The Great ISC West 2015 Roundup (Security Systems News)
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LAS VEGAS—ISC West expected that the 2015 show would be the second-biggest ever, and although no official attendance figure has been released yet, that certainly appeared to be the case. The expansive show floor was packed with exhibitors and attendees and even busy during the dwindling hours of the show Friday morning. SIA reported that attendance at its education sessions was up 18 percent over last year, up a whopping 91 percent since SIA assumed responsibility for the education program in 2010.
At the show booths—a number of which were far larger than in previous years and sported new looks and layouts—4K cameras, cybersecurity, home automation, new apps and advances in “aesthetic” design were among the prevailing topics.
Security Systems News editors Martha Entwistle, Amy Canfield, and Spencer Ives provide the following roundup of their meetings with industry pros at the show:
Martha’s Roundup
The day started at 8 a.m. with the always-entertaining Axis Press Event, which this year had a baseball theme. Axis CEO Martin Gren succeeded in waking everyone up by testing an Axis camera’s resiliency with a baseball bat. Some announcements: Axis announced its new Zipstream product.
Gren talked about two new “non-camera products” AXIS A8004-VE Network Video Door Station, which enables “two-way communication, HD video identification, and remote entry control.” He also introduces an “intelligent audio device,” the AXIS C3003-E Network Horn Speaker.
The “home run” Axis product introduced at this show, Nilsson predicted, would be the first camera in the new AXIS Q37 Series, the AXIS Q3709-PVE. This multi-sensor camera is unique because it comes “focused from the factory with three 4K sensors that together provide a perfect 180-degree view.”
About the acquisition of Axis by Canon, Fredrik Nilsson said to expect twice as many products next year, with the resources of Canon behind Axis.
Downstairs near the registration area, I stopped by the HID Mission 500 backpack project, where volunteers were filling backpacks with supplies for kids. I caught up briefly with HID's Denis Hebert and George Fletcher of Mission 500 who was helping out at the event.
Next up were a few ssnTVnews video interviews. I spoke to three of the Women’s Security Council “Women of the Year” honorees: Vivian Hodges, global procurement manager for Northland Controls; Andrea Ferrando, Industry VP for Reed Exhibition, and Irene Lam, VP of R&D for Tyco Security Products.
Scallop Imaging had some news: Scallop’s assets have been acquired by Vision Technologies, which makes military-grade cameras. Scallop will keep its branding, but the new company name is Blackhawk Imaging. This is an opportunity, Scallop’s Steve Gorski told me, to go after new markets.
Did you see the news that “Ipconfigure buys Cannon”? I stopped by and it is true.
Next, I attended a luncheon where four companies presented. Teleste’s Mike Odea described the video and broadband company’s approach this way: open platform, holistic and ultra-scalable.
Richard Beard of PSIM provider KapLogic said his company is addressing behavior analytics. It’s important to know what's not normal behavior, he said.
Kathleen Chigos of PlateSmart, a software-only LPR company, said PlateSmart works with any hardware. You don’t need to worry about an "LPR" camera, she said.
Alfredo Perez said Vidcie brings surveillance cameras to places, like trains, where there were none. It does this via smartphone. I heard lots of interest from the luncheon crowd on this one.
I caught up with PSA Security’s Bill Bozeman who said that "cybersecurity is the next big thing and the next big opportunity."
Chatted with Tyco IS’s Mark van Dover about facial rec/iris biometrics. They are in demand, he said. If a "clear winner" emerged "we could sell it all day long."
Got a briefing from Dror Irani at BriefCam about the new Sindex3.1. It can filter video seven ways and do it fast. The idea is that this will get more people in an enterprise using video. Irani also showed me a demo of the BriefCam app (just for consumers now) on a Flir camera. It’s video synopsis gone mobile for homeowners.
ISC West activities for day 2 started before the sun rose—at the sixth annual Security5K/2K. The weather was perfect (at least for us Mainers) and the enthusiasm was high, with lots of team spirit this year among companies large and small. Axis’ Fredrik Nilsson said that 108 Axis employees are at ISC West this year and 102 are participating in the Security5k/2k. “Anyone who was not participating had to come to me with an excuse,” Nilsson said, laughing.
Paxton Access had a similar ratio of participation—something like 11 of 12 employees present. Most importantly the fundraising went very well, according to Mission 500’s George Fletcher. Last year $22,000 was raised through participant fundraising. This year, more than $40,000 was raised! With matching funds from different companies included, more than $120,000 was raised to help children in need. Congratulations to all of the participants, fundraisers, organizers and Mission 500.
