The major theme at the Security show in Essen seemed to be integration, as I covered in my blog reviewing this year’s show.
But as I touched on there, Tyco Security Products are seeing the beginning of a new trend that they’re referring to as unification.
Senior product manager Shahar Za’avi thinks that we’re going to see a consolidation in the industry, driven by the end user who is increasingly from an IT background.
As physical security becomes more about the IT and the software interfaces behind them, so the function of security manager is slowly moving closer towards the IT managers.
The security industry has always been slightly behind the other tech industries, and Shahar sees security systems following the telecoms industry in the buying process.
He gave the example of how once we all bought our telephone, broadband, and television from various different providers. Now, invariably, we buy them all from one place – in my case Virgin Media, however it was because I couldn’t afford a satellite dish when I moved in.
That last comment might sound like a throwaway one but a situation whereby a complete security solution is bought from one provider would inevitably come with a discount from the manufacturer in return for using a complete system – access control, cctv, intrusion, fire controls, the lot – from them.
For the end user this solution is simple to understand, and simple to maintain.
“Unification is the next phase of migration,” says Shahar, “and Tyco are leading it.”
American Dynamics’ new video management system Victor is aimed at unifying CCTV surveillance, access control and intruder detectors into one system.
Tyco customers who have already purchased Intellix digital video recorders, the number 1 DVR according to Shahar, can use Victor to migrate to a single unified client to manage all of these systems in one place.
This takes the security manager away from using multiple systems towards just one and also protects the investment they’ve made in Intellix or other similar systems.
Shahar says that this is what customers need – even if they don’t know it yet.
Victor produces what is called ‘object association’ meaning one can build links between cameras monitoring a door, the alarm detector on that door, and the access control reader on it. That way, you can bring up all the information from the three systems in one single alert.
Discover analogue cameras
The change in the industry has been fast – fifteen years ago the biggest manufacturers were JVC, Panasonic and Pelco. Right now it’s Axis, Genetec and Tyco (says Shahar – he would of course, although asmag’s annual analysis suggests Honeywell are the biggest security product manufacturer in the world).
He says that just five years ago the industry was struggling to migrate to digital and using the IP network but “now we [Tyco] are strong.”
However, despite this progress, there is recognition that analogue video surveillance solutions are still one of the main revenue generators for companies such as American Dynamics.
American Dynamics are still supporting the analogue space by providing all of the latest innovations – such as wide dynamic range and super high resolution – in their new range of analogue cameras Discover.
By producing a full range of analogue and IP devices, American Dynamics – and Tyco generally – have a clear stated mission.
Stephan Beckmann, product marketing manager for Tyco, explained how unification is open to systems of any size. “Unification is the next big thing,” he said, “We want to make the big thing, a small thing.”