It’s summer again, and all the plants and flowers are blooming. But in the security industry something else is blooming, too: technology. If you attended ISC West a couple of months ago you may have noticed a few dominant trends, including 5G, cloud, wireless and touchless readers, and much more.

Several of those topics are explored in this issue of SDM.

For example, this month’s cover story, State of the Market: To Security & Beyond, examines the smart home trend, as well as intrusion and monitoring, including the impact of the sunset and 5G, as well as the pandemic. The article finds that not only did customer demand for these products grow significantly during the pandemic, but — despite ongoing supply chain challenges — so did the available technology.

Author Laura Toops writes: “Smart home product manufacturers are introducing new conveniences every day, smartening up everything from doorbells to garage door openers. Throw a pandemic into the mix, which forced people to do everything from their homes, and the result is big growth in the home security/smart home market: from 28 percent adoption in U.S. broadband households in Q2 2019, to 35 percent in Q4 2021, according to Parks Associates.”

While DIY dominated during the pandemic, many are seeing the shift back to do-it-with-me, or do-it-for-me, as consumers look to increase the complexity of their smart home solutions beyond what they can comfortably do themselves, as well as realizing the importance of the professional monitoring component as they go back to the office.
 “The residential market for smart home security grew faster in 2020-2021 than it had in years,” says Anne Ferguson of Alarm.com. “Now, with more people returning to the office, there is an increased interest in home security to help monitor and protect families and pets.”

After you read the article, consider registering for our related webinar, Safe at Home: Tips for Selling Security & Smart Home Technology, happening June 28. 

Another top trend seen at many of the access control vendor booths at ISC West was mobile and touchless access control credentials. In the article Easy Access for the Win With Readers & Credentials,  Amanda Reed discusses both the challenges and opportunities of the “digital revolution,” including mobile credentials and frictionless solutions.

“Mobile technologies are poised to disrupt and provide better paths for adoption and technology refresh,” says James Reno of Alarm.com in the article.

One of the biggest trends at ISC West included cloud everything. This month, author Anna Boudinot looks at the impact that trend is having on the video space in The Cloud is Here to Stay.

“Having an exclusively on-prem surveillance system today is akin to using an 8-track cassette instead of downloading your favorite songs to your phone,” suggests Rick Bentley, of Cloudastructure in the article.

Finally, if you are curious which technology manufacturers and distributors the top security dealers are using today, check out this year’s SDM 100 Brand Report, which lists the top 10 manufacturers and top six distributors referenced by this year’s SDM 100 companies.

Whatever aspect of security technology you are looking for, I think you will find that providers have spent their COVID-19 time wisely — in technology innovation and R&D.