Weston in Space

When I first entered the electronic security industry and joined then simply Security Sales in 1998 as a senior editor it was to my good fortune that the magazine had as cadre of outstanding columnists. Not only were they well recognized leaders in their areas of specialty from whom I could gain deep insights, but they were also exceptionally gracious and willing to address whatever questions I threw their way. Among them was Rick Gombar, whose recent retirement caps 40 years as a maverick to security companies where it comes to insurance. Entering the industry in 1981, Gombar was one of three founders of the Los Angeles County Burglar & Fire Alarm Association (LBFAA; now Greater Los Angeles Security & Alarm Association, or GLASSA) where served on the executive board of directors as the first secretary and treasurer. He also chaired the insurance and membership committees. As insurance committee chairman, Gombar sought to create a new general liability and E&O insurance

OSLO, Norway — Zenitel announces the integration of its ICX-AlphaCom platform and Feenics’ Cloud-based access control solution. The integration is said to be the enhancement and extension of a long-standing partnership between both companies. The integration provides security teams the ability to both speak and listen and allow access to facilities and unmanned entry points, while optimizing processes and their actionable responses to incidents, according to the company. “Our customers need a security and safety solution that helps them to mitigate everyday risks,” says Jeff Ross, director of marketing, ACRE Americas. “The ability for our access control solution to easily integrate with Zenitel’s ICX AlphaCom interface will provide building owners more insight and control into securing their buildings and facilities.” Related: PSA Partners With Intelligent Communication Provider Zenitel The Feenics/Zenitel product integration also provides improved situational awareness by u

Finding the “right” promotional item to give is an art. It has to be creative, local, have permanence and be cost-effective. Custom Alarm seems to have found the right formula with its holiday tote bag in 2021. The large tote bags, emblazoned with the Custom Alarm logo, were filled with a variety of items from 14 of the company’s local customers themselves … everything from bread, cookies, salsa, chips, meat and cheese, jerky, BBQ sauce, pizza sauce, caramel apple dippers and four different beers from local breweries. In addition, 12 local restaurant gift cards were included in each bag, meaning 26 different local businesses were involved in the promotion. In all, 70 bags were then distributed to employees of the various local businesses. “Every single item we put in that bag was from a local customer,” says Anna Bradt, marketing and communications manager for Rochester, Minn.-based Custom Alarm. “We also included a gift card to a locally owned restaurant that went inside the Custo

MIAMI — A settlement worth more than $1 billion was announced last week as part of class action lawsuit over the collapse of Champlain Towers South of Miami’s Surfside condos. The tragedy, which took place on June 24, 2021, saw 98 people die after the oceanfront tower condominium partially collapsed in the middle of the night. The settlement will be split among more than two dozen defendants who were sued on charges of negligence, wrongful death, and personal injury related to the collapse of the condo. Securitas Security Services, which provided guard services to the property, will be responsible for paying nearly than half the sum. According to the lawsuit, the guard on duty during the night of the event called 911 about 10 minutes before the collapse, but didn’t activate the building-wide in-unit voice alarm. Related: Life-Safety Lessons Learned From the Miami Condo Collapse In a deposition to Champlain victims’ lawyers, a Securitas manager said the company hadn’t trained

The most popular stories on SSI in June reveal online readers were interested in information that could help their companies become more successful. The most read story of the month was SSI ‘s annual wholesale distributor roundtable. Every year, SSI  sits down with the industry’s leading distributors to talk about the trends and challenges they’ve observed, as well as how they can best serve integrators. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and now supply chain shortages, distributors have had to overcome a lot these past few years. However, they have still been able to bring value regardless of volatility. Also included in the roundtable is a new interactive distributor directory. Readers were also interested in SSI ‘s 2022 Video Surveillance Deep Dive. This report spans the residential, commercial and industrial video surveillance sectors and provides data on projects, prices, margins, verticals, challenges, technologies and more. On the access control side, a cybersecurity firm discov

