ISC West: Biggest spectacle ever

LAS VEGAS--ISC West, held here at the Sands Convention Center April 5 through 7, this year had a "20 percent larger floor," according to Reed Exhibitions' industry vice president Dean Russo, with "over 1,000 vendors" and pre-registration "up 15 percent." It was, he said, the "largest ever." That information jibed with anecdotal evidence collected on the show floor. A consistent opinion was that people had never seen it busier. "Yesterday, you couldn't see the rug," joked Joe Olmstead, director of marketing communications at Pelco, whose annual dealer appreciation party, held April 6, featured rock band Chicago and speed-of-sound breaker Chuck Yeager. Along with Pelco, major manufacturers like Panasonic (releasing 40 new products), GE Security (announcing a push into the realm of nanotechnology), DSC (releasing its first major revamping of the Power Series line in a decade), Genetec (pushing into the U.S. market for the first time, and touting Federation software that will allow security networks to integrate with one another) and Fargo (announcing its first printer capable of working with over-sized cards) took ISC West as an opportunity to unveil new innovations to the market. At the New Product Showcase, a panel of 18 industry judges decided achievement awards in a number of categories. Capture's Omniscape 360-degree panoramic camera took home the Best of Show Award, titled the Innovation Award. Other winners included MDI's ONE Technology in the Integrated Systems category; A4 Vision's Vision Access 3D Face Reader in the Biometrics category; and 3VR Security's OpCenter 4.0, which was given the Judge's Choice Award. The New Product Showcase is sponsored by the Security Industry Association. SIA president Bill Gorski, of Siemens Building Technologies, was joined by NPS committee chair Sandra Jones and SIA executive director Richard Chace in presenting the awards on April 6. Look for continuing coverage of ISC West news throughout this month's issue of Security Systems News.