without the network upgrade, many of these systems do not achieve the performance promised.
“Dedicated Micros is not against IP CCTV. In fact the product line DVIP stands for distributed video over IP and that’s been our philosophy, but in reality, for recording and transmission and storage of CCTV, the IP environment is not ideal and we advocate a de-centralised server model.
“End users should not be placed in a position where they have to upgrade their network to employ an IP system.”
Norstrom said that network downtime was a major problem: “Network downtime has a detrimental impact on the ability to record vital evidence. If the network goes down you’re not recording your evidence.”
Another flaw in the IP NVR model is that it cannot re-display multiple streams of D1 video without a huge upgrade, she said.
To overcome all these problems and to challenge the centralised IP concept, the Integrated Camera Recorder was a “failsafe” solution – a compact package that delivers “robust, failsafe, recording at the edge of a customer’s network.”
The ICR offers 12pps (megapixel) and 30pps (standard IP camera) frame rates with one day of recording at 2048 Mb/s thanks to 32GB of onboard solid state storage provided by a microSD card or similar. It supports transmission of multiple, simultaneous video streams in MPEG-4 and JPEG for live viewing and recording.
At Norbain’s press reception to launch the company’s PowerDome Pro camera and Quantum Plus DVR ranges, CEO Alun John said the growth rate of IP had halved since the recession.
He also said the analogue market had “maybe gone backwards”. This was “consistent with what the mainstream IP players are reporting.
“We’re trying to add more to the conventional market to enable people to move into an IP environment. We will see in the next year or two a huge amount of development going into core and traditional products.”
He likened the switch from analogue to IP as the “sailing ship syndrome”:
Sailing ships hadn’t advanced for hundreds of years before the steamship. Then they saw huge advances in design.
“So we’ll see a huge amount of development going into some of those traditional products which raises the bar for IP products to come up to.”
At its presentation, leading IP provider Axis Communications, however, said there was an “ongoing” shift from analogue to network video.
Bodil Sonnesson, vice presidents global sales, said: “Projects are a bit smaller. People are dividing it up into more steps, taking investment decisions that are a bit smaller than before.
“At the same time we haven’t seen any change in terms of initiations of new projects. If I look into the project pipelines we see the same trends as before”.
The company is launching 30 new products in 2009 – “Full speed ahead is what we’re going for,” said Sonnesson.
She asked: “What will the effect of the economy have on the convergence? What happens when people are a bit more careful? Will they intend to stay with what they have or do they tend to go to new technologies quicker?
“We have seen more sales in video servers. People are investing in keeping their analogue technology and adding on their video servers as well.”
3. HD more than ready: Def-ignition on
Picking up on Alun John’s “sailing ship” point about the likelihood of a fresh look at analogue, I heard that a group has started up to develop megapixel without IP technology.
What? Using existing cable or twisted pair to get megapixel? Apparently so.
This is a highly significant development and if you want more on this, go to our website www.info4security and key in John Honovich, our US correspondent, in the search bar or Google for the “HDCCTV Alliance”.
What’s that about sailing ships? It just goes to prove there’s life left in analogue.
Of course, up to this point, IP and megapixel technology have gone hand in hand. With megapixel being such a hot area, this has given IP a great boost in appeal.
This year megapixel cameras dominated the CCTV offerings.
One of the most interesting of the launches (one of 20!) was from Sony Professional – “the world’s first HD PTZ network camera”.
The SNC-RS also has motion and object detection, and both are “proving real popular features,” said Simon Nash.
According to him (and, I suspect, very many other CCTV manufacturers) analogue has “already plateaued.
“The level of technology within the analogue world is really at its best,” he said. “To get beyond PAL resolution, IP was needed”.
He added that IP was the “enabling technology that allows customers to get higher resolution pictures across their network”.
Sony will later be introducing HD into the mini dome and fixed camera markets.
At its press presentation, Axis Communication’s product manager, Kent Fransson, product manager, said the company’s HD camera had been a huge success.
HDTV was now a major driver in the market along with H.264 compression “reducing storage and giving us the ability to record HDTV standard … If you have HDTV at home it is H.264.”
