Archive: March 2015
Security Partners acquires 1 Time assets
March 31, 2015Spencer Ives
HENDERSON, Nev.—Security Partners, a Lancaster, Pa.-based wholesale monitoring company, acquired equipment, accounts and staff of 1 Time, a third party central station based here, Mike Bodnar, president of Security Partners, told Security Systems News.
An AES radio mesh network operated by 1 Time is part of the deal. The network is established throughout southern Nevada. “[It's] a great opportunity for our dealers, local and national,” Bodnar said.
“I think the most...
SIA Government Summit takes on convergence of cybersecurity, physical security, law enforcement tech trends and more
March 27, 2015SSN Staff
WASHINGTON—The convergence of cybersecurity and physical security, funding for safe schools and law enforcement technology trends, including body-worn cameras, will be among the topics featured at the SIA Government Summit in June.
Other topics include GSA contracting, securing the electric grid, smart buildings and air traveler safety.
The summit, for security industry executives, integrators, sales and marketing professionals, federal employees and Congressional staff, will be held...
ESX starts TechVision Challenge for Innovation Award winners
March 27, 2015Spencer Ives
BALTIMORE—The top 10 ESX Innovation Awards winners will compete in the new TechVision Challenge, what ESX Chair George De Marco describes as “a Shark Tank-style contest” at the show here June 23.
The Innovation Awards judges will decide which innovators move on to the TechVision Challenge, a separate honor.
Each contestant will have five minutes to present his or her innovative product to the TechVision Challenge panel of judges, or “sharks.” The number of judges...
Emergency communications systems not mainstream—yet
March 26, 2015Kenneth Z. Chutchian
YARMOUTH, Maine—Providers and integrators of emergency communication systems (ECS) face a number of challenges when trying to establish or grow markets: It's not cheap to expand a fire alarm system into an ECS. Private companies are not required by law to have multi-faceted ECS or mass notification systems (MNS). And it's difficult to get excited about a security system designed for worst-case scenarios that nobody really wants to think about.Some ECS developers remain undeterred. Campus shootings...
Former ADT finance director wants to kick-start home security company
March 25, 2015Amy Canfield
Christopher Carney, a former director of finance M&A and director of finance, sales and marketing for ADT, has launched a Kickstarter campaign for his new company, Abode Systems.
The 45-day campaign aims to raise $100,000 by May 7 to bring the “new kind of home security and automation solution to market,” Carney said in a prepared statement. The solution “will put big security companies on notice,” he said.
Carney co-founded Abode, based in Palo Alto, Calif., with Brent...
News Poll: Cybersecurity is becoming a physical security matter
March 25, 2015Spencer Ives
YARMOUTH, Maine—As cybersecurity becomes a common topic of conversation among physical security systems installers, Security Systems News asked its readers whether they're concerned about cybersecurity threats and what their companies are doing to safeguard themselves and their customers.Jeff Frye, Interface Security Systems VP, says that there are multiple reasons to be concerned with cybersecurity. “Internet of Things devices raise new threats. Many manufacturers lack a security practice....
PSIM market growth projected in North America
March 25, 2015Spencer Ives
LONDON—The PSIM market in North America will grow from $3.6 billion in 2015 to around $4.9 billion in 2019, according to a new TechNavio report.Physical security information management, or PSIM, is software that provides a platform so that a number of unconnected security applications and devices can be controlled through one interface.If TechNavio's growth production holds, the CAGR for PSIM in North America over the next four years would be 7.2 percent, senior industry analyst, Amrita Choudhury...
Icontrol targets independent dealer
March 25, 2015Amy Canfield
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Independent dealers for the first time now can take advantage of Icontrol Networks' connected home platform.The new Icontrol One combines the software backbone Icontrol provides for the big guys, such as ADT, Comcast and Time Warner, but has a business model tailored to the smaller, independent dealers, said Greg Roberts, Icontrol vice president of marketing.“Icontrol can host it for them and provide the technology that makes it very easy for them to adopt services...
Proprietary vs. open systems: Open is preferred, but it's harder to sell
March 25, 2015Martha Entwistle
DELRAY BEACH, Fla.—The debate over open systems versus proprietary systems is usually not a debate in the physical security industry. Open systems are generally thought of as better. Integrators want them, end users demand them and manufacturers are making them, right?
At least that's the claim made by many manufacturers' marketing departments.
And that's the reason standards bodies are working hard to make security systems components more easily compatible.
In the field,...
Axis introduces Zipstream for more compression
March 25, 2015Martha Entwistle
CHELMSFORD, Mass.—In what Axis' Fredrik Nilsson called a “major innovation that will fuel the growth of the [network video] market” Axis Communications launched Zipstream, a new compression technology, that it says consumes half of the storage and bandwidth of H.264.
“We launched H.264 in 2008; people ask if Zipstream is as big of a deal? It's a bigger deal,” Fredrik Nilsson, Axis Communications GM Americas told Security Systems News.
Why is it a bigger...