Larry Anderson's Security Beat

A message we’re hearing a lot at ISC West this year is the customer’s growing demand for end-to-end solutions. In the small- to medium-sized business (SMB) segment, especially, there is a strong demand for total solutions that are simple to use and easy to integrate and manage. The most efficient path to achieve such systems is often to install an end-to-end solution from a single supplier, combining access control and video. Creating unified solution by uniting product businesses...

Cybersecurity has been getting much more attention lately in the physical security market. One company ready to address cybersecurity of IP video products is DVTEL. The Israeli company’s roots in IT and networking make it a logical choice to take a lead in cyber-defence of IP video systems. DVTEL’s core research and development (R&D) in Israel includes cyber-defence expertise. DVTEL’s cyber-defence plan In fact, DVTEL is moving fast to implement its cyber-defence plan &nd...

Milestone Systems is closing in on a year since their acquisition by Canon’s European subsidiary in June 2014. Throughout the ownership transition, Milestone has reiterated its commitment to open systems and continued to flourish, building its “ecosystem” alongside other industry partners. At the recent Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS 2015), I had a chance to chat with Lars Thinggaard, Milestone’s president and CEO, about industry trends and what’s ah...

If you’re heading to ISC West in Las Vegas this year, it’s helpful to acknowledge immediately that there’s no way you can experience all aspects of the show. Just not enough time and too many options. Once you give up on seeing everything, you can immediately lower stress. But you also raise the stakes in terms of picking and choosing exactly what you have time for – or want to make time for. Hoping to help out as we all set our ISC West priorities, here are some Ways to...

Traffic is a big challenge in most urban environments, and I had a chance recently to visit with the agency in Montreal, Quebec, that monitors traffic throughout the island, reacting to traffic conditions and daily situations such as road congestion and managing specific events and incidents. A network of traffic light controllers and video cameras provides data that is tied into Montreal’s Urban Mobility Management Center (UMMC), which is the “brains” of the city’s Inte...

For attendees at ISC West in Las Vegas, the show each year brings together elements that are comfortably familiar with elements that are brand new, even unexpected. The U.S. security marketplace’s largest yearly gathering is an unrivalled forum for new product introductions, and the exhibition sets the stage for much that happens in the market throughout the rest of the year. The ISC West exhibit hall at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas will be open April 15-17, and education sessions will be...

Commoditisation of cameras and downward price pressure are big topics in the video surveillance market. There was an interesting discussion about pricing and its impact on the integrator community at last month’s MIPS 2015 (Milestone Integration Platform Symposium). Participants were several of the major camera manufacturers, who provided a variety of viewpoints. Prompting the discussion – but with no representative on the panel – were the emerging Chinese manufacturers, who a...

Advances in LPR: License plate recognition (LPR) is used widely today in law enforcement applications, but the enterprise security market is also catching on to benefits of the technology – especially when it is combined with other video analytics. PlateSmart Technologies, Oldsmar, Fla., is working to maximise those benefits and to use LPR as a real-time, proactive tool for physical security. PlateSmart’s ARES Enterprise Video Analytics System is a software-only platform that combi...

This year’s 10th anniversary Milestone Integration Platform Symposium (MIPS) was the largest ever, with 463 participants, including manufacturers, integrators and thought leaders from throughout the industry. Emphasizing Milestone’s “open platform” approach to the market, the 2015 event highlighted successful Milestone end users, new integrations with a variety of manufacturer partners, and a theme of “winning together.” Keeping Mum on the Canon-Axis acquisti...

3xLOGIC has a vision to provide a fully integrated video, access control and cloud-based managed solution. The acquisition this week of the infinias access control product line provides the missing piece of that vision, says Matthew Kushner, CEO of 3xLOGIC. “This acquisition is a pure strategic play to create a disruptive solution for cloud-based managed services,” says Kushner. The acquisition includes the infinias brand, its intellectual property and the infinias team, including e...

The spirit of collaboration was alive and well at AMAG Technology’s Security Engineering Symposium 2015 in Carlsbad, Calif. Targeting consultants, architects and engineers (A&E), and integrators, the weekend conference was built around AMAG’s Symmetry access control products, especially their role in a unified system that incorporates a variety of other technologies, too. Also participating in the event (and emphasising the value of long-term partnering) were several other techn...

In the wake of Canon’s acquisition of Axis Communications, the company faces a communication challenge in the market – to reiterate the camera manufacturer’s commitment to open systems- acknowledges Fredrik Nilsson, General Manager, North America of the Swedish IP camera vendor.    “We say nothing will change, and we will show it in our action as well as say it,” he comments. “There have been companies that have claimed openness, but then don&rsquo...

Given the current trend toward consolidation, the industry has seen more camera manufacturers and software suppliers aligning under the same owner. Bucking the trend is software company Genetec.  “Staying independent will help us innovate,” says Georges Karam, who recently joined Genetec as chief commercial officer. “What’s important for the customer is the end-to-end solution, and our integrators can provide that.” Genetec positions itself at the centre of a...

A more than 20-year shared history between Canon and Axis Communications has been an underreported aspect of the recent announcement by the world’s largest camera company of plans to acquire the Swedish IP video camera company. The fact is, Canon and Axis have worked together for years, dating back to the time when Axis was focused on making printer servers (rather than IP cameras). In those days, Axis often worked with Canon to supply printer servers, which were bundled with Canon printe...

Surprise – shock, even – was the initial reaction of most in the industry to the announcement earlier this week of Canon’s intent to acquire Axis. Maybe it was the (apparent) suddenness of the move, or its scale ($2.8 billion!) that caught us off guard. Maybe it’s the continuing ripples the move is likely to cause through the industry that has us still talking about it. It’s clearly the biggest story in our market in years. But after you think about it a couple of...

