The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) successfully demonstrated interoperability between five vendors, with its PLAI specification, at ISC West 2019. Nearly 170 registered for the event, which was evident by a standing room only crowd. The flawless demonstration showed commercial versions of PLAI in Johnson Controls, Software House (C•CURE 9000) and Lenel/S2 (OnGuard) systems. Three biometric vendors, EyeLock, Idemia (Morpho), and Princeton Identity, and all were able to share credentials across the five systems via the PLAI Agent, a commercial version which is now available from Cruatech.
Also discussed were expanded features in the Cruatech Agent, including credential matching. Finding ways to manage credentials, permissions, limit duplication of records, and eliminating “orphans” left over when an employee leaves a company is essential. PLAI, an open standard, has been designed to address many of these issues.
“What was particularly exciting was the response from enterprise companies and other PACS vendors who attended the demo,” said David Bunzel, Executive Director of the PSIA. “A number of important companies in the industry have not only expressed interest in developing PLAI adapters, but joining the PSIA to participate in the advancement of the specification.” Also at the meeting, AMAG announced their plans to have a PLAI adapter and a PLAI agent for their Symmetry product in the coming months.
The integrator community was out in force for the event. Convergint Technologies and Tech Systems were well represented and brought customers who could benefit from PLAI. “Integrators will be the most important advocates for PLAI in the market,” said Bunzel. “They have already introduced some large enterprise customers to PLAI and we look forward to a growing list of commercial implementations of the spec in the next 12 months.”
The PSIA has put together an explainer video showing how PLAI supports the normalization of employee credentials and sharing them across disparate PACS and biometric systems. If you are interested in seeing this video, please click on this link PLAI Synchronizes Identities Across PACS.
The PSIA will have technical meetings regarding PLAI and related specifications on May 14 & 15 in Westford, MA. For more information on participating, contact the PSIA.