JERUSALEM —Visionary.ai, a developer of software-based image signal processing technologies, and Innoviz, a provider of LiDAR sensors and perception software, are collaborating to upgrade machine vision performance. The two companies emphasize the combined power of their respective technologies will improve 3D machine vision performance for a variety of applications that includes robotics, smart cities, and drones. “Visionary.ai’s software-based ISP enables cameras to achieve cutting-edge image quality in difficult conditions. Together with Innoviz’s LiDAR and Perception Software, we can improve detection performance even further” says Omer Keilaf, CEO and co-founder at Innoviz. “We are pleased to join forces to offer an advanced machine vision solution to many applications that need it for safety.” 3D Machine Vision Represents Next-Generation Video Surveillance Technologies Explaining how the combined efforts of the two companies will enable improved system performance, Visionary

WESTMINSTER, Colo. — PSA, the world’s largest consortium of professional systems integrators, announces it has rebranded its USAV division to EDGE, effective immediately. Since 2001, USAV has supported A/V systems integrators throughout the world by connecting them with industry-leading manufacturers, distributors and service providers. As integrators have grown and changed over time, a necessity for the USAV brand to evolve became evident, PSA says. “Over the past two years we have made tremendous strides to grow internationally,” says Patrick Whipkey, vice president of EDGE. “We conducted interviews with both our U.S. and international audiences and discovered integrators and the markets they serve have evolved. From this, we determined it was time to find a name and look that serves who we are now and want to be in the future.” Over six months of development, the EDGE team conducted research, brainstormed and developed four distinct brands to consider as final contenders. When P

Despite a global pandemic and a deadly hurricane, Acadian Total Security (ATS) managed to conduct a broad array of meaningful community outreach programs while making sure to keep its staff and its customers safe. “Our team loves to give back, but the pandemic and weather events tried to hinder our efforts. Although the current situation made things a little more difficult, we found a way to do what we love doing best, giving to those who need it most,” says Michelle Trahan, division coordinator. Among the litany of outreach programs held by the Lafayette, La.-based company in 2021 were volunteering for the Red Cross in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida with programs educating the public on installing household smoke detectors, tarping roofs and cooking for co-workers. Staff also worked concessions at the local Christmas attraction that benefits LARC, a non-profit serving the needs of people with developmental disabilities. Related: How Acadian Won the 2022 SAMMY Award for Best We

PEARL RIVER, N.Y. — Qognify, a technology solution provider for physical security and enterprise incident management, has named Yaniv Toplian as its new vice president of research and development. As part of Qognify’s senior leadership team, Yaniv has a remit to define and execute its R&D strategy to design and develop solutions that mitigate risks, increase security and optimize operations, through world-class research and innovation, according to the company. Based in Qognify’s Ra’anana, Israel office, Toplian leads a global team that includes product management as well as software developers, DevOps and QA engineers. “Our highly capable and committed team enables us to perform the full development life cycle, starting from the requirements definition through implementation, deployment and support for Qognify customers and partners throughout the world. We rely on state-of-the-art agile development methodologies that enable improved transparency and better quality of the resul

DOTHAN, Ala. — DSI Security Services, based here, announces the planned acquisition of Complete Security and Sound (CSS), effective July 1. CSS has provided comprehensive security and audio solutions in the Wiregrass, Ala. area for over 11 years. DSI says the company’s commitment to customer service makes it a natural fit for addition to its portfolio. The partnership is said to allow DSI to better serve residential and small business customers throughout its operational area, particularly in the electronic security systems segment. Leadership at DSI says it looks forward to the addition of CCS expertise in alarm systems, surveillance camera systems and gate hardware. Jim Capps, the current owner of CSS, will join DSI as electronics system solutions residential and small business operations manager. Current CSS technician Thomas LaVallee will also join the company as an electronics technician. Related: B Safe Security Acquires Action One Alarm Retaining these experienced res

