A Look At ASIS

After a more than busy first day of ASIS 2009 in Anaheim, Calif., I'm looking forward to taking with leaders throughout the industry Tuesday.

My ASIS experience actually started Sunday night with a press reception and briefing from thermal imaging provider FLIR. The company is announcing 21 new products along with new four product categories at ASIS.

With FLIR’s goal of infrared everywhere, I thought it was interesting how the price is rapidly coming down while the technology continues the move to the mainstream. The least expensive thermal camera from the company today is more than $7,000 less than five years ago.

The company also highlighted EMCCD technology, which is low-light color adjunct to thermal imaging.

One of my highlights of the first day was a press conference with Capt. Richard Phillips from the Maersk Alabama who was freed from Somali pirates in a dramatic rescue by the U.S. Navy earlier this year.

Phillips learned three major tenants from his experience.

“I learned that we are all stronger than we realize, that nothing is truly ever lost and that you as a group can come back and that a professionally diligent team can overcome every obstacle put forth to them,” he said.

He also said he is a proponent of arming and training sailors with the use of both lethal and non-lethal weapons to protect themselves. But Phillips said technology is also a big part of protecting ships.

A major fact that helped the hijacking situation resolve successfully was a lack of a “mother ship” from the pirates, Phillips said.

Training and drills were a major part of life on ships captained by Phillips, which he said paid off during the hijacking.

“In a emergency situation, you really get to see what you’re made of,” he said. “Nothing feels better than doing the right thing in an emergency.”

I had many other interesting conversations with companies Monday including TimeSight, Pivot3, ComNet, Sargent Manufacturing and Milestone. Convergence is continuing to take the lead in the industry, and no matter what type of company I speak with the move to IP is becoming more prevalent and possible thanks to technology.

Also, we’ll be putting up the eight videos I shot today with editor Ralph C. Jensen up on the Security Products and Network-Centric Security Web sites soon. We talked with major companies including Panasonic, HID, Stanley CSS, Arecont Vision and many others.

I’m leaving the show mid-afternoon Tuesday, but I’ll be Twittering important information and updates from the show all week. Feel free to follow me at http://twitter.com/BrentDirks.

About the Author

Brent Dirks is senior editor for Security Today and Campus Security Today magazines.

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