Have we entered the age of the security company "open marriage?" I used that phrase just a few days ago in relation to the Panasonic-Video Insight acquisition. Now the phrase springs immediately back to mind related to the truly shocking news today about Canon buying Axis, which last year bought video management system supplier Milestone.Is it possible for a video management company and a camera company to be owned by the same company and yet remain "open?"That was the premise when Canon bought...

Is Axis Communications getting ready to expand its business beyond IP video cameras and even access control? A recent comment by Axis founder Martin Gren appears to suggest as much. In a Q&A sponsored by Memoori Research, Gren was asked about “adjacent markets that will merge with IP video” as they relate to the Internet of Things (IoT). Here is his answer: “If you’re talking about IoT, you’re talking about all types of intelligent sensors. Our DNA (at Axis) is...

Given a readily available supply of investment money to the security industry, might we see even more mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the coming year? Such appeared to be one message as the Security Industry Association (SIA) Investment Trends Committee presented an update on security-related capital markets, M&A and investment information. In the “middle market loan market,” where all but the top several security industry companies might look for money, there are...

The sale of Siemens’ Security Products to Vanderbilt is expected to close by the end of March, and already the owner-to-be is making good progress to form a new stand-alone company. Notably, the pending transaction is not a sale of company shares but rather a sale of assets, in this case product lines in the access control, CCTV and intrusion categories. In effect, a company is being created to manage those assets, and Vanderbilt has been working for the last several months to create the...

Education is always a hot vertical market, so Panasonic’s acquisition of Video Insight is not a surprise considering the video management system (VMS) supplier’s popularity among school professionals. Panasonic cameras have been installed in a lot of schools, too, and the Japanese conglomerate has several other product categories that also play in the school market, such as interactive white boards, audio systems, etc. The surprising aspect of the acquisition, announced this week, i...

“The quality couldn’t be clearer – something the police hope will help capture the criminal you are about to see.” The local news report then shows an image from the surveillance camera video of an ATM robbery in Arlington, Texas. The video depicts a black Kia automobile rolling up to a Wells Fargo ATM, and the 21-year-old female driver makes a withdrawal. The video then shows a robber sneaking around the ATM and surprising the victim. He’s holding a cell phone in...

I speculated earlier about an anticipated spike in demand for body worn cameras in response to the highly publicised shooting incident in Ferguson, Mo., last August. An analysis of a database of procurement activity and spending plans from more than 80,000 government entities in the United States confirms the continuing impact the shooting is having on the demand for body worn cameras. Reflecting what might be called the “Ferguson effect,” government data firm Onvia reports there we...

A lawsuit filed by the parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 highlights how the best-thought-out security plans can fall apart because of details and/or last-minute changes. Before the tragedy unfolded, Sandy Hook Elementary had established protocols in place to cope in the event of an active shooter incident. However, some of the protocols broke down on the day of the shooting, and it’s possible that additional young lives were lost as a result. A lawsuit f...

ObjectVideo shook the industry a few years ago by launching a series of lawsuits against the industry’s big players, claiming infringement of ObjectVideo’s patents on the basic technologies of video analytics. Some of the targeted companies fought back, but in the end most opted to make the issue go away by signing a licensing agreement with ObjectVideo. The latest twist in the story is major video supplier Avigilon’s acquisition of those patents – and of the 19 related...

Klass Software’s acquisition of incident management software company PPM 2000 is the first step in an evolution to build a broad, unified software solution to manage multiple aspects of the security function. In buying PPM, Klass sought to obtain “a very good platform business and grow it with the existing team,” says Will Anderson, CEO of Klass Software (and now CEO of PPM). He sees expansion and enhancement of PPM as a “long-term project,” maybe 10 years. Klass S...

The recent terrorist acts in Paris defy any understanding or explanation. The events represent a level of mayhem that defies easy answers, emblematic of a global security threat that demands a unified, worldwide response way beyond what is achievable by any combination of technology gadgets. Simply put, the problem is not our industry’s to solve. It’s bigger than we are. Still, such events haunt the people in our market – dedicated as we are to protecting people, facilities and...

Global positioning systems (GPS) have a role to play to combat shoplifting, especially in the fight against the growing trend of large-scale organised retail crime (ORC). Todd Morris, founder and CEO of BrickHouse Security, recently explained to me how GPS fits into the fight against retail crime. A variety of GPS devices – from small “micro” sensors to plug-in devices for cars to wired devices – can all be tracked using the same cloud-based service, which manages the de...

It has been interesting to read all the Review and Forecast articles we published over the last month. The holiday season was a perfect time to reflect on the previous year, and it is interesting to read about all the companies, their visions for 2015 and their accomplishments. It reminds me how lucky I am to be a part of an industry dedicated to protecting assets, people and facilities. The opportunity to report on a constantly changing business climate and a wealth of interesting technology is...

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has a lot of resources to protect. A network of video cameras view MARTA’s 38 stations, three rail yards, five bus garages and other infrastructure located within 30 or so different law enforcement agencies in and around Atlanta. The large number of existing fixed cameras will be augmented with about 1,000 additional cameras for a total of 2,200 or 2,300 cameras in the system in coming years. Cameras are connected using an Omnicast v...

When is an acquisition not really an acquisition but rather the “sale of shares by one corporate conglomerate to another?” Such is the core question in the aftermath of Samsung’s sale of its interest in Samsung Techwin to fellow Korean conglomerate Hanwha Holdings. Samsung announced sale in late November of its 32.4 percentage ownership in the video surveillance company (as part of a larger sale of its defence and chemical affiliates). The 32.4 percent of stock represents the...