Trends & Industry Issues

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A number of recent developments in DVRs and NVRs, as well as some planned for the future, add up to opportunities for the security integrator.

 As a handgun enthusiast I have handled and fired all sorts of semi-automatic pistols and revolvers (and I still have all my fingers). Thanks to my late friend George Maddox I became acquainted with the 1911-style .45-caliber pistol, which was the U.S. military’s sidearm of choice from its introduction in the early 1900s until 1985, when it was replaced by the Beretta M9 9 mm. Many handgun experts have waxed poetic on the qualities of the 1911-style pistol, often declaring it the best handgun ever designed. 

Recently we were invited to speak on multiple panels and workshops at ESX in Baltimore. The topics included taking a new RMR idea from conception to the end. Specifically, our role on the panel was to discuss how to grow your security company with marketing that actually works. During our sessions a question was brought up repeatedly and for great reason: How effective is local search?

Let’s all get on board and help raise the bar for ethical behavior in the industry — and call out those companies who disregard it.

Securitron, an ASSA ABLOY group brand, launched EcoPower power supply. EcoPower reduces locks’ power supply standby power consumption to only 8.5mW, a 99 percent decrease compared with current switching power supplies. According to Securitron, it is GreenCircle Certified to dramatically lower total door power consumption by up to 99 percent, reducing it from 20W or more to 0.3W when used with a low-power lock.

“Look out honey, ‘cause I’m using technology.” — “Search and Destroy,” Iggy and the Stooges, 1973

Dispatch from Buffalo, N.Y.

 I travel extensively around the lower 48 and Canada performing training classes for our industry. As a result, I have taken hundreds of cab rides in the past seven years.

The security industry looks to the SDM 100 — a group of 100 of the largest security companies ranked by their recurring monthly revenue — as a wellspring of industry trends and operational best practices. So, which manufacturers and distributors are behind the SDM 100, supporting them with the products, solutions and services that have helped make them successful?

When it comes to access control cards and credentials it is difficult to have a discussion about technology without considering some of the seemingly contradictory trends in the marketplace. For example, the largest installed base of cards is proximity — a 20-year-old technology with known security issues. Yet in an industry that often seems to move at a glacial pace, the credential space is filled with some of the hottest buzzwords inside and out of the security industry, including Near Field Communications (NFC), Bluetooth, biometrics and even wearables such as the Apple Watch.