INDUSTRY FOCUS

Another Banner Year, More to Come

It would seem everyone has a crystal ball when it comes to forecasting the future. What I have discovered is that some crystal balls are a little more polished than others. I’m pleased to have several contributors who will give us all some incredible insight into 2020.

Brian Carle, Salient. Some of the fastest growing areas in the video surveillance world include AI-based video analytics and cloud-based access and recording. Carle, author of “Understanding Video Management Systems,” says that a trend to watch for is more VMS interfaces that will offer greater access to and control of analytics and access control systems.

Fredrik Nilsson, Axis Communications. The security industry is a highly dynamic ecosystem, and technology continues to evolve faster than ever before. A couple reasons why: new markets emerge and old markets mature. The achievement that video quality and usability reaching their limits is not true in the least.

Laura Fradette, ASSA ABLOY Opening Solutions. An important trend has been and will continue to be the use of analytics and intelligence to manage security. The future is already here, and as she points out, the high-tech capabilities once thought as futurist are now happening, such as ultra-wideband that will enable hands-free access to entry and exit points.

Tom Galvin, Razberi Technologies. There definitely are megatrends that are influencing video surveillance. Much has been written about cybersecurity and its impact on the industry, and many expect this trend to continue well into 2020. IoT is still a target for bad actors, especially in the business infrastructure. Automated tools are the answer, and these emerging tools can deploy best practices for IoT hardening.

Clayton Brown, ReconaSense. It is safe to say that data is becoming more digital, and systems are becoming more integrated. Security is becoming more predictive, which means people are getting smarter and more innovative. Coming trends will include zero-trust environments that will converge. This means that cybersecurity only confirms that the enemy is, most likely, within your organization.

Without a doubt, cities and buildings around the world will become more sophisticated, automated and coordinated through more digital transformation. IoT devices and sensors will become more integrated into security systems for buildings and high-traffic areas, which means human patterns can be more intelligently protected and understood. Things that you see happen “only in the movies” are happening today, and behavior prediction will become more widespread. Welcome to the future, today.

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2019 issue of Security Today.

About the Author

Ralph C. Jensen is the Publisher/Editor in chief of Security Today magazine.

Featured

  • Security Today Announces 2025 CyberSecured Award Winners

    Security Today is pleased to announce the 2025 CyberSecured Awards winners. Sixteen companies are being recognized this year for their network products and other cybersecurity initiatives that secure our world today. Read Now

  • Empowering and Securing a Mobile Workforce

    What happens when technology lets you work anywhere – but exposes you to security threats everywhere? This is the reality of modern work. No longer tethered to desks, work happens everywhere – in the office, from home, on the road, and in countless locations in between. Read Now

  • TSA Introduces New $45 Fee Option for Travelers Without REAL ID Starting February 1

    The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced today that it will refer all passengers who do not present an acceptable form of ID and still want to fly an option to pay a $45 fee to use a modernized alternative identity verification system, TSA Confirm.ID, to establish identity at security checkpoints beginning on February 1, 2026. Read Now

  • The Evolution of IP Camera Intelligence

    As the 30th anniversary of the IP camera approaches in 2026, it is worth reflecting on how far we have come. The first network camera, launched in 1996, delivered one frame every 17 seconds—not impressive by today’s standards, but groundbreaking at the time. It did something that no analog system could: transmit video over a standard IP network. Read Now

  • From Surveillance to Intelligence

    Years ago, it would have been significantly more expensive to run an analytic like that — requiring a custom-built solution with burdensome infrastructure demands — but modern edge devices have made it accessible to everyone. It also saves time, which is a critical factor if a missing child is involved. Video compression technology has played a critical role as well. Over the years, significant advancements have been made in video coding standards — including H.263, MPEG formats, and H.264—alongside compression optimization technologies developed by IP video manufacturers to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality. The open-source AV1 codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media—a consortium including Google, Netflix, Microsoft, Amazon and others — is already the preferred decoder for cloud-based applications, and is quickly becoming the standard for video compression of all types. Read Now

New Products

  • EasyGate SPT and SPD

    EasyGate SPT SPD

    Security solutions do not have to be ordinary, let alone unattractive. Having renewed their best-selling speed gates, Cominfo has once again demonstrated their Art of Security philosophy in practice — and confirmed their position as an industry-leading manufacturers of premium speed gates and turnstiles.

  • Luma x20

    Luma x20

    Snap One has announced its popular Luma x20 family of surveillance products now offers even greater security and privacy for home and business owners across the globe by giving them full control over integrators’ system access to view live and recorded video. According to Snap One Product Manager Derek Webb, the new “customer handoff” feature provides enhanced user control after initial installation, allowing the owners to have total privacy while also making it easy to reinstate integrator access when maintenance or assistance is required. This new feature is now available to all Luma x20 users globally. “The Luma x20 family of surveillance solutions provides excellent image and audio capture, and with the new customer handoff feature, it now offers absolute privacy for camera feeds and recordings,” Webb said. “With notifications and integrator access controlled through the powerful OvrC remote system management platform, it’s easy for integrators to give their clients full control of their footage and then to get temporary access from the client for any troubleshooting needs.”

  • 4K Video Decoder

    3xLOGIC’s VH-DECODER-4K is perfect for use in organizations of all sizes in diverse vertical sectors such as retail, leisure and hospitality, education and commercial premises.