He also asked why the CCTV industry was staying with 4×3 screen ratio when everything else from computers to TVs were only now available in widescreen?
“And then we have full frame rate. You can argue against that and say ‘We only record 5 to 7 frames so there’s no need for full frame’.
“OK if you do that but why shouldn’t you be able to look at the image in full frame rate if you want to? The technology is available. You may record in only 5-7 frames today because of the storage cost. But this is changing. You usually have your camera for 5-10 years so why not having a full frame rate from the beginning?”
In contrast to megapixel cameras where sales were “significantly up” despite the recession, panoramic cameras have not achieved their potential in the UK despite the many advantages of 360 degree vision, said a leading manufacturer in the sector.
Iain Cameron, UK area manager of Arecont Vision, said they had seen a “significant increase” in megapixel camera sales in the last few months, helped largely by their greatly improved quality of video and H.264 storage.
“The recession has had no downward effect on sales of megapixel cameras. In fact they are significantly up since the recession,” he said.
But panoramics had not yet achieved their potential: “People think of the cost of a single panoramic camera without appreciating that it replaces multiple cameras”.
Arecont supplies a range of panoramic megapixel cameras, the AV8180 and AV8360.
The cameras give a quad view instead of a fisheye image that has to be de-warped.
“This means that there is no distortion of image and makes it easier for the end user to interpret the images,” said Cameron.
He said the advantages of panoramic cameras had been appreciated in Italy where sales had been “solid” but the UK generally did not yet appreciate the cost savings involved.
This included one-cable installation and “a smaller footprint aesthetically from an architect’s point of view”.
“Panoramic cameras make it difficult for thieves to find a blind spot,” said Cameron. “You get that general overview that you can see what’s going on in two different directions at the same time.”
“We know the disadvantages of a PTZ camera. They could be pointing the wrong way. And at no point is a 360 camera pointing the wrong way.”
Cameron suspected one of the reasons for the slower uptake of panoramics was the fact that a PTZ will give a 24x optical zoom.
“With a panoramic, if you want to do a zoom into that level you can’t do it, so people think they still need a PTZ.”
4. Get mobility: You’re the best for the job
As if to confirm a conclusion I came to at the show, when I got back to the office one of the first emails I opened was a market research report which said that the mobile surveillance market will be huge.
Having attended a session from AD Mobile, I thought that this was likely to be a really hot area for installers who want to widen their horizons in the coming months, especially as we were told that security installers, with their expert knowledge of surveillance techniques, often do better in this area than those that come into this from the automotive industries.
The report from IMS Research forecasts double digit growth in the mobile video surveillance market in transit buses to 2013.
In our ‘compensation culture’ on-board surveillance is increasingly being used by public transport operators to defend against fraudulent insurance claims from passengers and other drivers, says the report.
At the IFSEC launch of AD Mobile, Jeff Berg said this was a vast, largely untapped, market that presented a big new business opportunity for installers prepared to train to fit the systems.
“Installers may be very skilled with putting together a land based system but the whole theory and practice of mobile CCTV is quite different. But installers that can get a grip on that have got a whole new market.”
AD Mobile provides the TransVu mobile DVRs fitted to public transport vehicles in the UK and Europe.
Current markets include buses, trains, military vehicles and experimental vehicles. But the potential market could be “anything that moves,” said Berg. Potential big markets could be haulage companies, fleet and van hire and public utility vehicles. The majority of buses now have 12 active cameras, inside and out, he said.
The TransVu system can pay for itself by providing evidence that limits liability claims against bus operators and cuts insurance claims.
A new Express version is aimed at smaller vehicles such as taxis and coaches.
TransVu on buses has not only provided evidence for criminal prosecution but has given police a detailed record of highway accidents.
The technology provides a detailed analysis of speed to the millisecond and records images of vehicle positions during an incident. It gives speed, acceleration, braking and turning details, route details plus fuel used per driver, enabling companies to pinpoint excessive consumption and poor driving skills. A CO2 record can also help a company’s “green” credentials.
The launch of AD Mobile brought TransVu under its umbrella and means that operators and installers can deal with a team of specialists.
Berg added that, so far, mobile CCTV installers have largely come from the security sector rather than the automotive industry because they had more of a feel for the technology. AD Mobile would provide training courses for installers.