Back on the show floor after the race, I met with Jeff Pranaitis and Alper Cetingok, who runs the Security Defense & Government Services business for Raymond James. Investment Banking group. The group advises on M&A, public and private capital-raising, and valuation/fairness opinion analysis for middle-market companies. Among their recent deals are Ackerman, Iverify/TransAlarm, SimpliSafe recapitalization, and Avigilon's purchase of VideoIQ.
I had a brief interview with Yoav Stern about DVTEL’s major cybersecurity initiative called IPMune. DVTEL is definitely out in front on this one.
I did a ssnTVnews interview with Sharon Shaw of systems integration firm TechSystems, and a TechSec Advisory Board member. Sharon talked about TSI’s approach to lifecycle management and how cybersecurity fits into the picture.
Eric Yunag of Dakota Security stopped by the Media Studio to share some ISC West observations with Sharon and me.
I met with Lee Odess at Brivo and he showed me the new mobile app for Brivo OnAir. Slick and simple, Odess said it’s aimed at the small- and medium business market to give business owners flexibility to manage access on the go. He also told me about a new Brivo initiative —called the Dealer Success Program—to teach security installers and dealers about how to sell and succeed with services. “It’s really not Brivo-specific, it’s basically a how-to kit that shows why it’s good for integrators to chase the services business.”
At smart thermal camera company SightLogix, John Romanowich and Frank De Fina had a number of installers checking out their new offerings: SightWrap and SightSensor XA. SightWrap is a new dealer program. It’s a no-money-down RMR-business aimed at car dealerships. SightSensor XA (extended area) a thermal camera that can cover an entire football field. The previous model could cover to the 40-yard line, the XA provides "coverage all the way to the end zone," Romanowich said.
It was nice to get a chance to meet Alarm.com’s Matt Zartmann and Jeff Bedell in person to talk about Alarm.com’s commercial launch. Recent tweaks and the acquisition of Secure-i have enabled the company to get its commercial platform in place for video, intrusion and energy management. Bedell said installers can offer their commercial customers one or all three components.
I stopped by Arecont Vision and talked to Scott Schafer about the company’s Project Registration Program that he says is different because it protects dealers with project pricing that’s “intentional.” We also talked about updates to Arecont’s set-up-utility and the fact that Arecont now has motorized lenses in all of its product lines
Amy’s Roundup
Before the official kickoff of ISC West 2015, I spent Tuesday afternoon at the DMP Owners Forum and then attended the Women in Security Council reception and awards ceremony.
At the DMP forum, keynoter Patrick Thean spoke on "Rockefeller Habits: How to Differentiate, Execute and Win!" An international speaker and author, Thean is a serial entrepreneur who founded, among other companies, Metasys. He most recently co-founded and is CEO of Gazelles Systems and is the creator of Rhythm Software, designed to assist companies in setting and executing strategic plans for growth. There are three ways for companies to improve, he said: eliminate mistakes, shorten cycle times and improve business models. He also emphasized the importance of articulating core values and purpose and making sure the right people are in the right jobs. A strategy and execution plan should fit on one page, and that goes for companies that are startups all the way up to multimillion firms, he said. He provided attendees with a worksheet to help formulate those goals, create a leading indicator to drive results and a format to track progress.
Next up was Deputy Chief Paul Calvaruso of the Akron, Ohio, Police Department, who talked about his recent experience instituting verified alarm response in his city. The department was facing layoffs due to budget constraints, and he knew it had to better manage its calls for service. Alarm response was "the low-hanging fruit," he said; he was looking at a 98.5 percent false alarm rate. For advice, he visited the Las Vegas Police Department, which already was making use of verified response. He was told to include local alarm companies in his "campaign." He did so, and their advice was valuable, he said. Six months after Calvaruso got the program in place, 22 percent of the burglary and robbery alarms were verified and manpower hours were saved. He stressed that his department is "very supportive" of monitoring stations, which have a key role to play. Even if homeowners can get alarm alerts and video verification via smartphones, most don't have their phones available to them 24/7. Video verification is where the industry is headed, he said, and "I'm very glad we did it. I hope to continue to have good relationships with alarm companies. It's been a heck of a ride."
