I started the day at ASIS today by walking out of my hotel room without a pen. That’s a major problem for someone who writes for a magazine and has a full day ahead taking notes about all the new products and breaking news at ASIS.
The good news is that at ASIS, a problem like that isn’t hard to fix at all. With thousands of pens being given away as promotional items located in booths all over the exhibit floor, it didn’t take me long to find one. Newly acquired pen in hand, I had the chance to meet with exhibitors and checked out more of what the companies were unveiling at the show.
 
Vumii – booth 4359
 
Vumii isn’t your average camera. Don’t walk in expecting to hear the usual key words like “high definition,” “IP,” “analog,” “digital,” or “megapixel” to describe the camera's most unique features. Instead, you’ll hear a word you don’t hear located in a description about a camera very often – laser. The company specializes in visualization technology that leverages electro-optics and combines an innovative, near infrared, continuous-wave laser illumination beam with an automatically synchronized CCD imager. The result of that highly technical sentence? Knock-your-socks-off detail and clarity in images at night. I’ve never seen anything like it. The image quality really is outstanding…and the distances the camera is capable of viewing is notable -- up to 3,000 meters in zero light. Even at those distance, people and written text are discernable. It makes sense that video from Vumii’s cameras is legal court admissible. – www.vumii.com
 
VideoIQ – booth 1946
 
Products aren’t the only “new” things you’ll find being announced at ASIS. Partner programs, alliances, and new focuses, often carrying just as much impact as new products, also get announced at ASIS. This year, VideoIQ introduced the VideoIQ Inner Circle, a progressive partner program. Aimed at resellers, systems integrators and consultants, the program offers three levels of memberships – Premier Partners, Advantage Partners, and Access Partners – each with progressively higher levels of financial incentives, sales programs, technical training and support, marketing, and more. “We want to make selling IQ products very margin rich for our customers,” Scott Schnell, president and CEO of VideoIQ said. “Our partners are extremely important in meeting the demand for our product, and the three levels of the program allow us to work with all of them, both big and small, to the degree they specifically are looking for.” – www.videoiq.net
 
VideoNEXT – booth 3465
 
Got an iPhone? VideoNEXT announced that you now have the ability to monitor and control cameras and receive alarms on it. The company's wireless video surveillance solution, SKM-Mobile, utilizes the Apple iPhone and lets you receive alarms/alerts when user-defined events occur and playback recorded and archived video. "The iPhone is an ideal mobile platform for viewing surveillance video and is nothing short of ground-breaking for the security space,” said Ryan Kaltenbaugh, director, Global Business Development for videoNEXT. That…and it is just plain cool. -- www.videoNEXT.com