For details on the IMS research, “The World Market for Mobile Video Surveillance Equipment – 2009 Edition”, go to www.imsresearch.com
5. The ‘R’ word: Well, you can’t ignore it!
I couldn’t round up a Top 5 without including the recession as a major consideration on the mood of the industry – and the show.
In recent months we’ve published interviews with industry leaders on how the recession is affecting security.
Whereas, on every stand I visited, the subject came up, my interview with Vineet Nargolwala, EMEA of Honeywell Systems, largely centred on it and the economy’s effect on installers.
His comments were repeated in kind by many other exhibitors I visited and could be described as a realistic summing up of the market.
Said Nargolwala: “When our dealers, our installers, can’t get the same credit they’re used to – whether its working capital, which is really the life blood for them or expansion – then they will feel the pain and, consequently, the industry is going to feel the pain.
“We are certainly seeing some of that. What banks would consider good credit last year has changed. Now companies that were in good stead last year are suddenly finding themselves having to justify more and provide documentation on how they are surviving.
“From an end user perspective we’ve seen volume drop off, certainly, but we’re in a fairly good position considering the UK is faring quite badly in the recession.
“I think everybody’s very cautious. Cautious is the right word. Two or three months ago there was a lot of doom and gloom and everybody expected a spate of bankruptcies and that’s not happened. People have been more resilient than expected.
“Has the economy hurt the security industry? Definitely, we’re not immune to it. But I think we are coping better than other industries.People are being more discerning, looking at a clear return on investment. They might be stalling if they don’t see a clear ROI. That’s affected our volume on the demand side. The credit side has affected our dealers’ ability to operate.
“The recession has clearly affected the industry but we are now probably pretty close to the bottom if not at the bottom. Staying positive, six months from now we should be well on our way out of it. But this is going to be one of those long protracted recoveries.
“For the next year or two years there’s going to be a slow opportunity for growth, but nowhere near the six or seven per cent everybody was seeing. If the security industry didn’t fare too badly when it was the worst of times, when it starts to get slightly better we will get more and more opportunity.
“Certainly we’re starting to see some signs of activity and every partner we talk to is busy with a pipeline that keeps them active. The projects aren’t closing today but they are still on the table so it’s a question of when the funds get released.
“There’s a healthy amount of activity in the market place. It’s just a question of when the demand starts to come back.”
He said Honeywell had looked beyond the traditional areas they had business in. “We’ve had strong presence in retail and banking and last year we diversified and expanded into government, healthcare, education and data centres. We entered these before the tough times actually hit.
“Retail as a sector seems to have been devastated, but there are pockets such as food companies doing really well and, even in clothing retail, there are some companies coming out with good results. Even in banking. We’ve had success with banks in Portugal and Spain which are in a good position.”
At the Norbain presentation, Alun John, CEO, said the company’s analysis showed that in the last twelve months the numbers of CCTV systems installed hadn’t reduced.
“It’s the same number of things being bought but what people have done is, either, they’ve down-traded on price or they’ve left out some of the high ticket items. So whereas somebody could use a fully functional dome, they’ve gone for a couple of statics and cut the cost.
“We see end users cutting their budgets and CCTV isn’t immune from it. They’ve removed an item they felt was superfluous but may have been there in a richer time.
“The demand is still there. If anything, the last 12 months has shown us it is a very solid demand, but the elasticity of funds has been reduced.”
He said the big CCTV users in the UK still want the same system. “But they say they want to pay 20 per cent less for it ‘because that’s the way we’re managing our business’.
“We took early action on re-positioning our product range and business and we feel very happy where we are today.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. I think we’re bouncing along the bottom of the bathtub at the moment.” There were a lot of positive signs “but nothing fantastic”.
In their presentation Bosch brought up a subject that seems to have been a victim of the recession and taken a distinct back seat in the national media over the last year.
I refer to CSR – corporate social responsibility.
Senior vice president Coen Roojimans, however, emphasised the importance it has in the Bosch Group thinking. In 2007, 40 per cent of the R&D budget was aimed at conserving resources and protecting the environment. This year it has risen to about 45 per cent and they will increase it significantly over the next few years.
