Publisher's Viewpoint

This month we are doing another first of its kind. This entire issue looks at the future of this industry. We've discussed that everything's always changing in life and at light speed nowadays. If we look back for a second we can see exactly how fast change happens today. In 1000 AD the first camera was made but it was used for drawing and the images seen were upside down. Optical lenses were discovered as far back as 700 BC and are seen in Egyptian 8th century hieroglyphs where they were used for magnification or burning glass and as decorations. The first photograph was developed in 1827. It took eight hours of light exposure to create and would quickly fade away! It took from 1873 to 1925 to develop television and in 1925 it only provided five images per second which was below the threshold required to give the illusion of movement. In 1926 images were vertically scanned with double spiral lenses and had 30 lines, producing a recognizable human face; my bet is a barely recognizable human face.

The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s and moving it in bulk developed throughout the 19th century. The first voice heard over a telegraph line was in 1870 and this spurred the phone system which has been the communications spine for the intrusion detection and fire alarm industry for centuries now, although the original red Gamewell fire boxes, still visible in places today, originally ran on the telegraph system.

Blast from the past

It wasn't so long ago that access control was all about locks, guards and dogs. Today one central location can review and manage the entire system with multiple properties anywhere in the world. Remember the smoke-filled room so burglars couldn't see where they were going or what to steal? That was cutting edge technology, what, 12 years ago? At that same time we marveled over our four image multiplexers showing grainy black and white images saved on tapes that stretched and broke! Today we can watch dozen of images from anywhere in the world on HDCCTV with advanced analytics deciding what we need to focus on.

In less than 100 years we've gone from the horse and buggy to the moon in a rocket. We've gone from rural farm life to suburban sprawl and high-rise city living. We've seen the development of black and white then color then high definition and now 3D television. We've seen the first satellite launched, the first computer used, the microprocessor development and the development of network, satellite and global wireless communications which are all the true core of what has changed our world and will continue doing so.
Scientists are talking about being able to read our brainwaves with electrodes and turn thoughts into actions without us moving a finger-in our lifetime. We already have video games that watch our movement with intelligent sensors and competitively play with us, without controllers.

Helping you plan for the future

It took hundreds of years for all the many pieces to come together and they changed our world in a nanosecond, or one billionth of a second. It wasn't that long ago that no one even knew the word; today it's in spell check on our mobile devices. Change moves faster and faster creating challenges and opportunities. I know many are overwhelmed with it all. And yes, it's responsible to balance change with safe practices but you can become a buggy whip or VHS recorder if you're not moving fast enough. There's a sweet spot to change-when it's cost effective, accepted enough-you know that it's part of the future.

You can't stop rolling with it and in 2011 we will continue to focus on the changes around us, providing you with as much in-depth content as we can, allowing you to decide how or when to roll based on your business agenda.