I then sat down with three dealers for an informal round-table discussion on their challenges and opportunities and how they differentiate themselves from their competitors, both big and small.Michael Hackett, president, and CEO of Hackett Security in St. Louis, Mo.; John Bazyk, director of sales and marketing for Command Corporation in E. Granby, Conn.; and Dustin Reeves, sales manager for Blue Ridge Security Solutions in Anderson, S.C., had many good insights. Teaser: Video verification will change the industry.
Early in the evening, there was a great and enthusiastic turnout for the Women in Security event. WSC director Rhianna Daniels Hile introduced the Women of the Year Award winners and encouraged attendees to spread the word about the good work that WSC is doing. She's always looking for sponsors for WSC, she added, so get in touch with her about that.
Home automation, device aesthetics, intuitiveness and ease of installation were recurring themes as I made my way around the jam-packed show floor on Wednesday.
At Honeywell, Richard Conner, director of marketing for the SED Channel talked about the wireless trend for fire alarm systems. Requests for voice notification also have gone up, he said, along with making sure the devices look good. I also got demos of Honeywell’s Lyric and MAXPRO Cloud. Honeywell had a new booth design this year, with all of its products on interactive display in one big area, kind of like an Apple store. It looked great and was effective.
At the Nortek booth, Larry North, director of marketing, talked about the integration of 2Gig, GoControl and Linear products and how Nortek’s name change to Nortek Security & Control was a way to bring about cohesiveness and a closer relationship between the companies. Expect bundled, full-service sets from them in the near future along with PERS innovations down the road. Nortek’s booth had a new look this year, too, with all sister companies in one place. It also featured “A Day in the Life of Home Control.”
At the Z-Wave Alliance Pavilion, with nine member companies displaying their wares, alliance board member Avi Rosenthal also discussed home control. The ultimate goal is to have not just a connected home, but a true “smart home” that thinks for itself, he said. This is the year of industrial design, he said, with the focus on slick, European-style designs. “It’s the ‘wife-acceptance’ factor. She’s the one who decorates, so the devices must look cool on the wall,” he said. Form and functionality matter for all products, from sensors to switches to control panels.
Jim Vogel, VP of dealer services for ADT, said he’s excited by the company’s growth opportunities. He’s optimistic that the uptick in the housing market will mean more business for his company. (And its ad campaign featuring Ving Rhames hasn’t hurt a bit, either.) Pulse has taken off, he said, with 1.1 million ADT customers out of a total of 7.2 million using it. Meanwhile, ADT is “future-proofing” the Internet of Things, he said.
At OnGuard, product manager Brian Tripp had interesting info about intelligent elevators. In a high-rise apartment building, for example, a resident would swipe his access card, which would then identify which floor he needs to go to. The display would tell him which elevator car to take to make his ride up more efficient. That’s a win-win for both the user and for the building owner, who can cut costs by decreasing the time elevators are running up and down haphazardly. The user’s swipe also could alert his home automation system that the lights need to be turned on, the thermostat needs to go up, etc.
I’d written about Icontrol’s new Icontrol One, designed for independent dealers, before, but I got to see it in action on Wednesday. Greg Roberts, VP of marketing, pointed out the usefulness of Icontrol One’s web portal, which allows the user to set up and revise the system, see alerts and easily find and watch video clips. “It’s a one-step stop for security for the entire home. The end-user uses the web portal to do all,” he said. The portal, which is automatically updated so, therefore, doesn’t need to be refreshed, also offers the user a “home view” feature using the layout of his own home that shows the location of all the devices in the house and lets the user monitor them from there. That feature also is available in 3-D. “Visual” people like that feature, he said. The system is intuitive, easy to install and, yes, its devices are especially designed to be aesthetically pleasing.
Mike Hackett, SVP sales and marketing for Qolsys, also emphasized the intuitiveness, ease of installation and good design looks of his Internet of the Home. Users—and installers— immediately understand and appreciate the value of the plug-in devices, he said. One feature that stood out for me was the easy way to change both the setting labels and voice instructions from English to French or Spanish. With two touches on the control panel all the information is translated. Dealers no longer have to figure out how many French or Spanish models they need to buy, Hackett said. It’s all in one.
My workday Thursday started out by volunteering at the Mission 500 5K/2K run/walk and ended at the Mission 500 awards ceremony, always so inspirational. Congratulations to the fundraisers and race winners. Security Systems News is proud to be a sponsor of this annual, important charitable event that aids children in need.
