For most of this year, I have used this column as a platform to look back at some of the changes our industry has undegone in the 40 years since this magazine launched as a monthly publication back in 1978. This month, let’s take a quick look back at residential security before we hit the fast-forward button and see what the market might look like when SD&I is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Flipping through the July 2008 issue of SD&I, I came across a short roundtable discussion on residential security trends. Interestingly, one of the big focuses for dealers in the space – much like today – was serving the baby boomer market. The difference was that in 2008, boomers were seen as the primary buyer of home security; whereas today, they are the driving force behind the expanding realm of so-called “aging-in-place” solutions.
The late John Murphy, an industry icon who ran Vector Security throughout the 1990s and 2000s, said that “the systems baby boomers prefer would include a variety of security and safety services, including two-way voice communication, security, fire detection, environmental hazard monitoring and personal emergency response.”
Today, those same security dealers who were courting boomers in 2008 are now targeting their children: milennials. And while their core security needs do not often differ from what their parents needed in the past (who doesn’t need fire and intrusion detection, after all) – in 2018, their insatiable need for technology has brought residential security into a new era.
For many millennial security and smart home users, that new era means moving away from the tried-and-true security panel on the wall – truly a disconcerting notion for the traditional residential security provider.
“We are trying to break people free from this 20-year-old notion that you have to have a panel on the wall,” Alula CEO Brian McLaughlin told me at ISC West. “I know in some cases that is blasphemy, because there are all these really cool panels that are out there, but...it is a different mindset (today).”
Of course, no fast-forward look at the secure smart home of tomorrow is complete (I can’t seem to get the theme song from Disney World’s Carousel of Progress out of my head right now) without a little Jetsons-like technology. Perhaps at the heart of the no-panel mindset is the proliferation of voice control – here is where it gets really interesting for the traditional residential security dealer, because this is where the big boys come into the equation: Google, Amazon, Apple, et. al.
At ESX this month, SD&I and SecurityInfoWatch.com will once again sponsor the opening event of the show, the OpenXchange breakfast (Wednesday, June 20 at 8:30 a.m. on the main stage), where many of these technologies and trends – and their potential effect on the competitive landscape down the line – will be discussed in an interactive panel.
One of the panelists is no stranger to disruptive home technologies. Michele Turner, Google’s Senior Director of its “Smart Home Ecosystem,” came to Google as part of the Nest acquisition, where she was, at different times, General Manager for the Nest Security Home Business and head of the company’s software product management.
If you, like many of your fellow residential security dealers, have concerns about where all this new technology will fit into your product offering (and perhaps what is Google’s exact and ongoing plan for world domination), there is no better place to fire off some pointed questions.
I look forward to seeing all of you bright and early in Nashville!
Paul Rothman is Editor in Chief of Security Dealer & Integrator (SD&I) magazine. Access the current issue, full archives and subscribe for free at www.secdealer.com.
