Wal-Mart is not alone. There are other companies like Target and K-Mart that perhaps love those signs that announce the presence of video, but are they just a guise? Are dummy cameras still around and being used in these instances and many more around the country?

No cameras at Lane Bryant
Surely they have the money to install some modicum of security. Same with the Lane Bryant murders of several store associates and shoppers in February in Tinley Park, Ill. In this instance, they didn’t have security cameras at all. The police used surveillance tapes from surrounding stores in a two-mile radius, but without results. There are still no details in those murders in which five women were shot execution style.

A sixth woman, shot in the neck, escaped death by playing dead, according to news reports. She is currently in protective custody. She was the one who provided some details about the gunman so police artists could create a sketch and there were others who tried to provide identification.  But that provided a rendition only and not the truth, which is what a security camera brings to these incidents.

Come on retailers. Get with it! Technology doesn’t come cheap, but if your customers are dead, they obviously can’t shop anymore. By the way, if you can help the Tinley Park Police Department in Illinois solve the Lane Bryant crimes contact them. You might make someone’s Mother’s Day a bit more bearable.

–Deborah L. O’Mara, editor, Security Dealer & Integrator magazine

There’s another interesting phenomenon emerging, also from the consumer and computer side of the business: AlarmNet offers three months free of the Total Connect digital communications services, and they are not the only one to take off with this new marketing tactic. Agent Vi’s Chief Executive Officer Buddy Flerl talked excitedly at the show about the company offering unlimited video analytics on up to three cameras for an enterprise system free for 90 days. Of course, they are playing off that fact that after that trial period you’ll be hooked and you won’t be able to live without it.  And, Agent Vi’s solution is not demonstration software on steriods, but the full-fledged program which is yours to tinker with during that three-month period.

The alarm industry gets it. There’s much more value to signaling and communications. The consumer venue is leading the charge and security manufacturers and distributors are learning from that side of the business. Another example, and if you didn’t see it at ISC you missed a great show: the new platform for IP video control from OnSSI called Ocularis that lets users deploy their own personal touch pad stylus (like a finger) to control and manage IP video. Fantastic! Or Brivo, with its Web-hosted access control architecture (the OnSite SE product won two NPS awards at ISC West ) that does so much more than provide access control–it provides “econtrol”—management, accountability–truly value-added services.  It’s all so exciting and great to be witness to an industry whose time truly has come.       

That reminded me of my ‘ladies rifle’ the one I love so much for the fine art of game hunting. It’s light and easy to use and quiet. But it’s lethal and the backfire packs a bunch. (I have a Firearm Owners Identification card (FOID) and have taken hunter’s safety training classes.)

For those who don’t believe it can happen to you, anytime, anywhere, you’d better believe. When a gunman opened fire at my Alma mater Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., yesterday afternoon, my thoughts turned to all the fun times there, in that lecture hall and others around campus, learning, gaining camaraderie, finding friends and ourselves. Never, back then, did we believe it could happen, but today it’s a totally different state of affairs.

NIU officials did what they could. The mass notification systems (implemented shortly after last year’s Virginia Tech shooting) went out minutes after the event—warning students of the shooting via e-mail, cell phones, PDAs and pagers and sending visual alerts throughout the campus. First, a lock down; then more messages; then a note for all students to call their parents.

Seven dead. Senseless. I’m glad the gunman killed himself. That’s always such a relief, and I hate to admit it. I guess I can say that because it’s a blog and that’s how I feel.

When are we going to wake up and believe that it could happen? When will the alarm industry take a stand against illegal guns that ravage our streets and our families? Maybe we have to do more than fight false alarms—maybe we have to turn our attention to the big picture.  

When I dropped my son off at middle school this morning I told him what to do—expect that it could happen, even among the youngest teens and pre-teens–and get ready to run, hide and protect yourself. He told me sarcastically—‘Come on now, why would you think that would happen?’ I guess he already believes that it could.