I did three video interviews today, first with experienced industry professional Joel "Disruptive" Matlin, whose new resi company, Think Protection, is right on track to be up and running in June. Next up was Don Moore of Moore Protection, or, as I like to call him, resi provider to the stars. He serves high-end clients in the Los Angeles area, from movie studio bigwigs to celebrities to other million- and billionaires. My third video interview was with Margaret Spitznas, general manager of family-owned Washington Alarm, based in Seattle. Each of my video interviewees had unique perspectives on the industry. Stay tuned to the Security Systems News website to watch the other videos, along with those conducted by my SSN colleagues. You’ll learn a lot.
During a visit to Alarm.com, Anne Ferguson, senior director, partner marketing, and Matthew Zartman, director of communications, told me about the company’s multi-faceted Partner Resources program, available to their 5,000 dealers. They also discussed the impact of home automation on their company. In previous years, dealers who had been in the business for a long time—those with physical security at their core—were hesitant to embrace the smart home, Ferguson said. But now, much to their benefit, they get it, she said. They know that if they don’t take home automation “to heart,” someone else will be installing those services to their customers over the next three years. Alarm.com dealers are hungry for training, which Alarm.com is happy to provide, she said. At the same time, Alarm.com is paying close attention to expanding beyond the home. For example, through their "wellness" offerings, they can connect a customer with an elderly parent’s residence. The customer would be able to see if their aging-in-place mother opened her medicine cabinet by a specified time and would get an alert if she didn’t, which might signify she didn’t take her medication on time as prescribed. Home automation has transformed the security industry, Ferguson and Zartman said, and the industry is in a great position to prosper.
Two years ago, Doug Farber, chief of security for the new World Trade Center complex, was one of our “20 under 30” winners. I spoke to him by phone a number of times, but due to work commitments—the construction project and its security implications were HUGE— he was unable to make it to that year’s TechSec conference to receive his award. A former Secret Service agent, Farber had impressed me with his passion for his job and his patriotism. Finally, finally, I got to meet him in person on Wednesday. We talked about his challenges at such an emotion-ridden site—and we talked about his 9-month-old daughter! Doug is a great guy, a true patriot and professional, and I’m so glad we finally met up. Here’s to you, Doug! Keep doing what you’re doing so well!
At Genetec, I met with Andrew Elvish, VP marketing and product management, and Georges Karam, the new chief commercial officer. Genetec has so much going on. The company is growing, it’s introducing new products and is preparing to expand into market sectors it hasn’t broached before. Its Security Center upgrades and Cloud Link are on the cutting edge.
I did a spin around the show floor a couple of times during the day and was happy to see crowded booths and enthusiastic attendees, and this was even before the happy hours broke out!
I put in a phone call to Jake Parker, SIA’s director of government relations, about every other month. Jake gives me the rundown on activities on Capitol Hill that have direct impacts on the physical security industry. I then report on those impacts for Security Systems News. Jake is an invaluable source for SSN, but I never had the chance to meet him face-to-face until Friday. We finally sat down together at ISC West and had a friendly conversation along with discussing a few security topics thrown in for good measure. Thanks for making the time, Jake!
Also on Friday, I met with three execs from BeOn, CEO Alexei Erchak, COO Arvind Baliga and VP of marketing Mark Komanecky. I was so intrigued by their new “preventative security” technology that our meeting extended beyond the designated 30 minutes. The technology targets the “impulsive burglar.” BeOn’s unique lightbulbs, which fit into regular, existing sockets, “learn” homeowners' typical movements—on a daily basis, when do they turn on, for example, the front porch light, the master bedroom light, the living room light? After the learning process, the bulbs turn on to naturally make it look like someone’s at home when the house is empty. The bulbs also have a microphone function that will respond to the home’s doorbell and will progressively turn on lights as the owner would if he or she were upstairs and had to make their way downstairs to answer the door. Eventually, the microphone function will be able to trigger the sound of a dog barking, music playing and more. A Kickstart company, BeOn’s focus is on reaching security-conscious homeowners who, nevertheless, have no desire to install a full-fledged home security system. Check back with SSN for more info on this interesting new company.
Things were still going strong when I took a final stroll around the show floor. For a Friday, the third day of the show, it was bustling. I hope you all had a good show, I know I did.
