ISC Quest

This year’s ISC West Exposition wrapped up last Friday as a resounding success. Sure, attendance was a little down, but the show floor was still bustling each day -- a sight that left me reassured about the state of our industry during these troubling times.

It was a very successful week for our Security Products team and, more specifically, for myself. I just reached the two-year mark with the magazine, and I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned in that time. Tradeshows like ISC West are the perfect opportunity for a relative newcomer like me to network and learn more about this fascinating industry.

Last week I ran into Fred Lardaro, from Sarnoff Corp., a company that is at the forefront of video situational awareness. The company’s TerraSight platform is being used by the Army for force protection and targeting to make the most out of CCTV surveillance. TerraSight is combined with electronic eavesdropping gear and software, several intelligence tools and database referencing, as well as day/night cameras, to provide video in context, making it easier to keep tabs on the enemy. Using TerraSight, operators can reveal seemingly innocent behavior as part of something more sinister or preventable.

Lardaro says TerraSight is now ready for seaport, big city, regional, border and homeland security installations.

Another old friend I met up with was Rafi Bhonker from Orsus, a company that embodies one of the industrys’ biggest trends: the quest for value-added functionality. Situator Version 6, which was introduced last week in Las Vegas, goes beyond security to full-on situation management, with a library of solutions including executive or visitor tracking, vehicle route management, operational compliance and more. Orsus is a company that’s taking the idea of seamless integration to heart. Now, users can pick and choose their solutions from Situator’s off-the-shelf Situation Management Solution Library to implement turn-key solutions -- seamlessly.

The drive for any precious value-add is even more important in a recession. Companies like Sarnoff and Orsus are rising to the challenge by providing highly functional, flexible solutions that just make sense.

As for me, it’s back to the daily grind here in Dallas. But September is just around the corner, and I’ll see you in Anaheim.

About the Author

Megan Weadock is a communications specialist at Monitronics.

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