Editor’s note: My thoughts and prayers go out the students and administration at Northern Illinois University and all the families affected by this tragedy. NIU is one of the greatest, best kept secrets among state schools. – Deborah L. O’Mara, editor, Security Dealer & Integrator magazine

Does security have a part in this green movement?  You bet!

If you’re not familiar, the LEED program is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Washington, D.C., see www.usgbc.org. The LEED Green Building Rating System™ promotes the use and adoption of sustainable green building and development and it’s based on overall building performance. It’s definitely the future.  Overall, LEED buildings lower operating costs and increase value. They also have less impact on the environment and use fewer natural resources, cradle to grave.
Green building is shaping the future of smart and intelligent building and is the place to be, especially for an integrated systems expert.

For example, sensors can control doors and HVAC and cameras and lighting and more and soon will all be tied into earning credits for LEED. LEED is flexible and structured as such that products and services meet various categories of sustainability.

Maybe the security industry should be pursuing green building more and working with USGBC on further recognition of its products.  Talk it up to USGBC. For example, wireless doesn’t require trenching so there is less digging and disturbing existing infrastructures. Proximity can be used not only to gain access, but shut down occupancy sensors after a preset time in which it is recognized that the person or occupant is no longer in the building.  Automated controls can open shades and draperies when daylighting is present, putting less strain on electricity and lighting. Did you know that the lion’s share of facilities costs are from lighting, and further, that lighting may even increase the heat in the building, causing further use of air conditioning?

Look at the big picture. Security products and integrated and automated controls have so many fits. Try it on for size and get on board the green building movement. –Deborah L. O’Mara, editor, Security Dealer & Integrator

Again, as with everything in the security industry, it all goes back to selecting the right product for the application. Conventional panels are no slouches, they have been updated with new features and functions and are more robust then ever. They are easy to control and maintain and service and fit well with applications that are on a smaller scale — think Mom and Pop stores or single-office development companies and such. There are tons of applications for conventional panels, so why should we ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater?’  Conventional panels are cost effective and affordable and ‘just what the doctor’s office may have ordered,’ pun intended. 

Manufacturers will agree. While much of their development dollars have gone into addressable and multiplexed panels, they still continue to support conventional fire systems and see their need in the marketplace.

Any good security or fire system installation starts with a thorough walk-through of the property and evaluation of existing technologies. But don’t shortchange yourself by only looking at the latest products. The reason conventional fire alarm systems are still around is that they are reliable and the perfect life safety solution for some properties. Let me know your thoughts.—Deborah O’Mara, editor, SECURITY Dealer magazine

Remember the 80s when mass-marketed systems first hit the streets with free equipment and installation? Kind of ruined the good thing many dealers had going and certainly changed the course of the industry.  Or,  around the same time frame or later when outside investors from industries– names the likes of the car rental czar (you know who I mean) snatched up some of the finest alarm companies from our ranks?

Then, and now, a security dealer and integrator knows how to reinvent themselves and their companies.

In the above examples there were truly inventive security dealers and integrators who knew exactly what to do. Faced with harsh competition from mass marketers, they set their sights on providing a professional turnkey solution that included sales, service, maintenance and training, offering top in its class installations. Many wisely decided not to compete with mass-marketed alarms and refused to cut their prices. They focused not on a bare-bones system but a custom one with convenience factors and other functions such as lighting and automation built in. Masters of their own domain, security dealers and integrators who want to succeed know that today the biggest competition they face is not knowing enough about remote technologies, computers and Internet protocols and networking. And they’re doing something about it.

The sec urity business isn’t for everyone.  It’s for dealers and integrators who want to continue to improve their companies, provide the best professional service and do all they can to make a name for themselves in the industry.

What do you think? How have you responded to the downturn in residential construction? Have you found some profitable vertical markets and how have you made them work for you? I’d love to hear from you. E-mail me at domara@cygnussecurity.com. Deborah O’Mara, editor, Security Dealer magazine