Spencer’s Roundup
After landing in Las Vegas on Tuesday, my first meeting was with Mike Bodnar, president of Security Partners, for a tour of the company’s new central station. The brand new station officially opened the day before. There was certainly a "new" look to it, and I saw slideshows of photos taken before and after the renovations. It was really interesting to hear from Bob Schott, Security Partners' director of information technologies, about items carried over from the building’s previous use as a government data center. I also met John McCann, who talked with me about the new line of exclusive Mace-brand products that Security Partners' dealers will be offering, among which is a diesel tank monitor.
From there I attended Altronix's dinner, held at DB Brasserie in the Venetian. Alan Forman, Altronix president, presented on the latest products from the company, including technology to monitor power supply. I also enjoyed meeting and talking to Kirby Han, Altronix art director, and Rodney Thayer, a consultant with Smithee, Spelvin, Agnew & Splinge.
As I've mentioned, this is my first ISC West show. Day 1 of the show, Wednesday, went pretty well, from start to finish, I thought. I got the chance to finally meet some people in person whom I've talked to via phone multiple times, like Christopher Denniston of Rapid Response and David Smith with COPS.
The day started with the "Meet the Editors" event at the media stage outside the show floor. I briefly met Jim McMullen, president, and COO of COPS Monitoring. I also met two members of the CheckVideo team: Nik Gagvani, president and GM, and Ed Troha, director of marketing.
My first meeting on the show floor was with Christopher Denniston and Dan Gelinas of Rapid Response. Gelinas is one person I had met before, at Security Systems News' office in Yarmouth, Maine. I’ve had a question on my mind for a couple of months leading to the show; what is Rapid Response referring to in its ad that states that "everything changes" on 4.15.15? Denniston told me that refers to the company's new mobile apps for monitoring one or multiple PERS accounts updates on the existing dealer and customer apps and increased redundancy in the company's relatively new California facility. The facility will be able to handle the company's entire account load at one time, he said.
I got the chance to quickly meet Douglas M. Curtiss, president of Sonitrol New England, who brought up an interesting point, that video verification is a strong argument for traditional monitoring over DIY.
All American Monitoring's patriotic booth was the site of my second visit. The company decided to use ISC West 2015 to launch its MeyeView brand of cameras specifically for its dealers. Bob Keefe, the company's president, said the company has spent a while testing the cameras. I also met with Rob Keefe, company VP, and Tammy Zappa, manager. Zappa said Bob Keefe is "constantly" looking for new items to offer dealers.
MKS' booth really represented part of its 30th-anniversary changes, with the whole staff dressed in the company's new color scheme of orange and grey. I met with Bailey Bhogal, MKS' marketing specialist, Joe Ligouri, the CFO and COO, and Victoria Ferro, president. Ferro was named one of the WSC’s 10 Women of the Year on Tuesday.
My last show floor meeting of the day was with Alarm Monitoring Services, where I got the chance to meet Rick and Dera Jolet, the co-owners, along with Bob Gates the company's VP of sales. Rick is also the CEO and Dera is the CFO. They talked to me about a few of the things that make their monitoring center unique. One thing that Dera pointed out was that the company has an answering service for its customers, which is a great benefit to the company’s dealers.
My evening was quite busy. After leaving the show floor, I went to Affiliated's cocktail reception at the lovely Lavo, in the Palazzo, where I met Daniel Oppenheim, the company's vice president, Michael Zydor, the managing director, and Stanley Oppenheim, president of DGA Security.
From there, I went to the Bellagio's Hyde lounge for National Monitoring Center's annual event. I met with Michael Schubert, the president, Woodie Andrawos, executive vice president, and Sharon Elder, vice president of sales. I also was lucky enough to catch the Bellagio's fountain show.
My final event on Day 1 was COPS Monitoring's third annual "bonanza" at Gilley's in Treasure Island. Amidst good food, live music, and a mechanical bull-riding competition, I met Donavan Maden, the company's executive vice president, and David Smith, COPS' director of marketing.
Helping out at the Security 5k in Sunset Park Thursday was certainly not a bad way to start the second day of ISC West. It was sunny, with very little wind—all around a great day to get out for fresh air and a walk or run. On the ride back, I met Kevin G. Clark, global communications & PR for Genetec, who was kind enough to point out to this newcomer some of Las Vegas' notable buildings along the strip.