Other highlights
CCTV can seem to dominate IFSEC, but there was stacks of interesting stuff going on and highlights in the many other areas of security. And, of course, I’m always on the lookout for opportunities for installers – training, new product areas, business or partnership offers.
Here are some things along those lines that caught my attention …
Accessible view
IFSEC is always a great opportunity to catch up with people in the driving seat. While CCTV always seems to be on everyone’s lips, what about the important access control sector?
I had an interview with Mike Sussman of TDSi, chairman of the BSIA’s access control section.
He said: “It’s tough out there. As a manufacturer, it’s a fight. There are a lot of projects being delayed, both in the private and public sectors. They’ve not canned them, they’ve just delayed decisions, delayed starting them. I think a lot of people are waiting to see what happens when we start coming out of this.
“Our foot traffic (to the TDSi stand) today has been pretty much the same as last year.”
He said a major trend was CCTV and intruder manufacturers starting to move into access control. Access control companies were also likely to look further afield.
“I think access manufactures, at some point in the next three to five years, will start consolidating. I think some manufacturers will start looking at intruder and fire. As the access controllers become more powerful they’re either going to buy into fire and intruder partner companies or promote their own range.”
IP access control is taking off, he said, as is wireless access control – “although there is still a reluctance by some people on wireless. I would argue it’s more secure than traditional wire. You can put channel hopping in and a lot of encryption in. Typically wireless routers have encryption built in. It’s a lot harder to take down a wireless network.”
The market is going to be driven by cost and there is pressure to get installation time down. The access control sector would start to adapt remote maintenance like the intruder sector.
“Open protocols is what we are looking at – keeping an eye on what the intruder section is doing. The main concerns for the access control market are the Far East coming in at very low cost, low quality. We’re seeing it already on cards.
“Customers buy cards off the internet. We argue the quality side and that you have to replace them every three months. They don’t look at that. Also a lot of installation companies are cutting back on training which doesn’t help.”
Biometrics was growing, but he said there was still some reluctance in the UK – “a concern over data privacy, whether your template’s in the reader or the card. There is still a reluctance on some technologies such as fingerprint because it’s associated with crime, iris recognition because they associate it with James Bond. And all of that is purely due to education. If you can educate the end users correctly with the right message you can allay those fears. My personal gut feel is that we’re 3-5 years before it becomes mainstream.
“Our job is to be guides to educate the user, installer, specifiers and architects on the advantages and disadvantages of different types of biometrics.”
Radar love
Radar security is something installers should keep tabs on, as it is now being used to protect up-market homes so it’s a valid part of the armoury.
The sluggish new car market is also creating a new market opportunity for radar, said Navtech, a leading provider of the technology.
With so many manufacturers unable to shift their new models due to the recession, thousands of cars are left in open area storage and need protection.
Andrew Rosenthal, commercial director said the technology, working in tandem with CCTV and thermal imaging cameras, was now coming into the mainstream and was not only suitable for enterprise campus-wide applications, such as airports, but up market residential applications.
The company launched its new 350-X Radar activated surveillance solution.
The 350-X will detect a person at a range of up to 350m radius of the sensor. Approaching vehicles are detected at longer ranges.
“It points the CCTV and thermal imaging in the right direction,” said Rosenthal.
He said that the radar solution which works in fog, bad weather and at night was affordable and off the shelf. It was not an expensive military solution or complicated.
Smaller applications can use a range of sensors in radius from 200m. For a private “VIP” house or commercial property this is sufficient, he said.
In private house applications the unit is green coloured and unobtrusive and can be mounted on a post next to a hedge. “It means lawns do not have to be dug up,” said Rosenthal. “It just looks like a piece of garden furniture”.
The company is trying to build up an approved installer base. They will help with design and hand-hold if necessary. The installer puts the cable in, power in and the stands up and Navtech offers a commissioning service.
Rosenthal said despite the economy, high end projects using wide area radar protection were still going ahead. It was “similar cost to a thermal camera and cheaper than a manned patrol”.
Green light
CCTV lighting specialists Raytec pointed out to installers how much money they can save their customers if they go green
One of the demonstration areas on the Raytec stand showed how much can be saved in cost and energy use by switching to LED white light.
