It’s increasingly likely that Toshiba is set to follow Sony’s example and bail out of the declining Plasma market. The company is set to move to LCD and SED television systems by mid 2005.

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Toshiba is said to be planning to instead focus on surface conduction electron emitter display (SED) panels for flat panel televisions with 40-inch or larger screens.

Mid next year full-scale production of SED television sets, which it jointly developed with Canon will start, with Toshiba <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Australia likely to be the distributor in Australia, according to reports.

A company jointly established by Toshiba and Hitachi and other firms will mass-produce display panels for liquid crystal televisions. A Toshiba executive has said that with the company planning to concentrate on marketing SED and flat-panel television sets, it was inevitable that Toshiba would downsize its plasma display panel television business and eventually retreat from the market.

Toshiba has not marketed new plasma display panel television products in Japan since about halfway through last year.

This announcement comes as Abloy Security, distributor of ABLOY products in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />UK and Ireland, adds to its range with the introduction of a series of new multi-function electric locks.

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Robin Rice, Managing Director at Abloy Security said, “The performance, functionality and reliability of ABLOY products, means that our we have become renowned within the industry and specified for use by government, public and end user organisations within the UK for over 30 years. We are absolutely delighted with this achievement and the continuing success of ABLOY.”

With the addition of the JVC Keyboard, model GSC-2000J the DVRs can be remotely controlled, with additional control of JVC dome cameras over the Ethernet.

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The DVRs offer 10/100 BaseT network access for complete IP integration and compatibility and can be controlled over a network, either via a standard web browser such as Internet Explorer or the viewer application that is bundled with each DVR unit.

JVC’s line-up of traditional V-Network and software will also be on display. The VN-C30U and VN-C10U cameras have direct Ethernet capability and built-in web servers. The VN-C30U has zoom, pan/tilt and alarm input/output capability that allows many live images to be tracked and viewed simultaneously from any location.

The VN-C10U is a static-based camera with many security features including video motion detection. It has MPEG4 compression for smooth motion pictures. In addition, the VN-S400 network software and VN-A1U video network encoder will also be on display. Applications for these include remote viewing, surveillance and point-of-display marketing.

Developed to meet the demand from integrators who were using Lenel as their access control vendor, the partnership with Dedicated Micros and the use of the DV-IP gives integrators flexibility in order to provide the ideal choice of security products for their clients.

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“It’s an opportunity for both new and existing Lenel’s OnGuard customers to add a best of breed DVMR to their high- quality access control system,” says Bob McCarthy, vice president of technology for Dedicated Micros.

“It also provides customers who currently have our solution installed to add state-of-the-art access control system to their current Dedicated Micros solution.”

DM has been noticeably strengthening the ability of its product lineup to integrate directly with networked access control systems for the past 6 months – and certainly planning the tie-up much longer.

Honeywell says through its Honeywell Hometown Solutions initiative, it will target programs to rebuild destroyed communities and provide necessities for those most affected by the disaster.

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The death toll from the tsunamis has risen above 150,000 and 5 million people have been left homeless with at least 1.8 million people need food aid.

“A tragedy of this scale requires corporate leadership on a global basis,” said Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote in a statement.

“Honeywell will work with local organizations to leverage our expertise in housing and shelter to help rebuild communities in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />South Asia.”

The name change highlights a global reorganization of the company that will include reorganization at Panasonic Security.

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“We are in the midst of a huge transformation of our company’s systems and organization,” said company chairman Yoshi Yamada in a statement. “By putting the Panasonic name on the revitalized company, we want to underline the dynamic change going on within the organization.”

According to an SSN report, there will be a management reorganization within Panasonic Security Systems in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />US. SSN says it’s unclear what shape this reorganization will take and whether anyone in the current company’s management will be losing their position.

Matsushita Electric Corp changed its name to Panasonic Corp. of North America on January 1. All 50 of Matsushita’s entities in the U.S. and Mexico will take on the Panasonic name during the coming year.

The company plans to abandon the Matsushita name throughout the world in the coming year except in the company’s base of operations in Japan, where Konosuke Matsushita founded the company in the 1930s.

In October 2004, Chubb pleaded guilty to 12 charges of contravening s 58(b) and 14 charges of contravening s 75AZL(3) of the Trade Practices Act 1974,  brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

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The charges related to Chubb contracting to provide security services.  At the time Chubb had reasonable grounds to know that it would not be able to supply the contracted services within the period agreed.  The contracts were entered into between 5 June 2001 and 4 November 2002.