RALEIGH, N.C. — According to Evan Marty, Snap One director of remote monitoring & management, this launch reinforces the company’s commitment to empowering partners and their customers with an expanding, industry-leading, free remote system management solution that can serve as a business operating platform that creates successful long-term customer relationships. “Our partners love OvrC for the simple fact that it works well, and it makes long-term project management simpler,” says Marty. “We’re demonstrating our commitment to investing in new features for a free software solution that can help our partners to grow their business. In fact, in addition to introducing new features and benefits, we built the OvrC Connect app on an entirely new architecture so our engineers can more quickly and easily develop and introduce future updates that will do even more for our partners. “We also want our partners to know we have their backs from the job site to the office. With the new Loc

COPPELL, Texas — IDIS reports it has seen a leap in demand for its 2MP cameras connected to 8-32 channel NVRs in the first half of 2022 in the U.S. This latest trend in buying habits is indicative of a wider industry focus on NDAA-compliant, trusted and cost-effective video surveillance solutions, according to the company. Compared to IDIS America sales figures from the same period in 2021, demand for the DC-D4216RX and DC-D4217RX dome cameras has more than doubled so far in 2022. The company says this rapid uptick is being driven in part by several large project wins for the company across the retail, hotel and residential sectors implementing cameras and NVRs compliant with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Related: GSA Takes Aim at Illicit Product Sales With ‘Robomod’ Tool Andrew Myung, president, IDIS America, notes that “We’ve seen a sharp increase in demand for NDAA-compliant hardware outside of federal projects as end users in a wider range of sectors emp

In this week’s Top Surveillance Videos… The last thing a parent wants to do is let their child or children be involved in a situation with a gun. While the man in this week’s featured video couldn’t avoid that situation, he did the next best thing and saved his child. Surveillance video from Detroit shows a silver SUV pull up to the store of a gas station. A man then exits the vehicle holding a gun. Video footage from inside shows the suspect open the door and pull a gun and clip out of his waistband. He then points it at a man holding his 7-month-old. The dad quickly swats the gun away and moves to the back of the store. Lucky for him, the gun appears to be jammed and the suspect leaves. Also this week… Surveillance video caught the moment a group of thieves broke into a Florida man’s backyard and stole $70,000 worth of ATVs and dirt bikes. The footage shows the thieves cut the lock off a gate before rummaging through the off-road vehicles. They would make off with them over th

Savannah, Ga.-based scDataCom is proof that it doesn’t take a giant corporate marketing team to create effective outreach campaigns that connect with customers. The small family-owned company with 25 employees has four foundational marketing themes that it integrates into all of its marketing content: Innovation, Thought Leadership, Community and Workmanship. The four themes represent the company’s core values and mission as well as focus areas that it recognizes as of heightened importance to its present and future customer base. Across all its marketing, whether it be via its website, social media , e-newsletters, slide decks, business cards, online case studies, customer testimonials, and “snail mail” direct mail, scDataCom maintains consistency. Related: SSI Names 2022 SAMMY Sales and Marketing Award Winners The company’s logo uses Navy blue to invoke trust, loyalty, and security, along with yellow to appeal to the intellect, enthusiasm, and inspiration of its customers.

ADT Commercial services a wide variety of vertical market customers spanning multiple industries and ranging from single-site facilities to multilocation organizations. To effectively communicate with the varying audiences and decision-makers that comprise these markets, ADT has innovated its process of developing sales support brochures to include clearly defined steps to ensure every marketing piece it creates is accurate, addresses the customer’s pain points and is targeted to the correct decision-maker within that industry. Each vertical market piece is specifically designed to address the issues and concerns of the targeted market. The company does not use a cookie-cutter approach of mixing and matching solutions in a generic sense. ADT clearly defines each section of the sales brochure to effectively communicate its messaging and understanding of the market along with applicable solutions that are top-of-mind to the end-user decision-maker. Related: SSI Names 2022 SAMMY S

SAN FRANCISCO — Sciens Building Solutions announces it has added Michigan-based Elite Fire Safety to its growing portfolio of companies in the United States. This latest acquisition by Sciens is said to display its commitment to becoming the largest independent fire-life safety and security integrator in the U.S. by adding the state of Michigan to its U.S. presence. This partnership will provide Elite and its customers with even more comprehensive resources and expertise, as they tap into Sciens’ knowledge and capabilities, while contributing significant expertise themselves, according to the company. “By joining the Sciens positive growth trajectory across the country, the Elite team will certainly benefit from the company’s robust technical expertise and comprehensive building solutions, combined with our existing capabilities, empowering us to develop even broader offerings for the important Metropolitan Detroit Area market,” says David Sizemore, president of Elite Fire Safety. “

