ADT vs. TycoIS and 2014 ASIS roundup

The 60th annual ASIS conference opened in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 29.

The start of ASIS coincided with the expiration of the non-compete agreement between TycoIS and ADT. When Tyco and ADT split, the agreement stipulated� that Tyco could not serve businesses of less than 7,500 square feet and that ADT could not serve businesses greater than 7,500 square feet in size.� Those restrictions were void as of Monday and both ADT and TycoIS have been eager to talk about their plans to dominate small/medium sized business.

Last week, TycoIS introduced Holis, an HD IP camera line that's bundled with a security assessment, a mobile app and flexible financing options. I spoke to TycoIS's Mark Bomber about how that launch would help position TycoIS to move into this market. On Monday, Luis Orbegoso announced ADT's go-to-market plan. Here's that story.

On Tuesday, a group of TycoIS executives explained their company's plan to secure small business beachheads in five markets: Dallas, Chicago, two locations in Southern California and South Florida. The group included: Mike Moran, VP, Central Region; Dan Schroeder, VP Commercial/National Account Sales, North America; Hank Monaco, VP, Marketing; Mark VanDover, President; Tony McGraw, VP, Field Operations. The theme of their plan is to "go local" to effectively compete against local regional providers. Look for a full write-up on that announcement this week.

It will be very interesting to see how the battle for SMB shakes out. Will ADT or TycoIS prevail in this market, or will it be the regional independent integrator who wins out?

One person who's clearly in ADT's court is a Florida GOP Congressman, who made a pitch for ADT securing the White House. Check out this video. The guy even had an ADT sign handy.

Below is a roundup of my Day 1 and Day 2 meetings:

DAY 1

My first meeting was with Axis Communications' Fredrik Nilsson and Kelley Brescia. Axis likes its themes.� At ISC West the company talked about the "power of four" and here at ASIS, they continued on that theme. Axis introduced its Q6000-E� “that's four cameras in one” Nilsson said. It's Axis' new approach to a 360-degree camera.� It is made up of four 2 megapixel camera heads so it can “cover four football fields. Those four cameras offer a very unique way to do 360-degree camera and when you combine it with a PTZ �. you can trigger to zoom in without losing the overview of the football field [losing the overview when zooming is a common problem with 360-degree cameras],” Nilsson explained. The camera is ideal for city surveillance, retail parking lots, big school yards or critical infrastructure, he said. Axis got into access control last year with the intrduction of its door controller. This year it introduced a card reader, designed to work with its controller, which it developed with ASSA ABLOY. Axis also introduced its AXIS Camera Station S10 Recorder Series. AXIS Camera Station is preloaded on Dell servers and pre-configured to work with its cameras. This solution is the for the mid-size market, Nilsson said, which needs storage and wants and easy set up. Applications of 1 to 8 cameras can use the Axis Companion SD card, but installers of mid-sized applications (16 to 64 cameras) �who are moving from analog to IP—need a recording box, but they don't want to spend time configuring servers, he said. And the fourth four? It's a "four lettter word--EASY [to install,use, etc]," Nilsson said.

At Protection 1's meeting room, which was off of the showfloor, but overlooked the showfloor,� I spoke with a group of folks including Jamie Haenggi and Christopher BenVau about several news items including the fact that its Network Operations �Center (NOC), has �received� "Cisco �Cloud �and �Managed �Services �Express �Partner �Certification �status." Just over 106 companies in the U.S. have earned this designation, and Protection 1 is now the only security company among them.

Alan Forman talking about new LINQ offering at Altronix. The company introduces its LINQ2 Network Communication Module, which provides remote control and real time monitoring and reporting of Altronix's new eFlow Power Supply/Chargers.

Samsung introduced its Open Platform, which allows technology partners to use standardized APIs to develop apps and put them on Samsung's WiseNet III cameras. The partners featured were LPR provider PlateSmart , storage provider Veracity and video analytics company AgentVI. Samsung's Tom Cook said "the camera becomes a full system, like a mobile phone."

At national integrator Security-Net's booth I spoke to member company executives John Krumme of Cam-Dex Security and David Alessandrini of Pasek, who told me about Security-Net's newest initiative called Ops-Net. It's a program where operations folks from Security-Net companies get together—either in person or remotely—to discuss ideas, best practices and to troubleshoot. Like Security-Net's Tech-Net and Sales-Net, this initiatives helps drive "more synergy and consistency across companies," Krumme said.

At Stanley Security a group of executives including Beth Tarnoff and Marty Guay talked about Stanley's "Together for Safer Schools" grant program, which the company has extended to higher ed. Higher ed is an important market that needs "really good precision around compliance, reporting, and policy standards," Guay said. Stanley's higher ed security solutions address that problem, he said.