“Green Focus” demonstrated the differences between halogen, metal halide and modern Raytec white light units:
The three lights gave the same amount of illumination to a scene, but a 500w halogen light cost 8p an hour to run; a 150w metal halide cost 3p an hour to run and the 50w low energy white light unit just 1p per hour – a massively demonstrable saving for customers.
“Saving energy is the number one message today,” said Raytec MD Shaun Cutler. “But, importantly, there are huge cost savings to be made, particularly when you’re multiplying this over many lights”.
Academic overture
Assa Abloy plans to open a training academy this summer for access control installers and locksmiths. The manufacturer will provide a certificated foundation course and a selection of specialist courses for trainees.
Pat Jefferies, director, said the courses would have generic content, although some specialist courses would centre on the company’s products.
He said there was a need for such training because locksmiths and access control installers approached the work in different ways and needed to widen their skills. Courses, “designed to be a mark of excellence”, will be in foundation level, electric locking and door automation as well as the company’s Smartair contact free solution and Cliq Remote.
The purpose-built Academy training rooms are at the company’s headquarters in Watford. Courses will last from one to three days. For more information email: [email protected]
Dealers show their hand
Honeywell is also putting a lot of thought into helping installers with its dealer programme.
“Our focus has been on the small independent installer,” said Vineet Nargolwala. “How do we help them stay on track and how do we help them keep their existing business with better training support and win new business?”
That kind of support was available through the dealer programme and they were encouraging installers to offer ‘managed services’.
“Today for example, if you take access control, you install it and leave it to the end user to maintain it. What if we could turn that around and offer access control as a managed service? Instead of spending three or four thousand pounds upfront, the installer is offering it for 20 pounds a month as a managed service.”
Honeywell has a “Dealer Day” where its installer partners invite their clients. The day can be used to re-launch their brand, showcase a new technology suite or just thank clients. The company’s objective is to get 100 companies signed up at various levels.
“Last year we saw the partners that are part of our partner programme out-perform the rest of the market in terms of growth. Training and technical benefits are all coming to bear now and we’re seeing a lot of dealers coming up and asking us: How can we join?
“Some dealers will say: Our entire business so far has been recurring referrals and our install base, but we’ve never really had sales support – so we’ll put together a sales training programme.
“Another would say: We’ve got two technicians who know analogue really well but are not conversant with the IP side – so could we structure an IP programme for them?”
Got yer thermals?
A hot (couldn’t resist that) new area for installers last year was thermal imaging. With the number of companies now offering TI cameras, this is almost becoming mainstream.
We’ve run a number of features on this over the last couple of years.
There’s probably not a great likelihood of the average installer getting involved with this particular initiative, but I was interested in an announcement from Irisys which was timeliness itself: With swine flu in the headlines at the IFSEC kick-off, Irisys came up with a timely piece of news by offering its infrared cameras for use in Mexico to help in detecting swine flu cases.
Various countries were considering or were deploying or carrying out trials using infrared as a scanning technology to detect higher temperatures which could be swine flu.
Infrared “heat pictures” of a human face based on thermal images provides surface temperature measurements to indicate if a defined threshold is exceeded.
Though they were keen to stress it is not a diagnostics tool, the IRI 2010 flashes up an alarm on the camera screen and an audible alarm when a temperature in the scene exceeds the user defined threshold. A person with fever will not only be detected, but, by use of a camera, that person will also be identified – particularly useful when screening groups of people.
Become a screen star
Pleased to report that Pyronix got a great response to their show offer for installation companies to have their screen-printing artwork for the Deltabell Plus backlit sounder generated while they waited.
“An astounding number of companies took up this offer to have their name up in lights, giving them free advertising around the clock,” said Julie Kenny, MD. “The Deltabell Plus features a fully backlit lid ensuring that the installation company’s name is seen even on the darkest of nights. In the current economic climate, this added value feature gives tangible benefits and a competitive edge to the installation company. For those companies who didn’t make it to IFSEC this year and who would like their name up in lights, they should simply contact our marketing department.”
For further details contact the Pyronix Marketing Department on 01709 700 100 or email [email protected].