CORK, Ireland — Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI ), announces it has zero trust cybersecurity provider Tempered Networks. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Based in Seattle, Tempered Networks has created ‘Airwall’ technology, an advanced self-defense system for buildings that is said to enable secure network access across diverse groups of endpoint devices, edge gateways, Cloud platforms and service technicians. It represents a step-change in operational technology built on secure transmission pipelines to ensure buildings data exchanges and service actions can only take place between people and devices that are continuously authenticated, according to the company. “When it comes to buildings, we must create easily implementable cybersecurity defenses as we’re often dealing with critical infrastructure, including assets such as data centers and hospitals,” says Vijay Sankaran, vice president and chief technology officer, Johnson Controls. “Tempered Networks Airwall

SILICON VALLEY, Calif. — Cybersecurity firm Trellix recently announced it discovered four zero-day vulnerabilities in HID Global Mercury access control panels, as well as four previously patched vulnerabilities that were not publicly disclosed. The firm says the impact of these vulnerabilities is full system control, including the ability for an attacker to remotely manipulate door locks. Trellix investigated the access control panels as part of its ongoing research to discover critical vulnerabilities, saying, “We chose this specific access control panel to research because of its ubiquitous use, the volume and criticality of industries they are used in, the security certifications the product has received and overall position in the market.” The firm was able to achieve root access to the device’s operating system and pull its firmware for emulation and vulnerability discovery via physical access, network access and exploitation. The vulnerabilities uncovered by Trellix allowed r

PITTSBURGH — Azena announces the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Pittsburgh Penguins is testing Azena’s platform for smart cameras to explore ways to improve operational efficiencies throughout the team’s home venue, PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins hope to streamline wait times at busy concession stands on game days in real time and leverage enhanced retail analytics in its fan stores to increase arena retail sales, according to the company. Azena’s operating platform for smart cameras integrates with existing video surveillance systems and provides ready-to-use artificial intelligence-enhanced video analytics applications designed to run simultaneously directly on the camera and can be easily changed based on needs, similar to apps on a smartphone. Azena says the upcoming implementation by the Penguins is part of a growing trend within the sports and entertainment venue market to enhance fan experience by leveraging video and data analytics and IoT technology to add value to the spe

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — NSI Industries, a provider of electrical, HVAC and building technology product solutions, announces that it has acquired Lynn Electronics, a manufacturer and supplier of custom fiber optic and copper assemblies for the data center and broadband markets. The addition of North Wales, Pa.-based Lynn Electronics is said to broaden and strengthen NSI’s catalog of connectivity solutions products. Lynn Electronics will join Platinum Tools and TechLogix Networx to broaden the offering of NSI’s new Building Technology division, which is also supported by the many NSI Industries brands within the HVAC and Electrical divisions and will serve to make business transactions with distributors even more streamlined and efficient. NSI had merged with Platinum Tools back in 2019 , and acquired TechLogix Networkx in November 2021 . “Being in business since 1964, Lynn Electronics is a well known and trusted name within the low voltage distribution channel,” says David DiDonato, CC

SEATTLE — Aboud Jewelry, a multi-generational Seattle-area small business, has added Athena’s frictionless Entryway Security Solution to detect concealed weapons. The multisensor walk-through metal detector  is said to allow the family owners to quickly and accurately screen anyone entering the business before being allowed inside the store. “This is exactly why we went into business, to help prevent gun violence before it happens,” says Athena Security CEO Michael Green. “Our hearts went out when we heard that the Aboud family had a gun pulled on them, but we can do so much more than feel for small businesses, we can stop this from happening again, providing the safety and peace of mind we all deserve living and working in our local communities.” The solution from Athena Security is said to automatically tell the difference between a weapon and a cell phone, keys and watches, eliminating the need to divest items required by legacy metal detectors, making it well-suited for small bu

