Panel Raises the Stakes, Siemens Combines Security and Fire

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Sep 22, 2011

While our own Security Products magazine celebrated 15 years of publishing, we joined in the fun of the 15th anniversary of the IP camera, hosting an interesting question and answer session with six key security bosses on Wednesday at ASIS.

We had a great, enthusiastic lineup of panelists: Eric Fullerton, Milestone Systems; Fredrik Nilsson, Axis Communications; Bill Taylor, Panasonic Network Security Systems; Mike McCann, Sony; Lee Caswell, Pivot3; and Bud Broomhead, Intransa.

I’ll tell you right now, the speakers are polished professionals, and those people who attended were treated to a performance extraordinaire. Probably more interesting to me is watching these security pros willingly give of their time one-on-one to help the individual equally, if not more, than the masses.

I tip my Texas Longhorn’s baseball cap to these gentlemen for their time and expertise. Their time is valuable, and I appreciate their willingness to spend a couple hours with Security Products magazine staff and those who attended the 15th anniversary roundtable discussion.

Every year, and every tradeshow, I’m asked what I’ve seen that is new and/or exciting. It’s hard to put my finger on something at that moment because there is an abundance of information given over three days of tradeshow.

Here are a couple of thoughts that you will see on our website or in print because of this tradeshow. From my experience, I will be chasing more information on Panasonic solutions dealing with retail security. If you missed the presentation in their booth, we’ll be talking about it more in the months to come.

I visited with Ralph Maniscalco from Honeywell, and was quite intrigued with the company’s exploration of the connected building. What this means is that Honeywell is not only looking at the security of a building, but also viable opportunities in energy management. In other words, the security director will likely be working hand-in-hand with the building manager to not only make things more secure, but also eco-friendly.

“There’s no reason systems can’t talk to each other,” Maniscalco said.

In other news, Siemens announced the formation of its own Fire Safety and Security Solutions division.

The goal is to become the preferred partner of cities, businesses and organizations in solving life safety, security and emergency management needs with intelligent and efficient solutions. My congratulations to my friend Rob Hile, who becomes the senior director of enterprise solutions. I’ve known Rob a long time, and he is truly a security guru.

I’ve got a handful of flash drives to review with press releases and new products. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more news in coming e-news products or in my homepage column each week. Please stay tuned and we’ll talk about more of ASIS soon.