Archive: May 2016
The Battle of the Body Parts: Which biometric will prevail?
May 31, 2016Spencer Ives
DELRAY BEACH, Fla.—Representatives of four different forms of biometric identification—facial recognition, iris scan, fingerprint, and hand geometry—each made a case for their biometric being most prevalent in the future at TechSec Solutions 2016.The winner, chosen by a panel of four Security Systems News “20 under 40” Class of 2015 award winners, was iris scan.Manish Dalal, general manager of ZKAccess, represented fingerprint technologies. ZK Access is a division of...
ADT warns of rise in deceptive sales practices
May 31, 2016Paul Ragusa
SALT LAKE CITY—With the summer door-knocking season upon us, the Better Business Bureau held a news conference here May 25 to address the fact that a handful of Utah home security companies are responsible for the majority of questionable sales practices occurring within the security industry.
Of the 600,000 consumers nationwide who turned to the BBB to find out about home security companies, “What they complain about, far too often, is that the sales person who knocked on their door...
Axis buys 2N audio company
May 31, 2016Martha Entwistle
STOCKHOLM—Axis Communications on May 30 closed the purchase of 2N, an IP intercom manufacturer based in Prague, Czech Republic. The company has sales offices in Miami; Chieri, Italy; and in the Czech Republic.Terms of the deal were not announced.Axis said 2N is the leading global provider of IP intercom. In addition to IP intercoms for door communication and emergency calls, 2N makes IP public address systems and M2M products.Audio and intercom are important components of an intelligent security...
JCI and Tyco announce post-merger executive line-up
May 27, 2016Martha Entwistle
MILWAUKEE and CORK, Ireland—Johnson Controls and Tyco International,�which announced plans to merge in January, today announced the post-merger executive line-up.
The deal is expected to close Oct. 1, 2016.
Seven corporate executive officers were named, and seven business leaders were announced.
Five of the seven corporate executive officers are JCI employees who currently hold the same role at JCI that they will at the combined company. Two of the corporate executive officers come...
Specifically Speaking with Steven DeArruda
May 27, 2016Martha Entwistle
What does BPS specialize in and what's your role in the consulting process? We specialize in a suite of comprehensive security consulting services that generally start with some type of security assessment or regulatory compliance assessment. In many cases I am involved in those assessments from the standpoint of evaluating the technical systems and door hardware components for our clients. Those assessments yield a set of recommendations, which provide countermeasures to mitigate the findings of...
NXT-ID to buy LogicMark
May 25, 2016Spencer Ives
NAPLES, Fla.—NXT-ID, a biometric sensor company, has agreed to acquire PERS manufacturer LogicMark for $20 million. NXT-ID's expertise in biometrics and miniaturization will help LogicMark develop PERS solutions, LogicMark president Kevin O'Connor said.O'Connor formally announced the deal on May 19 here at Affiliated Monitoring's PERS conference Catalyst. The deal should be final by the end of June.“The biggest benefit to us is the technical resources," O'Connor told Security Systems...
Security ONE acquires Homematix Systems
May 25, 2016Paul Ragusa
LEAMINGTON, Ontario—Security ONE Alarm Systems, a security and automation company headquartered here, has acquired Homematix Systems. The complete fold-in includes the company's 500 accounts, its office in London, Ontario, and approximately 10 employees, comprising administrative and sales staff as well as technicians.“The big appeal for us is that Homematix already had a strong foothold in the London market, particularly when it came to homebuilders' associations,” Corey Robertson,...
DICE launches advertising agency, security products
May 25, 2016Spencer Ives
DETROIT—DICE announced a new security-focused ad agency among the company's new services and products at the DICE Users Group conference.“We have on-staff videographers, and on-staff web developers, and content managers. It's an entire advertisement agency that we've built inside of Dice,” Cliff Dice, company CEO, told Security Systems News. “We formed it in the last 12 months, but announced it at DUG.”The advertising agency will not restrict its work to DICE customers,...
Aiphone opens East Coast office
May 25, 2016Paul Ragusa
REDMOND, Wash.—Aiphone, an international manufacturer of intercom and entry security products based here, announced the opening of an office in Cherry Hill, N.J., to support its new sales team working in the growing Eastern U.S. market.“We had seen some tremendous growth in the amount of business that we have in that area, from Virginia up through Maine,” Bruce Czerwinski, Aiphone's U.S. general sales manager told Security Systems News. “We now have a strategic office in the...
A 'smart home' snapshot
May 25, 2016Paul Ragusa
The Smart Home 360 report, which comes out today from the market research company Argus Insights, provides a snapshot of what is out there in the smart home market today. The study looks at changes in the market from March to April, as well as overall trends Argus researchers are seeing within the quickly emerging and maturing market.
I caught up with Argus Insights CEO John Feland, who pointed that because the smart home market is changing so fast, “we are continuously pulling data around...