No Room at the Inn

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Sep 26, 2012

With the second day of Security Essen is well underway, I dare say there is hardly room to squeeze an orange to find room in some of the halls (there are 12 halls total). In the halls where companies show access control, video surveillance and cameras, it’s shoulder to shoulder. Booths and employees are busy almost everywhere.

One of the entertaining parts of today’s activities was to visit the Simon Voss Technologies booth where many of the sales staff were decked out in lederhosen.

Considering it is the Octoberfest celebration this week in Germany, it seems appropriate and a very catchy way to celebrate during a security tradeshow. I like the idea of wearing short pants during any tradeshow.

Simons Voss has a very small presence in the United States, and may return to the American market in the future, but for the moment, their focus is in this hemisphere. They recently announced their Smarthandle 3062, a special new door fitting developed to satisfy the special requirement of the hospitality industry and retirement homes. The product communicates wirelessly with the identification media in digital locking and access control system, and controls where and when as many as 64,000 users are granted access.

Because most of the exhibitors here in Germany are new to me, sometimes I pick a booth visit based on the name of the company. For instance, I ventured into Wink Haus and found their blueControl Start locking system management solution. The company is offering a new user interface, with a new design that allows for end users to carry out tasks a little bit easier. Best of all, training is not required for managing lock authorizations either.

With a presence in the United States, German manufacturer, Geutebruck has a comfortable booth at Security Essen, complete with a staff of cooks, service crew and waiters.

Geutebruck is launching a variety of new products, including the G-Tect/VMX, which is a new intelligent video analysis solution for detecting motion in outdoor situations. It reports direction-dependent motion with extremely low false alarm rates, even in difficult conditions, such as rain or snow.

It truly is an exciting time to see the security world on the east side of the Atlantic Ocean, though I am convinced that U.S. companies have an edge in the security world. Thanks to our electronic newsletter sponsors for this rare glimpse at security in the European market.