LAS VEGAS - My father took me to my first security convention when I was a young boy. My most vivid memory of that first convention was of the Yale Lock booth. Yale had a miniature putting course installed which almost filled the entire booth.
During another security convention Abloy Security Locks built a special game for the show. The game was shaped like a wheelbarrow except the wheelbarrow had a bumper pool table instead of a bucket.
Attendees would hold the handles and tilt the table to make a pool ball fall into numbered holes on the table.
The original pin tumbler lock system was invented by early Egyptians centuries ago. The Yale and Abloy games were ways of attracting conventioneers since the hardware on display had changed very little in the 150 years since Linus Yale invented the mechanical lock as we know it today.
While standing with thousands of others waiting to enter the 2016 ISC exhibits, I realized that the security business was no longer depending on the Linus Yale invention. Many of the exhibitors on the ISC show floor were probably not even in business thirty years ago. Conversions from mechanical to electronic security products has opened the way to a much wider array of products and allows options in the control of access never before thought possible.
As a comparison between 30 years ago and the present, I interviewed Jason Williams, general manager of Yale Residential Locks & Hardware. Yale, an Assa Abloy group brand, has just introduced nexTouch. Mr. Williams explained that nexTouch products can be paired with Z-Wave or Zigbee intrusion and automation systems. Both nexTouch and Yale Real Living lock systems provide new levels of access management without running wires. Audit history, user code management and remote locking are ways that Yale offers new levels of control.
NexTouch and Real Living offer a new level of control in light commercial applications when paired with an access management system. Yale nexTouch lever locks are available as cylindrical locks for standard doors or as narrow style locks for aluminum doors.
Another new Yale product is their WiFi-enabled Lock Door Viewer. Exterior door hardware contains a camera, motion sensor and doorbell button. The Yale Look Door Viewer App allows you to carry on remote conversations and even transfer signals to a visitor’s cell phone so they can enter the premises.
A second visit was to Abloy, also an Assa Abloy Group brand. Abloy specializes in a high security lock system which is weather resistant. As the unique Abloy Protec2 key is turned in the lock, locking disks are turned into the unlocked position without the need for tumbler springs. A dedicated key duplicating machine and restricted key blanks provide key control.
Abloy Protec2 lock and keys can now be fitted with an electronic system called CLIQ. Locks and keys using the CLIQ system provide the double security of both mechanical locking wireless electronic control. A browser-based Abloy CLIQ web manager allows changes to access control rights whenever and wherever required. If a key is lost, removing it from the system and creating a new one is a simple process. CLIQ also allows time-base access rights and an audit trail provides records of usage.
Security today is a serious business and both Yale and Abloy are proof that it no longer requires games to attract a crowd. Great products are the answer.