Next, I met with Tony Byerly, Jeremy Brecher, and Felix Gonzales, to talk about new features of Diebold's Secure Stat offering, which the integrator debuted at ISC West in 2013. Its new features enable "dynamic data aggregation" so customers can sort, see, and act on data. As an example of how Secure Stat could work for a retailer with 12 stores, Brecher showed how pages of data could be sorted [by the end user or it could be set up by Diebold] to provide pinpointed information about stores that were not opened on time. This kind of information is very valuable to a retailer, Byerly said, "that's lost revenue that has a real bottom-line impact to a retailer." This information can help a district manager with 12 retail stores, for example, to address those problems and make more money.

At G4STechnology, I met with Misty Stine who explained that the company's ECOE (energy center of excellence) in Chicago will help its energy clients "develop standards, prove out systems, [be a location where] we can bring customers in."

Sarah Semerjian and John Moss were showing off S2 Security's Mobile Security Officer. And, John Moss was talking about S2's engineering staff, which has tripled in size.

Avigilon's Mahesh Saptharishi has been promoted to CTO. The company was showing the latest release of the Avigilon Control Center (ACC) software.

I meet with Courtney Mamuscia at Verint and we talked about how Verint is endeavoring to have more collaboration among its three business units.

SightLogix' John Romanowich and Frank De Fina announced the launch of its Strategic Partner Program. Its first partner is Axis Communications. Read the story here.

DAY 2

I had a chance to meet Honeywell Security Products' new president Inder Reddy last week. Here's that story. He says the industry will be hearing more about Honeywell's focus on the customer experience.

I met Digital Watchdog's Mark Espenschied, president Wade Thomas and had a few minutes to catch up with Ian Johnston, whose company ISD was acquired by Digital WatchDog this year. Johnston continues to run ISD and also serves as CTO for Digital Watchdog. Johnston explained a new phrase he's coined "Caas" that's "camera as a sensor" and he uses it to explain capabilities of the company's products. He also showed me their new camera with four 4K sensors each producing 30fps, called 16K30fps, and an alternative camera (8MP30fps) with four 1080p sensors which each maintain their 30fps. Digitial Watchdog says competing cameras produce 6fps under optimal conditions.

With the company's infrastructure built out, several lucrative contracts and a FICAM approval in hand, Dennis Raefield says Viscount working on partnership with ECKey. ECKey's Paul Bodell and Robert Chevitz, an investor in both companies, were on hand at the booth.

Matt Barnette told me about how AMAG Technology is working with a data analytics company to "extend usefulness of security system."

I had a chance to meet Xentry Systems' Andre Greco, who told me more about the expansion and training of Xentry's sales staff to approach sales in the right way. Customers don't want to talk about product initially, he said. They're concerned about "cost, compliance & risk."

I made my way to the A Hall, not an easy task, to see Shawn Reilly of TechSystems Inc., give a lively presentation about access control "holes" in health care facitlities. I also had a few minutes to catch up with Sharon Shaw (of TechSystems and also on the TechSec Advisory board) about TechSec Solutions planning for 2015.

At Genetec, Pierre Racz gave me an overview of several new Genetec products including its VOIP offering which he summed up this way: "We're the first and we're the best."

I caught up with Marilyn Hollier, president of IAHSS and director of security for University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers.

I met Deb Spitler at HID and got enrolled in HIDGlobal new Mobile Access, a product that's been in different stages of development for three years. It's a cool demo and worth stopping by the booth to try out. On Oct. 1 HID announced a Mobile Access pilot project at Vanderbilt University.

At an evening event, OnSSI's Ken LaMarca announced that the VMS provider's new integration with Samsung's WiseNet III IP cameras, which is designed to “provide real-time situational awareness, deliver integral 360 degree camera dewarping for improved wide area coverage, and convey high capacity in-camera network video recording.”

On Day 3, I spoke to OnSSI's Brandi Gill who filled me in on all of the benefits of the new integration.

At Quantum Secure, I spoke to Rochelle Thompson about the company's offering for the SMB market� a “Safer Secure Cloud Solution.”

On to PPM, a provider of “incident management software” to speak to Elaine O'Sullivan. While PPM might sound like a PSIM product, O'Sullivan told me: “we don't want to be a PSIM.”� At the booth, O'Sullivan was telling customers about the newest version of Perspective V4.5, which includes more analytical and reporting options.

My final meeting of ASIS was with executives from one of the industry's key organizations: PSA Security. I had a chance to catch up with CEO Bill Bozeman and meet Kim Garcia, the new director of marketing. PSA Security has spent the past several months laying the groundwork to help its integrators get smart about cyber security. The group's new training will be launched soon, and Security Director News and Security Systems News are� looking forward to covering PSA's work in this very important realm.

And speaking of PSA Security, it was great to catch up briefly with some PSA Security owners, namely Christine and Andrew Lanning of IST; Pierre Trapanese, Guy Morgante and Henry Hoyne of Northland Controls, and Eric Yunag of Dakota Security.