Siemens Building Technologies Inc., Buffalo Grove, Ill., expects its pending acquisition of VistaScape Security Systems Corp., Atlanta, to enable Siemens Building Technologies to add to its expertise in video analytics and help meet its customers’ needs more effectively.

“It goes back to talking to our customers,” related George West, vice president of the security division at Siemens Building Technologies. “One of the issues for our customers is continually adding more sensors, in a lot of instances, video-based or cameras, but they’re also adding a wide range of sensors.

“So the challenge becomes for them, how do they establish those policies and procedures that allow you to do that trip line or zone of security,” West continued. “Let me define the policies and procedures for securing my environment, and let me have this system do that more effectively. It’s going to tell me when anything violates those procedures, so I can worry about defining what the problems are and responding to those.”

West expects the acquisition to help introduce VistaScape products to a more international marketplace. “We think these problems are pretty common globally, and this product has the potential to solve the same problems for our customers all over the world,” he asserted.

A coordinate system is built into the VistaScape platform of hardware and software so areas of concern can be highlighted. Motion into those zones or movements that are too quick or in the wrong direction or other events can trigger a camera to investigate the actions further, turn on lights or send an alarm, West explained.

“Interestingly enough, you can set up a series of policies and procedures for a given security level, and across the entire enterprise, raise the level with one click, either in response to a change in security level from the Department of Homeland Security or from local issues,” West pointed out.

“As with any products in the security marketplace, the first step is understanding what security issues you’re trying to address, identify the technology best suited to address that, and the third part is getting that implemented,” he noted. “More often than not, that involves more than one technology, so a firm such as Siemens can help you in all those stages and help you at the end of that achieve the outcome of a more secure campus environment.”

VistaScape products are used at airports, ports like the Illinois International Port District’s Iroquois Landing and Calumet Harbor, government facilities and sensitive commercial sites, the company says.