One of the things I liked hearing from central stations at the show is what makes each of them stand out. My first show floor meeting of the day was with Acadian Monitoring Services, where I met with Jason Caldwell, national sales representative, Tim Newman, business development, and Kristin Hebert, security operations manager. "Where we really differentiate [ourselves] is our special focus on video monitoring and medical monitoring," Caldwell told me. The company also operates the second-largest AES network in the country, according to Caldwell. "We're seeing a lot of growth on that network now," with upwards of a thousand customer radios added recently, he said.
From there I went over to IDIS, one of the top 10 biggest booths at the show this year, to see what the company was doing with all the space. Right away, I met Benjamin Bryant, IDIS public relations consultant, and Tara Farley, IDIS marketing and PR consultant. While at the booth, I was able to talk with a couple of people from 4sight imaging, one of IDIS' partners. Brook Jackson, managing director, and Marcus Boden, business development director, talked with me about 4Sight's license plate recognition and gave me a demo. I also met with Young-Dal Kim, the company CEO.
Jens Kolind is the VP of external partnerships at Innovative Business Software. We spoke a couple of months back about SBN Cloud, the first UL-listed cloud-hosted monitoring automation platform. It was great to meet him and amazing to see what a UL central station could look like with SBN Cloud, below.
I saw Kevin Helmig, president, and CTO for Centra-Larm, and Scott Mailhot, VP of operations, not too long ago, but it was good to see them again at their first ISC West booth.
I circled back to the IDIS booth a little later to talk with Keith Drummond, senior director of sales for IDIS America. He the IDIS presence at ISC West signals the company's entrance into the American market, a key step in becoming a global company. While this regional launch was preceded by two others, the U.K. and Middle East launch, the American extension of IDIS was planned before the first step outside of the company's native Asia region. Launching in America was a very strategic process, according to Drummond. "The one thing I'm letting people know is that we are here to stay." I got a chance to meet IDIS America president Andrew Myung on this second trip to the booth.
I briefly met Brett Springall, Security Central's CEO, at the media booth. He mentioned that the company has been increasing its sales team lately.
After that, I met with a.p.i. Monitoring's Lewis Jacobson, the company's director of dealer sales. He told me that a big thing for the company at the show is the announcement of their partnership with Numera's mPERS.
Monitronics' Bruce Mungiguerra, VP of operations, told me that the company is moving to a new facility, 165,000 square-feet large. Three Monitronics buildings in the Dallas area will consolidate under one roof. The new building will be three stories, which makes more sense for a central station than the current construction with six floors. The new building is on a lake, with walking trails in the surrounding area, and two gym facilities. This will create "a campus environment that our employees can be proud of," he said.
One of the biggest things I heard about when talking with COPS Monitoring, is that the company is expanding in both staff and technology. In terms of staff, it is adding 30 dispatcher stations at its Florida center, with similar expansions planned for COPS' Tennessee and Arizona facilities, Jim McMullen, president and COO said. In technology, the company is upgrading its capacity to be able to handle as many as 3.4 million accounts.
"We've been talking a lot about the e-contract app" at the show, Michael Zydor, Affiliated Monitoring's managing director, said. Apps were the big thing this year, with a new end-user app that takes functions from the company's previous end-user app and puts them into a newly made format, made much "simpler," according to Zydor.
Next, I met with Steven Schmit at UL to talk about new standards under the new version of UL827, published last fall. Central stations will now need more redundancy, capabilities and cybersecurity measures. This is the first time cybersecurity has been directly involved in requirements, Schmit said. "Now with that in the standard we're going to have conversations about [central stations'] network security, how they keep their customers' data secure." The current plan is for these standards to be required by late 2016. I also met with Neil Lakomiak, director of business development and innovation, at the UL booth. Lakomiak and I talked about some of the other technologies that could see standards with UL, such as mPERS.
My final floor meeting was guided by Tiffany Coles, a marketing manager for Bold Technologies. I started by talking with her and Chuck Speck, company president, about the next version of its Manitou platform, Neo. From there, Tiffany and I walked over to White Rabbit's booth, where I met Rod Coles, White Rabbit's CEO, as well as Toby Prescott, White Rabbit's product engineer, and saw a demonstration of their products that are designed to lead DIY and home automation back to the central station.
After leaving the show floor, I attended Dynamark's party, held in the Renaissance Suite in the Venetian—quite a view from the 36th floor. There, I met Trey Alter, president and CEO, and Hank Groff, senior VP of marketing and business development.