Phone a friend
I didn’t intend to use this round-up to concentrate on products launched. We’ll be covering the many product launches in our products section in this edition and over the next couple of months (there’s a lot to squeeze in).
But I was interested to see a new concept from Commend, formerly Complus Techtronic, that could end a big problem facing the prison service.
Mobile phones smuggled into prisons is a problem that has hit the headlines, giving prison service critics a reason to accuse them of running a regime that is too lax.
This 2-Wire Detention Cell Terminal Unit is installed in cells as an intercom but also detects mobiles. It could also make huge savings for prison authorities.
Sales and marketing director Greg Gregoriou said prisoners could use it to call authorised numbers, such as their lawyer, or call guards.
“It means you don’t have to have two guards go to the cell and escort the prisoner to a phone. If you multiply that situation many times, there is a huge savings in cost. Importantly, a guard can activate an alarm by touching the front plate in an emergency. It can be used in prison and police cells, correctional and court-holding facilities.
Bold claim
Installers might also make a note to see whether or not a bold claim made by communications provider Ascom comes to fruition.
“Within three years we will be the next Redcare of Europe,” they told me.
The Swiss-based company, which is a major signalling provider in countries such as Switzerland, Austria, Turkey and Israel, says it regards the UK as its most important target.
It has linked up with the NSI and SSAIB to provide training at regional workshops for installers and has introduced its “black box” to six of the major UK alarm receiving centres.
Its general manager for the security solutions division, Dr Fritz Gantert, said “Our solution is plug and play not plug and pray”.
He said the fact that Ascom was a major provider of communications solutions in other areas meant that major end users and security managers could be sure of high quality and fast support from a long established company.
The Ascom IP-based solution was cost effective and its campaign to win UK market share would be aimed at all types of installers and applications, from the large enterprise players to the smaller companies.
James Winter, sales and marketing, Ascom Security Communications UK, said the company offered “cost effective solutions” that meet UK requirements with single or dual path signaling – “quality alarm signaling from Switzerland – at UK prices”.
Tweet Street reporters
Our editorial team, Anthony Hildebrand (editor of info4security), Brian Sims (editor of SMT Online) and yours truly managed to cover most aspects of the show.
Anthony and I covered the exhibition area while Brian took charge of the conference and UBM networking activities.
We posted up our stories on the web as they happened as well as ‘tweeting’ headlines via Twitter and supporting our marketing colleague, Emma Delserieys, with her LinkedIn initiative (already a thriving discussion going on there about the show, so why not join this great network?)
Anthony filmed a number of industry movers who gave their own take on the show, trends, advice and generally wise words.
To view the videos, plus our on the spot reports on the show and conferences – as well as Anthony’s gallery of this year’s lovely promo ladies – go to www.info4security.com
There is not space here to report on the many other launches and functions I attended over the four days and I still have a great pile of literature, spec sheets, product DVDs and brochures to plough through (always hidden gems) and I will be including the interesting stuff in future issues.
Working up a thirst
Lastly, my thanks to Norbain and Panasonic who invited us to join their installer guests at their evening events.
This year’s successful black tie IFSEC Awards on the first night (see news page 8) organised in association with the BSIA, was a tough act to follow.
Norbain, however, held a first class ‘Connect’ evening event at the Motorcycle Museum including after dinner speaker, Hugh Dennis and a fantastic surprise act – the Bar Wizards who combined bar tending with juggling.
There’s also an incriminating photo somewhere of light-headed me hooked up in their oxygen bar (well, you’ve got to do it, haven’t you?)
Panasonic held their annual PPI Awards Night at the Hyatt in central Birmingham and I was proud to present the award for best engineer to John Lawrenson of Acctive Systems.
Entertainment was provided by comedian Bob Mills and footballer-turned-commentator, Charlie Nicholas.
So, overall IFSEC 2009, was, in my opinion, a far more positive affair than anticipated given the circumstances. Against all odds, the prevailing mood was realistic but optimistic and upbeat.
This is a great sign for the industry and proves it’s in good shape to really pick up steam again when we leave the noughties, and this whole economic mess, behind us.
Roll on IFSEC 2010!
