ISC West Highlights Trends, Possibilities Of New Technology
ISC West Highlights Trends, Possibilities – Visitors to ISC West in Las Vegas got the perfect opportunity to assess the state of the electronic security market last week, and it was clear the market continues to be driven by digital transformation and rapidly evolving comms technologies.
While electronic security and automation devices remain vital to delivering situational awareness, underlying elements are shifting in ways that will impact security installation and integration in all sorts of ways, including installation and maintenance techniques, staff skillsets, product offerings, business models and client risk profiles.
Perhaps most interesting for installers is that comms and battery technologies are delivering faster installations in more diverse applications, while evolving sensors, cameras and user interfaces are offering end users much wider functionalities that can be managed from anywhere.
At the same time, AI and data analytics is leeching into all areas of electronic security – it’s a sub-section of almost every part of the market; from face recognition and intrusion detection to power management; delivering equal measures of excitement and incoherence.
The foundations for much of what’s happening in the security market emerge from high performance internet delivered by cable or wireless. Fast, reliable internet and clever software have turned security devices into systems of surprising power, as well as bending the shape of business models by adding elements like data collection, this latter endlessly appealing to circling digital behemoths.
Given the digitisation of everything, cyber security is another key element of the latest products, though there are internal contradictions to NDAA-compliant CCTV cameras and access controllers supported by network devices intrinsically far more vulnerable and too often manufactured, commissioned, installed and maintained by nobody knows who.
ISC West Highlights Trends, Possibilities
According to BGW Technologies’ general manager, Robert Meachem, the major changes and trends he observed after a 4 years hiatus from ISC West due to COVID were centred around a number of key areas, with the first being cloud.
“Cloud is to be found in every segment of electronic security, whether it be intrusion, access control and video, and it’s a game changer for many of these segments,” Meachem said.
“The ability of cloud to assist in the reduction of on premise hardware but take advantage of cloud storage, management and updates makes the SI’s and the end user life much easier in many situation, and I think intrusion and access control benefit like never before.
“We also noticed the alarm and intrusion R&D investment is almost exclusively directed at end-to-end wireless. These solutions are interactive all-in-one hub-style controllers that use cloud-based apps. This is big plus for security installers and integrators seeking recurring revenue models, as well as enhancing ease of use for end users.”
“Something else that was very noticeable at ISC was the prevalence of AI, which is being applied to devices and solutions of all kinds,” Meachem said. “But while everyone is doing AI, the lines are blurred as to what AI really is.
“I think the term is now over-used and is now being retrospectively applied to technologies that have been around for decades, which devalues the exciting investment by some companies that are leading AI technologies inside and outside our industry”.
According to Meachem, it was good to see strong presence from all BGW Technologies’ key suppliers, with the addition of a noticeable uplift in presence from Motorola Solutions at the event this year, especially given BGW Technologies is a long term local distributor for the American manufacturer’s Pelco brand, and more recently its market leading Avigilon brand.
You can read more about BGW Technologies here and read more SEN news here.
“ISC West Highlights Trends, Possibilities Of New Technology.”