My final event of the day was a dinner with Galaxy Control Systems at Carnevino in the Palazzo. It was nice to meet Rick Caruthers, company VP, and Luke Krawec, account executive with LRG Marketing.
The last day, like the first, started off with a great meeting at the media stage. This time I met George De Marco, ESX chair, and talked about the different ways booths look to bring in visitors, everything from booth design to attractions.
Then I headed onto the show floor for a meeting with Cliff Dice, Dice president and CEO, and Carol Enman, Dice SVP for strategic business. We talked a lot about the reception of Dice's cloud-hosted central monitoring software platform, now UL-certified. "I actually thought there would be more resistance to it when we came out with it," Dice said, pleased with the positive reactions he's heard at the show.
Just after noon, outside the show floor, I did a video interview with Darryl Bray, sales manager for Security Central. We talked about the company's upcoming CSAA Five Diamond certification and increasing sales efforts.
Back on the show floor, I visited EMERgency 24's booth to hear about the partnership with BluePoint. I met with Patrick Devereaux, SVP of EMERgency 24; John Shales, partner at BluePoint; John McNutt, partner, and CEO at BluePoint; and Terri Douglas, co-founder, and principal at Catapult public relations firm.
My final meeting of this year's ISC West was with Larry Folsom, president of I-View Now, who told me about the company's latest integration with Honeywell's Total Connect.
I thought it was a great show. I look forward to hearing more from the people I met with and seeing them at future shows.
Product Showcase
At SIA's 2015 New Product Showcase, MorphoWAVE from Safran Morpho won the Best New Product Award
MorphoWAVE uses advanced imaging technology to capture “four fingerprints from a single wave of the hand. It simultaneously provides high-security multi-finger matching and extremely convenient touchless operation. Delivering high accuracy fingerprint matching in less than one second, it offers industry-leading high throughput biometric technology. MorphoWAVE is suited for sensitive and high traffic applications, flow management and other situations where convenience, speed, and security are a priority.”
The Judges' Choice Award was presented to IC Realtime for its IC720 360x360 Video Surveillance Camera product, a "stationary, compact dual-lens 26-megapixel camera, that along with gyroscopic motion technology and proprietary software App deliver wholly immersive 3D-like floor-to-ceiling and completely around the camera itself monitoring experience."
The NPS judges presented awards in 25 product and service categories, and they also presented six honorable mention awards in six categories. Below is a list of winners.
2015 NPS Award Winners
Access Control Devices & Peripherals
Cypress Computer Systems / Cypress Integration Solutions
OSMIUM Series OSDP Interface Module
Access Control Devices & Peripherals Wireless
HID Global
HID Mobile Access
Access Control Software and Controllers
IDenticard Access Control
PremiSys Security Management Dashboard
Convergence and Integrated Software and Solutions
Optigo Networks
Optigo Integrity
Fire/Life Safety
Xtralis
VESDA-E VEA
Green / Sustainable Solutions Products
MicroPower Technologies
SOLVEIL Surveillance System
Hosted Solutions
CheckVideo
HD Analytics Gateway
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Solutions
Bosch Security Systems, Inc.
G Series Control Panel
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Solutions Wireless
Interlogix
ZeroWire
Locks/Safes/Hardware
KT&C
KEES
Mobile Apps
Honeywell Security Products Americas
MAXPRO Mobile App
Network Support Solutions
Phybridge
CLEER (Coax Leveraged Ethernet Extended Reach) Switch
Outdoor Perimeter Protection
Knightscope, Inc.
K5 Autonomous Data Machine
Residential and Monitoring Solutions
NETGEAR
ARLO
Tools and Hardware
EverFocus Electronics Corp.
Sidekick
User Authentication, Identification, Credentialing, and Management
Zwipe
Zwipe Access
Video Analytics
NICE Systems
NICE Suspect Search
Video Surveillance Advanced Imaging Technologies
Axis Communications
Axis’ Zipstream technology
Video Surveillance Cameras HD (Megapixel)
HauteSpot Networks Corporation
HiveCAM
Video Surveillance Cameras IP
Samsung Techwin
Open Platform
Video Surveillance Data Storage
DDN Storage
DDN - GS7K Appliance
Video Surveillance Hardware and Accessories
Dotworkz Systems
BASH All-Pro
Video Surveillance Management Systems
Spectra Logic
NVR3 Video Management Solutions
