By Ashley Willis
LAS VEGAS — The Safe & Sound interactive exhibit truck by Bosch Security Systems allows dealers, integrators and end users to participate in hands-on product demonstrations. Launched last week at ISC West, the truck is 53 feet long and has 1,000-square-feet of exhibition space.
"It would be pretty difficult to set up something of this scale at a tabletop event," Bosch President of Sales for the Americas Jeremy Hockham told ISC West attendees. "We can do that with this truck. It gives our customers a much better environment to interact with our products."
The company maintains that the Safe & Sound truck features more than eight tons of security products. Inside the truck, users can visit several stations to learn about different Bosch products and technologies for video surveillance, access control, intrusion, fire detection and more.
"With the different stations, we want to show that Bosch offers fantastic imaging in any type of environment," said Bosch Product Manager Willem Ryan, who took users around to view the company's latest video products. "We want users to see the difference in terms of clarity within the image."
First, Ryan performed a demo at the Backlight Compensation station, which greets visitors as they enter the truck. Next up, the Low Light Compensation station featured a mock-up of a dark room that displayed different light cycles and the Bosch camera's capability to show clear images in full and low light capacities. Users also have the opportunity to see how the company's infrared (IR) technology works at the station.
Ryan then took users to other stations, including thermal imaging, retail video solutions and high definition (HD) surveillance. Nearly all cameras on the truck are IP-based and feature HD resolution.
"With the HD station, we want to give people an example of why they would want to move to this technology," Ryan said. "We provide two examples of HD. The first one shows how users can get an increased amount of detail within a scene. Then, we can click on a button to switch to our other HD camera, which is outside. That will show the other wider field of view [16:9 aspect ratio], and it gives users situational awareness."
Most Bosch cameras also feature video analytics technology, said Product Marketing Manager George Maroussis. "One of the valued propositions is to not only have HD technology, but actually have more situational awareness with video analytics."
Located in the center of Boschs Safe & Sound exhibit truck, the Video Command and Control station ties all the trailers cameras together.
Maroussis walked visitors through the Video Command and Control station, which ties all of the exhibit trailer's cameras together. Located in the center of the truck, the command station is equipped with Bosch's video management software. An interactive map allows operators to bring up any camera detected on the map if an incident occurs. Users also have the opportunity to view different types of alarms, giving operators the chance to respond accordingly, Maroussis said.
"The whole idea here is to increase user response and to help them interact with the application," he explained. "We need to have an application that utilizes all the pixels, aspect ratios and the ability to increase the situational awareness to make it easier for operators to use."
Ryan added that all the stations feature an interactive touchscreen kiosk, which allows users to print out required information.
Attendees also discussed intrusion detection systems with Tom Mechler, product marketing manager for Bosch's Intrusion Business Unit. One of the highlights included a motion detector demo, where the company tested the reliability of its detectors compared to its competitors.
"We spend a lot of time not only perfecting alarm immunity in our detectors, but also insuring that catch performance is the best it can be," said Mechler.
Mechler also introduced Bosch's Blue Line Gen2 Quad PIR Detector, a motion detector capable of a 40-foot coverage area designed for residential and light commercial applications. The product comes equipped with a built-in pet immunity function.
"A lot of customers out there use pet immune products because of their false alarm properties in commercial applications, which suffer on the performance side," said Mechler. "Users can carry one unit that provides pet immunity and disable that function to provide the kind of catch performance needed in a commercial business."
He provided tips for deploying the new motion detector, adding that the product's installation strips saves roughly 20 to 25 percent of installation time.
The truck will soon begin a 50-stop tour throughout the nation beginning on the West Coast, said Hockham.
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.