American Dynamics, Software House names return

BOCA RATON, Fla. - A year and a half after Sensormatic officials decided to streamline product lines under generic names, the American Dynamics and Software House names are making a return to the market. By resurrecting the two brands, company officials expect it will make it easier for installers and integrators, along with end-users, to identify products and work with the company, which is now part of Tyco Safety Products. "The move in the past was more unifying on the Sensormatic name," said Don Lyman, vice president of the Americas for Tyco Security Business Partners. That move, said Lyman, is now being reversed. Company officials began touting the change at the ASIS Show in Philadelphia in September. Video related products now fall under the American Dynamics name, including what was once called the Robot line. While the names never really did disappear from products - many still carried labels denoting American Dynamics or Software House - most marketing efforts touted the Sensormatic name, said Paul Piccolomini, general manager and vice president of Software House. "Because of the drive from the dealers and the sales force in terms of the brand name recognition, it never died," said Piccolomini. "The brand name kept going on." Company officials did plan to label newly manufactured products with the Sensormatic name, but because the company still had a large inventory of product bearing the American Dynamics and Software House name in-stock, it never reached that point. What was for a short time called the access control division will now be known as Software House. While some company officials changed how they referred to the company's brands, many in the industry still continued to identify with the Software House names, said Lyman. "People in the market would describe themselves as Software House integrators or Software House customers," he said. American Dynamics will encompass a family of products, said Victor Biberston, senior marketing manager for American Dynamics. That will include its Intellex Digital Video Systems, Robot for multiplexers and SpeedDome cameras, for example. Lyman said the brand names will also make it easier to promote integration of the products. "We're really emphasizing integration as a theme and it's a lot clearer message to say we're integrating Software House and American Dynamics," he said. "It's a lot harder to get the concept when you have so many brands."