IFSEC seems ALWAYS To have been with us. There are those industry old timers (more old timer than me, that is) who will romanticise about its humble origins … “I hear tell it started before the war in a church hall in Penge”.
“Nay, nay lad, it were in a little bed and breakfast in Bromsgrove”
In reality it started in 1973 at the Park Lane Hotel, London … and since then it has grown to be the world’s most important security event.
Looking back to Security Installer’s first ever preview of IFSEC in 1987 – opened by Home Secretary and Spitting Image star Douglas Hurd – there’s no doubt that intruder alarms dominated electronic security. This included detectors, sounders, control panels, glassbreak, vibration detectors and everything associated with alarm systems.
Sharper corners
In those days PIRs and microwave detectors all had the same angular look resembling cream-coloured widescreen TVs. In contrast to today’s moulded, whiter-than-white tactile casings, you couldn’t find much in the way of rounded shapes. You can still see some of these detectors browning off on the walls of dowdy pubs that haven’t been made over for twenty years or so – whether they’re still working is anyone’s guess as a 20 year guarantee was not standard even then.
One exhibitor in ’87 boasted that their new PIR had an “interchangeable lens for wide and narrow applications, a jumper selectable pulse count and thumbwheel vertical adjustment.” Its “upmarket version” had “additional features such as full pulse count selection, alarm memory, retrigger facility, a true zone locator and selectable relay option”.
Alarm control panels competed against each other in metallic clunkiness, many offering a choice of keypad or keyswitch. If installers didn’t like the idea of a large metal box with space for wiring, room for rechargeable battery and power supply built in, then they could always use a new concept – the remote keypad – and keep all the heavy gubbins out of sight.
As far as alarm signalling was concerned, one company, Tunstall Security, announced another new concept for its day, the DC2 digital communicator which had a non-volatile random access memory. “This can be programmed over 1,000 times and will not lose its memory even with power removed for well over 25 years”. Now there’s a guarantee.
Low carb bell boxes
Outside the property, the box that sat on the wall was a contrast to today’s attractive polycarbonate units with high visibility LEDs and piezo sounders. Despite the new polycarb housings coming in at that time, metal still ruled the day in ’87 when bell boxes really had bells. Giving a lesson in security design history, many of these elderly units still sit rusting away under the eaves of homes whose owners decided they’d rather not keep up the maintenance contract.
A surprisingly high number of companies were displaying radio alarms including Racal-Guardall who were showing “the UK’s first FM wireless alarm system to comply with BS6799 Class 5”.
Exhibitors were referring to the “problem of false alarms” when they were at a much higher rate than today. The problems fell into the laps of “central monitoring stations” rather than today’s “alarm receiving centres”.
Under the “access control” sector, most notable was the vast number of locking devices available – locking window systems, patio door locks – and the high number of companies exhibiting purely mechanical as well as electronic products.
In access control proper, stand-alone systems easily outnumbered “on-line systems”… which in those days meant computer-based key and card access control, and had nothing to do with the Internet which in ’87 was still in its infancy and only being used by communities of researchers and developers.
Monochrome world
At that time IP meant “intellectual property” and a platform was where you waited for a train. CCTV was strictly analogue and the Betamax and VHS recorders used for CCTV mirrored the heavy units people had in their homes … and many were top loading.
Although a quick growing sector, CCTV was second to alarms, but the sector was fast changing. Expensive tube cameras which had kept CCTV in a monochrome world were being replaced with CCD (charge coupled device) cameras that were cheaper and offered much better picture quality.
All the manufacturers in 1987 were selling the praises of their new CCD chip cameras … opening the door to colour. By the mid eighties the domestic video revolution had a knock on effect bringing much cheaper recording to the average system … “up to 360 hours on a single 180 minute cassette”, boasted a manufacturer.
Manufacturers were advising users not to modify domestic machines for security applications. At home, the delay between pressing the record button and the tape starting to record was annoying when you missed that opening goal on Match of the Day, but in the surveillance world it was a real liability.
For instance Mitsubishi warned that the repeated loading and unloading of the tape reduced the life of the tape transport mechanism and caused an unacceptable delay between the trigger signal and the start of recording. Its new “Sensor” system, however, kept the tape loaded for quick response.
And yes, well before the days of IP network technology, images were being sent from A to B. Slow Scan Television was a type of videophone that segmented the images into small portions, sent them down BT subscriber lines and reconstituted them at the other end. The result was a series of still pictures “sequenced like a slide projector” . The system was known as slow scan because of the time it took to transmit the information but was promoted as an effective way to confirm an intruder and combat false alarms.
So, were we right in our predictions?
Security Installer gazed into its crystal ball in 1987 and boldly predicted what the security world would be like today. Here are some of the predictions from back then … while some are off the mark, some have come true.
- “Virtually every home will have its own alarm system, but that system will both monitor and control all events in and around the premises – from the heat in the greenhouse and frost warnings to the life expectancy of a light bulb and cost of electricity consumed”
Domestic alarm ownership is still only at a small percentage. Home automation has not caught on to any great extent in the UK but global warming and the drive for efficient use of energy could give it a boost.
- “For offices, shops and factories, systems will handle virtually all operations, everything from automatic stock re-ordering of paper clips to automatic invoicing and instant credit status reports.”
Standard issue these days.
- “Computers that would fill a cabinet today will be incorporated into a unit no bigger than a matchbox, and it will be disposable.”
We’ve had matchbox sized mobile phones and they were too small. PDAs prove there is an optimum size for these things. Some may upgrade quickly but that’s hardly “disposable”
- “The alarm system will define the perimeter of a property and as soon as an intruder climbs over the fence a first warning would be given and a camera automatically track him”
Spot-on prediction for perimeter security.
- “Should a visitor enter through the front gate the same first warning and recording would apply, to be cancelled only when the visitor legitimately enters the front door.”
Could be off-putting to your friends
- “There will be no need to go to the front door since the picture will automatically flash up on your TV screen – and there will be a TV in virtually every room of the house. You will be able to question the caller without going to the front door by using the intercom system which covers the whole house.”
Seems a dumb reason to get a TV in every room. Why not just get audio/video entry?
- “Sensors monitor every room, covering heat, movement, sound as well as gas or smoke and the room temperature. These will be standalone with no cabling back to the computer since it will all be done via short wave radio signals”
Home automation lives … I’ve even heard of wallpaper with built-in micro sensors.
- “Entrance to the house, as well as car and office will be via an automatic ID system worn either as a wristwatch or bracelet or even a micro-unit transplanted beneath the skin.”
I was told by access experts at IFSEC last year that people still love their house keys and these won’t be replaced for some time. I can’t see any queues to have a micro-unit transplant.
- “Biometric ID systems such as retinal scanning, fingerprint matching or even voice recognition will have failed to make a major impact by this stage.”
Wrong. After years in the wings, biometrics is finally making it into the mainstream of access control. But don’t confuse “retinal scanning” with “iris recognition”, a non-invasive, popular biometrics technology
- “Systems will be interactive so that whenever you’re in your home or office or car the status is automatically monitored to you. In the event of an alarm status you’ll be able to action it immediately – trapping an intruder in the house until police arrive.”
Hey, this sounds like the marketing for IP network video. But it’s doubtful you’d “trap” the intruder unless you’d fitted descending steel bars over the windows and doors.
- ” And the cost of running such a system? The equivalent of a pint of beer a week.”
A tad optimistic … but if you get offered all this security for GB pound 2.70p or so, go for it.