Round The Clock

• By Megan Weadock
• Oct 01, 2009

Last week’s ASIS tradeshow wrapped up well, although the consensus seemed to be that attendance was down. From my experience, it also felt like fewer companies were introducing truly new products. Sure, we saw a lot of new versions of software and products being touted, but new innovations -- which have to be risky in a time like this -- were hard to come by.

Let’s take a look back at a few more noteworthy news items that came out of the show.

Brivo was a company that both announced a new product (sort of) and played up some interesting new partnerships and projects. The SaaS provider announced its new AppStack, a catalog of complementary security management resources that is available with the hosted ACS WebService. ACS WebService customers can now access resources, applications and integrated products, including software from Brivo, Axis, HID, Dedicated Micros, SAMSUNG/GVI Security and others. The free services range from video integration and ID badging to workforce management and parking reservation allocation.

Another interesting company I visited during ASIS was Steelbox, whose products aim to address the problem of moving and storing vast amounts of video data across IP networks. The Media Appliance supports up to 512 cameras and claims to have the smallest footprint in the industry. It’s being used for a range of projects, including campus security. I think it’s fascinating that Steelbox’s product integrates with SRI International’s Aware software to provide instant, portable broadband wireless networks for public safety, video surveillance, incident management and peer-to-peer communication.

In case you’re wondering where SRI fits into the security mix, they’re an independent research and technology development organization. They do R&D for government agencies, business and foundations and have recently started to move into the education space.

Paul Callahan, the manager of business operations at SRI, explained that the wireless networks are ideal for schools to integrate with the local police department. In an emergency, officers could easily access the school’s surveillance cameras, access control system and more. Imagine if that had been possible at Columbine High School in 1999.

As most of you probably already know, ASIS 2010 will be held in Dallas, home to Security Products magazine. In all honestly, it will be nice to attend a tradeshow on our own turf (and without dolling out a fortune in cab fare!). Here’s hoping attendance has bounced back by next October.

See you all next year in Texas!