Interface buys Westec and other stuff I learned at ISC West on Day 1

Big news from yesterday was the acquisition of Westec by Interface Security Systems. The story is on our front page or click here . You can also see my video interview with Jeff Frye of Interface Security Systems about the Westec deal on our front page or by clicking here.

Winning the procrastination award for latest to announce a press conference at ISCWest� 2012 is BRS Labs. I got the announcement a little after midnight--8 hours notice!

It's not a strategy I'd recommend, but there was a good crowd in the press room at 9 a.m. today. John Frazzini, president of BRSLabs, showed several examples of how the software "learns" how a certain venue should look day and night and then goes into alert when there's an anomaly. The first example was subway tunnel. The alert went off when a regular automobile tried to follow the subway into the subway tunnel.

BRS Labs, just received its umbrella patent, and some of its wins are part of the public record, including a $2 million deal with the San Francisco.

Frazzini believes the future is bright for behavioral analytics. He said that IMS predicts that behavioral analytics will be a $2.1� billion addressable market by 2015. On the other hand, traditional video analytics have been a $57 billion market through� 2010,� and is expectd to grow to $108 million market by 2015. Frazzini called that growth "immaterial and irrelevant" and said a behavioral analytics is causing a “real disruption in the marketplace.”

INGRAM MICRO

In another unscheduled—at least in my book—press conference, I heard Ingram Micro's Brian Wiser talking about that company's renewed push into the physical security business.

Wiser said the Ingram Micro physical security business has doubled in the past year.� He said Ingram Micro considers physical security a “strategic high growth focus [area, and said the company intents to]� dedicate disproportionate resources to this business unit.” Integrators should not be afraid of making the leap into IP systems, he said. “Ingram can help them make the leap—to enable them to do it themselves [or if they need help with a particular project] we can connect you with someone who can do that for you in a non-competitive fashion.”

Wiser said that Ingram Micro—which had 20,000 square feet of show floor space, 30 partner vendors and 450 VARS—intends to enter the industry in a big way—to "dive in and dive deeply," he said.

JOHNSON CONTROLS

I had a great meeting with Tammee Thompson who is the new VP and GM global fire and security for Johnson Controls. Her appointment was announced last week, but she's been in place for about 5 months.

This is the first time the global fire and security unit has been organized into a global PL. Thompson has spent the past four months traveling around visiting teams in the field, understanding the capabilities the groups have and need to grow the business. The goal, she said, is to the become the integrator of choice.

In North America, JC has 80 branch offices that offer security and fire as well as services and HVAC. “That will help us on a regional basis to offer entire portfolios to customers,” she said.
AT ISC West, Thompson's team is looking at technologies, not devices. JCI has an access control platform that integrates with 17 VMS providers. At this show Thompson's team is� nvestigating complimentary platforms such as PSIM and Identity Management.

WSC

At 12: 45 I moderated a Women's Security Council meeting with three very cool and accomplished women: Kelly Bond, senior vice president of sales & marketing for Alarm Capital Alliance; Renae Leary, ADT Global Accounts Senior Director; and, Juliette Gustavsson, Milestone Systems Head of Corporate Marketing. Lots of tips, tactics and resources for career advancement. I'll have a full story on this next week.

S2

I stopped by S2 and spoke to John Moss about what's new there. He's particularly excited about forensic capabilities of his new products enabled because of the tight integration between the access control and video.� More on this and other show floor stuff later.

I'm late getting to the show floor. The Security 5K was great this morning. Lots of people, great weather. Come to the reception on the show floor at 4:30 this afternoon.

Did you see the story about ADT commercial changing it's name that I posted on Tuesday? Gonna get some more info on that today from Jay Hauhn. Much more to report from Day 1 and Day 2 later today. Stay tuned.