Archive: May 2016

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.—Representatives of four different forms of biometric identification—facial recognition, iris scan, fingerprint, and hand geometry—each made a case for their biometric being most prevalent in the future at TechSec Solutions 2016.The winner, chosen by a panel of four Security Systems News “20 under 40” Class of 2015 award winners, was iris scan.Manish Dalal, general manager of ZKAccess, represented fingerprint technologies. ZK Access is a division of...

SALT LAKE CITY—With the summer door-knocking season upon us, the Better Business Bureau held a news conference here May 25 to address the fact that a handful of Utah home security companies are responsible for the majority of questionable sales practices occurring within the security industry.Of the 600,000 consumers nationwide who turned to the BBB to find out about home security companies, “What they complain about, far too often, is that the sales person who knocked on their door was...

STOCKHOLM—Axis Communications on May 30 closed the purchase of 2N, an IP intercom manufacturer based in Prague, Czech Republic. The company has sales offices in Miami; Chieri, Italy; and in the Czech Republic.Terms of the deal were not announced.Axis said 2N is the leading global provider of IP intercom. In addition to IP intercoms for door communication and emergency calls, 2N makes IP public address systems and M2M products.Audio and intercom are important components of an intelligent security...

MILWAUKEE and CORK, Ireland—Johnson Controls and Tyco International,�which announced plans to merge in January, today announced the post-merger executive line-up.The deal is expected to close Oct. 1, 2016.Seven corporate executive officers were named, and seven business leaders were announced.Five of the seven corporate executive officers are JCI employees who currently hold the same role at JCI that they will at the combined company. Two of the corporate executive officers come from Tyco.“As...

What does BPS specialize in and what's your role in the consulting process?�We specialize in a suite of comprehensive security consulting services that generally start with some type of security assessment or regulatory compliance assessment. In many cases I am involved in those assessments from the standpoint of evaluating the technical systems and door hardware components for our clients. Those assessments yield a set of recommendations, which provide countermeasures to mitigate the findings of...

The Smart Home 360 report, which comes out today from the market research company Argus Insights, provides a snapshot of what is out there in the smart home market today. The study looks at changes in the market from March to April, as well as overall trends Argus researchers are seeing within the quickly emerging and maturing market. I caught up with Argus Insights CEO John Feland, who pointed that because the smart home market is changing so fast, “we are continuously pulling data around...

PALO ALTO, Calif.—Abode, a DIY security company that got crowdfunded last year, is now offering professional monitoring—full time or on-demand—from UCC, and the company is actively looking for partnerships with security companies. “We always had the plan to introduce [monitoring options], but our goal first was to get the product out in peoples' hands and really drive some of the early feedback to actually make our product better, before we went down the road of charging people...

When I looked at the SIA update this morning, I saw a headline about the cloud and cybersecurity concerns. Want to learn about cybersafety in the cloud? Come to Cloud+ in Austin in November! Cloud+ is the only conference where you can learn how cloud technology is reshaping the security industry, what the potential is for your business and what steps you can take now to enhance your bottom line with cloud-based technology. Cybersecurity is on the agenda. Sponsored by Security Systems News, the inaugural...

EXTON, Pa.—Security-Net's president Skip Sampson says keeping techs, customers and partners informed and coordinated is a snap thanks to a new proprietary software the national systems integrator is using.Called SN-APP, Sampson says the software is “a differentiator for us that's about making the client experience with Security-Net better than the experience with other national integrators—which is the reason Security-Net was formed in the first place.”Security-Net is a $375...

NEW YORK—Glenn Felson on May 24 was named to the newly created role of Kastle Systems president of the Northeast region.Felson, who comes to the security industry from the commercial real estate world, told Security Systems News he believes there's “an unmet need for buildings to modernize and tap into the cost savings [provided by Kastle technology.]”Over the past six years, Kastle Systems has spent $60 million developing security solutions, he said. “We focused a lot on...