It’s more than just cables: Manufacturers try to make you think more about infrastructure By L. Samuel Pfeifle Unsurprisingly, the increasing shift to IP communication in the security industry is affecting manufacturers and distributors of cabling infrastructure products. They are looking to educate an installation community that’s still seen as lacking IP networking skills and [...]

A December study from ABI Research shows increasing opportunity for security companies through bundling their services with other service providers into home automation system bundles. In North America, which represents the bulk of the global market for managed home automation, shipments are expected grow from 397,000 in 2010 to 4.14 million in 2014—a CAGR of 59.82 percent.

Are you installing IP-based panels in the home? What IP-based services are you currently offering? What percentage of residential installations offer these kinds of advanced services?

In a recently published report, IMS Research“>IMS Research forecasts the Middle East market for video surveillance equipment will grow by…

IP technology has been “coming” to security—mostly accompanied by fanfare—for a while. As numerous reports have made clear, IP opens up all kinds of new opportunity for the security industry in the form of new services and added value for the end user—both of which translate to more revenue. It also, however, opens up new worlds of complexity and expense in the form of new infrastructure needed, more training for personnel, and the convergence of security and IT.

By L. Samuel Pfeifle NAPA, Calif.—Napa Valley is known the world over for its wine production, but less well known is those same wine makers’ passion for alternative energy. Growing as fast as the grapes are fields of photovoltaic solar panels, used to convert the sun’s energy into electricity. Along with this growth, however, has [...]