Axis Communications officially opened the doors of its California Experience Center on Tuesday in a special ceremony that coincided with the ASIS show. The facility is the fourth such experience center the company has opened – with the first three being in the company’s home city of Lund, Sweden; its U.S. headquarters city of Boston; and Munich, Germany. The west coast center is based in Irvine, Calif.
“As part of our expansion plan, we wanted to build out the Axis Experience Centers to enable our customers to get closer to the technology, and to provide education,” explained Axis General Manager of the Americas Fredrik Nilsson.
The training center can accommodate up to 28 people at a time for hands-on or lab-style training, according to the Irvine facility director Bill Wendlandt. But the facility is not an Axis-only facility, Nilsson added. Axis’ VMS and other technology partners can use the facility, as well as industry association training such as that offered by ASIS and BICSI. “We want to give back to the industry,” Nilsson said. “We want this to be a source of knowledge – not just for Axis.
The media and select partners were treated to a tour of the facility on Tuesday. In addition to the main room dedicated for training, the company has separated the facility into different vertical market-focused sections.
The facility creates real-time scenarios for the different verticals, where users and trainees can test out cameras in the different settings. The vertical markets included airline terminals, cash cage (with protected access control opening), retail center, school cafeteria, casino and more.
In addition to the market-focused areas, the facility features a real command and control center where products can be tested, as well as a product lab where users and dealer/integrators can perform bench testing and usability tests.
Additionally, the facility offers Axis partners – especially in the VMS arena – to field test their software with Axis cameras.
In the end, the facility is geared toward full-fledged Axis training, both for physical security experts and the IT security professionals who need to learn more about video surveillance, Nilsson said.
Axis plans to open more experience centers in the coming months, including facilities in Canada and Mexico. To learn more about the Axis Experience Centers, visit http://www.axis.com/us/en/contact-us/axis-experience-center.
Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Dealer & Integrator (SD&I) magazine (www.secdealer.com).
