Resi security industry preps for ISC West

YARMOUTH, Maine—With ISC West right around the corner, Security Systems News asked some leading players on the residential security side to share their game plans for this year's show at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, April 5-8.

Tom Kerber, who leads Parks Associates' research in the areas of home controls, energy management and home networks, told SSN that ISC West allows him to meet face-to-face with leaders in the industry and “talk to as many people as I can to try to get some qualitative evidence to support some of the trends and numbers that we are seeing in our research. It is good to get some feedback on what I am seeing from our perspective and either validate or make some adjustments based on what I am hearing.”

Kerber (photo on left) said he is also excited to see firsthand some of the capabilities of the newest technologies, such as keypad-less security control systems and voice integration. “Voice is starting to play a more interesting role,” he noted. “How are they doing that? What functions are they doing? What are the capabilities that they are announcing? How is it being integrated? I am interested in that, and would like to see those demos at the show.”

He continued, “And with the new keypad-less security control system that I am seeing today, the way we define the security panel might be in jeopardy.”

John Cerasuolo,�president and CEO of ADS Security, told SSN he has a team going to ISC West this year. “We view ISC West as an opportunity to spend a little bit of money to see all of the vendors at one time—to see what they are up to,” he said. “So we see their new products, talk to them about some of our initiatives, which is a great opportunity. It is a good chance to make sure that we know what our vendors' technology map is, where they are headed and what is coming up, and check off that we are offering our customers the latest technology that the vendors have out there.”

(Photo on left is John Cerasuolo)�He noted that the show also provides an opportunity to check out the latest technology trends. “For example, with video, there is so much going on in video these days, so you have to stay on top of that.”

For the first year, Alarm.com will have a booth on the show floor, Matthew Zartman, director of communications for Alarm.com, told SSN. In past years, Alarm.com has had a room off of the show floor primarily for dealer training.

“As first-time exhibitors we are super excited for ISC West this year, as we are taking a different approach. The booth is right there when you enter, and we will have our hub room off the show floor for the training, So, this year, we are doing the dealer training, as we always do, as well as a really big booth on the show floor—it is the best of both worlds.”

John Loud, (photo on left) president of Loud Security Systems, is setting aside a lot of time at ISC West to check in with the company's vendors, as well as check out possible new vendors to partner with.

“We certainly will be doing a lot of discussion surrounding central station matters, as we are going to try and come to a decision process in the month of May—are we staying, are we moving?” he explained.

“At ISC West, you can visit many central stations at one time to get a dialog and discussion going, and to try and understand their infrastructures.”

With growth anticipated, Loud said that he is looking for a central station monitoring company that can handle his growing account base. “We want a central station with some good size so we will be able to go onboard and they will be able to handle growth like that, and not be overburdened by one partner, so that is a key piece to it, too.”

Loud pointed out that ISC West provides an ideal forum for the industry to come together. “On the technology side, we have some great partners, and we are definitely going to walk the show floor all three days, from 10 a.m. all the way to close. We have found so much, and gotten so much out of that show over the years, including many of the partners that we use today, from technology to software,” he said.