ASIS International 2015: Changing security industry trends with focus on value-added applications

Aventura continues to expands expand its feature set of products beyond PSIM

As the 61^st annual ASIS 2015 kicked off in Anaheim, Calif., it became increasingly clear that physical security continues to move from the realm of traditional intrusion detection, video surveillance and alarms into value-added applications that extend into new markets, uses and purposes – many of them centred on business and operational processes.

While video surveillance, intrusion detection, security and safety of course were an overriding emphasis, there was an underlying one as well: that connectivity, integration and the Internet of Things (loT) will continue to move the industry into new specifications that focus on situational awareness and extend the everyday practicality of systems solutions into new, valuable applications. With the need to ensure security and safety of citizens at large, organisations are developing real-time information and analytics tools meeting the needs of first responder and users.

More integration

Visit after visit confirmed that it’s a new era for all – and one that increasingly benefits the end user. Jack Cabasso, Managing Director of Aventura, Commack, N.Y., spoke of total situational awareness and how the company continues to expand its feature set of products beyond Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) and into totally integrated solutions meeting needs of users, installers and even first responders. “We continue to build more functionality into our solutions. Today, you need total situational awareness – security, life safety, safety and more, with everything integrated enterprise-wide.” Cabasso says it’s important for video management software to have open architecture and the ability to support many different interfaces and products, whether CCTV, access control or other solution categories.

“With an open system, the evolution of everything working on the network continues,” he says.

Quicker incident response

Verint Systems Inc., Melville, N.Y., also announced enhancements to its Situational Awareness Platform, including solutions that help enterprise end users drive rapid incident response reporting and enhanced field communications. “We’re engaging with the public and responding authorities in more meaningful ways with new capabilities designed to move the needle forward in actionable intelligence,” says Kevin Wine, Vice President of Marketing, Video and Situation Intelligence Solutions, Columbia, Md. 

The company recently unveiled new situation management in its Verint Situational Awareness Platform that’s designed to transform the way users engage with responders, field resources, other public safety stakeholders as well as the general public. The platform uses situational awareness with built-in dispatch and bi-directional information flow for continuous communication between citizens, intake operators, field resources and command centre personnel and allows responders to provide mobile reporting through streaming video and live images.

Stanley Security is focused on vertical market solutions that extend beyond traditional safety and security

“Simply providing security is not enough,” he says. “Citizens expect immediate interaction, and now platforms combine PSIM, Computer-Aided Dispatch and more to bring it all together and provide actionable intelligence,” he says.

Jeremy Morton, Vice President and General Manager of Software & Controls for Stanley Security, Indianapolis, reiterated that the company is focused on vertical market solutions that extend beyond traditional safety and security and focus on compliance, regulations and business operations processes.

“With retail, we integrate video with point of sale and in this way can repurpose end-user assets (security) to become proactive business tools. Our partners can become more efficient with software driven tools to meet the needs of different vertical markets,” he says.

Real-time information and analytics

At the show, Stanley unveiled its new Stanley Insights™ Professional Services and Analytics Solutions Software, a solution and consultancy programme with the ability to correlate data streams, analyse trends and measure business activities and operations, using analytics to help optimise business performance.

Morton says businesses are asking for real-time information and analytics to help draw meaningful information they can put to use. Stanley Insights Analytics Software is designed to compile data from multiple, disparate systems – including video analytics, intrusion, point of sale, electronic article surveillance, weather platforms and more into any easy to use dashboard to report on key metrics for a business, creating actionable business intelligence across their locations.

ASIS, one of the leading international security shows, provided evidence that while physical security remains important, continued integration of devices, solutions and services is ultimately the direction of the industry, and one that will add paramount value to end users at all their facilities.