We have filled this issue with articles that will complement your trade show experience, leading off with ‘State of the Market: Alarm Systems.’

Spring is nearly here, and with the welcome change of season comes the equally anticipated ISC West trade show. Expectations among attendees are usually high and ISC West never disappoints. Security integrators typically finish the week in Las Vegas with having expanded their professional networks, met with vendors to resolve issues and forge new partnerships, and gained ideas for increasing revenue and improving profits.

Although ISC West opens on April 9, March is our official ISC West show issue, covering some of the highlights (see page 42) and many of the new products (see page 150) that manufacturers have just released and will have on display in their booths at the Sands Expo & Convention Center. We are proud that SDM is a premier media sponsor of ISC West.

We have packed this huge issue with articles that will complement your trade show experience, leading off with our annual “State of the Market: Alarm Systems” (beginning on page 52), sponsored by Honeywell Security & Communications. In it, Senior Editor Heather Klotz-Young explores the trend of alarm systems converging with home/business management functions and interactive services for the end user. In some ways, it feels like a showdown between life safety and lifestyle especially as so many new competitors arrive on the scene.

“Communication sunsets, retrofitting 2G radios, zip code changes — there is always something we have to be ready for outside the day-to-day business of installing alarms,” notes Jeff Kahn, general manager at Wayne Alarms in Lynn, Mass. “Today telcos want to come in. Their offering is not the same, though. They are heavily focused on lifestyle, not life safety.”

But Kahn and others in the security channel say it doesn’t need to be either/or. Kahn maintains that the industry has to provide both sides in 2013 — lifestyle and life safety — to meet end user demands, and one of the more subtle challenges in the coming year will be mastering that message and finding the right balance between the two.

Speaking of communication sunsets, with AT&T’s announcement that it will cease all 2G communications by approximately Jan. 1, 2017, and other cellular carriers expected to follow, many dealers have a significant job ahead of them planning for massive upgrades without losing their customers or breaking the bank. Learn what security dealers who have thousands of customers needing an upgrade are doing in our exclusive story, “Creating a 2G Sunset Plan of Action.”

“If we ignore this, if we get bombarded with existing customers wanting an upgrade at the last minute, we physically won’t be able to meet our customers’ needs with staff or equipment and their systems may be down for a month before we get to them,” says Shooter Stein, president of National Certified Alarms (NCA), in the article beginning on page 67.

In the article, “21 Valuables Worth Protecting,” on page 75, integrators detail some of the many different assets and/or valuables that can add to the price of an installation — or require a stand-alone installation. Among them are air conditioning units, artwork, blood banks, boats, bonsai plants, cars and construction equipment, computers, gun cabinets and more. 

MORE ONLINE

Every issue of SDM now connects you with related content on our website, www.SDMmag.com. In some cases, the website content is a set of articles that relate to the article in print. Other times you will find links to multimedia content such as webinars, videos, podcasts and photo galleries. And in many cases, the content is exclusively published on the website — you won’t find it anywhere in the print edition.

For example, “Racks and Furniture: Keeping Step With Technology Changes,” is a feature article that examines design considerations in control rooms and rack systems, published only online at http://www.sdmmag.com/articles/88850-racks-and-furniture-keeping-step-with-technology-changes.

We encourage SDM’s subscribers to make a habit of checking the More Online box found throughout each print edition. You can easily locate the box by looking for the blue-and-green circular arrow.  Another advantage of the More Online box is that those links will take you directly to the website pages when clicked on from the pages of our digital edition.