Clients affected by the conduct included a number of Commonwealth agencies and other businesses located in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Sydney, the Gosford region, Canberra and Tasmania.

In handing down the penalty, Justice Bennett noted:  “It seems to me that the nature and circumstances of the offences demonstrate the seriousness of the failure of the part of Chubb to implement a system to ensure that it could meet the obligations which it had contracted to perform”.

ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme Samuel, said the ACCC would not hesitate to use its power to seek criminal remedies for consumer protection breaches in appropriate cases where there has been deliberate, reckless behaviour causing significant harm to consumers.

“When people have entered into a contract to have their property protected, they are entitled to receive the full services”, he said.

In the wake of the decision ASIAL has revealed that an independent panel appointed by the ASIAL board has negotiated a $A500,000 financial contribution from Chubb to establish the ASIAL Centre for Security Compliance Excellence. Chubb will face no additional penalties – no losses of licence for behaviour that would have certainly seen smaller organizations turfed out of the industry for good.

ASIAL said in a release that while the association acknowledges the Federal Court decision has the capacity to harm the overall image of the security industry, recent important developments involving the Australian Security Industry Association (ASIAL) and Chubb Security Australia Pty Ltd (Chubb) mark a major watershed in raising standards in the private security industry.

The conduct that formed the ACCC’s action against Chubb also constituted a breach of the Association’s Code. Executive Director of ASIAL, Terry Murphy said.  

“The Association determined that any remedy to restore the reputation of the industry would need to include a demonstrable shift in compliance within Chubb, as well as a commitment to deliver an outcome that was beneficial to the community and industry as a whole. To its credit, Chubb has accepted its responsibilities as an on-going member of ASIAL.

“An independent panel appointed by the ASIAL Board has negotiated an arrangement, whereby Chubb has willingly submitted to a range of measures, including a financial contribution which could total over $A500,000 to the establishment of the ASIAL Centre for Security Compliance Excellence” he said.

“We have taken tough measures against Chubb and believe these will help deliver greater compliance standards across the entire industry,” Mr. Murphy said.

Being assured by Chubb that it had remedied its past behaviour, the ASIAL Board adopted, as its preferred approach, the introduction of improved industry compliance training, ongoing assessment and testing which will lead to greater public trust and confidence in security industry products and services.

“This is an absolutely paramount consideration as far as we are concerned” Murphy added.

“The establishment of the Centre for Security Compliance Excellence will significantly build on the industry compliance program that has evolved over the past three years. The Centre for Security Compliance Excellence represents a significant long-term commitment by both Chubb and the industry in raising and maintaining industry standards.”

The Centre’s primary activities will be to develop a national cross-industry facility that incorporates:

* Development of a dynamic and robust culture of compliance within the security industry

* Improvement of Member knowledge skills and capabilities in compliance

* Establishment of a methodology that integrates compliance, ethics, governance and risk into the fabric of security organisations

* Implementation of professional compliance accreditation in the security industry through a rigorous inspection regime

* Development of a National Code.

Work will begin on the new national system early in 2005, including the appointment of an independent advisory council, which will assist in driving the direction of the Centre for Securty Compliance Excellence.

ASIAL’s Executive Director Terry Murphy has commended Chubb’s President, Tony Chamberlain for the leadership that he has displayed in assisting to bring about what ASIAL is calling a watershed initiative.

Comment

Along with the fact Chubb looks to have got away with a slap on the wrist for its outrageous behaviour in this instance it also looks to me like the payment being made by Chubb to ASIAL has all the hallmarks of a campaign contribution.

From the industry’s point of view, while it’s always going to be hard to criticize the establishment of something so awkwardly named as the “Centre for Security Compliance Excellence”, it’s equally difficult not to ask whether the centre’s stated activities will simply constitute tasks the association should have been undertaking anyway.

Goals like developing a “culture of compliance” within the national security industry; establishing a methodology that integrates compliance, ethics, governance and risk into the fabric of security associations; implementation of professional compliance accreditation in the security industry through rigorous inspection and the establishment of a “national code” all sound like things ASIAL either has always been doing or should have been doing for many a long year.

Instead ASIAL’s cleverly crafted punishment “contribution” looks to me like it will fund an internal structure designed to turbocharge the association’s own long term goals of national control. It’s very hard for to see anything in the wording of the Centre’s primary activities that actually gives something back to the industry.

–        John Adams, Editor