SAN FRANCISCO — Sciens Building Solutions announces it has added Perkiomenville, Penn.-based Anchor Fire Protection to its growing portfolio of companies. This latest acquisition from Sciens is said to help expand the company’s presence in the Pennsylvania and mid-Atlantic market, while providing Anchor and its customers with even deeper resources and expertise, as well as the ability to leverage Sciens’ growing footprint across North America. “We couldn’t be more pleased to become a part of Sciens with its outstanding technical expertise and geographic reach,” says Ted Wills, president of Anchor Fire Protection. “I chose Sciens because they have a very successful track record with the companies they have acquired and they allow those companies to keep doing the things that have made them successful, while maintaining their cultures. This is a phenomenal growth opportunity, and we look forward to partnering with existing Sciens companies in our region.” Anchor Fire Protection was es

TYSONS, Va. — Alarm.com (Nasdaq:  ALRM ) is the latest smart home/security company to get into the solar business. The company announces it is now offering an integrated solar monitoring solution. Designed for service providers, the program includes a new Solar Automation & Awareness service package and Solar Program Certification Course. Alarm.com’s solar monitoring offering allows customers with SolarEdge and Enphase inverters (which combined account for more than 90% of all solar inverters in the U.S., according to the company) to monitor home solar panel energy production and consumption. With the Solar Monitoring add-on, Alarm.com subscribers can track energy data for the day, week, past month and past 12 months. All within the Alarm.com mobile app, users can monitor the property’s solar data alongside security and other energy-saving devices and features, to lower power bills, and reduce environmental footprint. As part of a comprehensive smart energy management solution,

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Allied Universal says it is continuing its global expansion with the acquisition of three companies located in New York, the Netherlands and Denmark. The largest of the three companies, International Protective Service Agency, is headquartered in New York City and provides comprehensive security and event services for clients located throughout New York and New Jersey. IPSA founder and owner Jerry Heying, as well as its 350 employees, will be joining the Allied Universal team this year. “I’m excited to welcome the IPSA employees to the Allied Universal team. With a shared focus on customer service and integrated security solutions, I look forward to a seamless transition,” says Allied Universal Global Chairman and CEO Steve Jones. Heying adds, “We are excited to become a part of the world’s top security provider. Through this action, we will be able to provide our clients with enhanced service offerings, and our employees will have access to additional career opp

FORT WORTH, Texas — ADT was awarded the 17th annual Police Dispatch Quality (PDQ) Award for its ongoing efforts to reduce false alarm dispatches at ESX 2022. With the introduction of its System Monitoring and Response Technology (SMART), ADT says it is working to help prioritize alarm calls, thus enhancing the partnership between first responders and the electronic security industry. “This year’s winner, ADT, has demonstrated that the company continues to take a leadership role to promote strong partnerships with public safety agencies and demonstrates how technology can help us enhance these partnerships,” says Stan Martin, SIAC executive director. The PDQ Award recognizes the best companies that exemplify an all-out effort to reduce alarm dispatches from implementing ECC, Enhanced Call Confirmation (2-calls), to training customers and working closely with law enforcement. The PDQ Award is sponsored by the Security Industry Alarm Coalition ( SIAC ), the Partnership for Priority V

PRAGUE, Czech Republic ― Integrating the Qognify EIM (enterprise incident management) solution into its security system, the Vaclav Havel Airport has bolstered its security capabilities under a single interface. The integration of the new enterprise incident management solution in addition to providing security personnel with a single, unified interface also provides airport security the ability to to verify identification cards using mobile devices throughout the airport. “Qognify EIM is perfect for an international airport such as  Václav Havel, that want to take a more holistic approach to handling incidents. By integrating and optimizing its  many security systems, through our enterprise-class software solution, it is able to provide the airport with enhanced situational awareness, ” comments Oliver Schmidt, Sales Manager EMEA, EIM at Qognify Qognify explains the Prague Airport, a. s. is a company that operates Václav Havel Airport Prague in the Czech Republic. The fast growing