ISC West Show Floor Abuzz With Jump in Attendance

LAS VEGAS — A palpable buzz permeated Sands Expo & Convention Center here from the moment ISC West 2013 hosted its ribbon-cutting ceremony to welcome throngs of security professionals and other industry stakeholders to the show floor.

Held April 10-12, organizers said this year’s conference attracted 180 new exhibitors bringing the total number of companies and brands to more than 1,000, while experiencing a 10% attendance increase over last year’s conference.

“We are pleased that our exhibitors and attendees were happy with the results from ISC West 2013,” said Ed Several, senior vice president of ISC Events. “With a 10.2% increase in attendance, expanded show floor and increased exhibitor renewals for next year, the industry seems poised for a great year.”

Attendees and exhibitors that SSI editors spoke with roundly commended the renewed energy on the show floor, following several years of dampened enthusiasm by companies to invest in sending personnel to the show.

“It was really fun to be part of the crowd because there was a lot of energy,” Keith Jentoft, president of RSI Video Technologies, says. “I think the economy is turning enough so the people were more optimistic this year than they have been in a lot of years.”

Nelson Barreto, director of enterprise security sales for Diebold, was also impressed with the increase in traffic, and observed that video analytics seemed to be atop of most end users’ minds at the show.

“I’ve seen a lot more customers out here and really engaging in the conversations and looking at the different types of technologies, such as analytics,” he said during the event. “It’s really big and they’re integrating with the different types of manufacturers so it’s really positive.”

Judges for the annual New Product Showcase (NPS), hosted by the Security Industry Association (SIA), gave Innovative Security Designs (ISD) the Best New Product Award for The Lynx. The camera is billed as a first-of-its-kind edge computing platform for video surveillance to run Microsoft Embedded Windows. 3M Cogent took the Judges’ Choice Award for its MiY-Touch indoor biometric touch screen. In all, awards were presented in 21 product and service categories, plus seven honorable mention awards. (Check out full NPS results and product descriptions as securitysales.com. Also, SSI’s June issue will feature an ISC West special Essentials products roundup.)

On opening day, prior to the official ribbon cutting, the State of the Industry panel took on the forward-thinking question, “What Will It Take to Be a 2020 Security Leader?” The session, moderated by Bob Hayes, managing director of the Security Executive Council, included panelists Tim Rigg of Duke Energy, Phil Aronson of Aronson Security Group, Jeffrey Woodward of Global Real Estate Group, and Francis D’Addario, former CSO of Starbucks. Panelists stressed the need for security organizations to become highly collaborative with end users in order to provide consultative services that offer business value across the organization. (Hear Aronson discuss how his company is strategizing for the future in a podcast at securitysales.com/podcasts.)

Also well-attended, the Open Network Video Interface Network (ONVIF) presented a panel to discuss industry interoperability standards and address misconceptions with specifications reported by installers and end users. Moderated by SSI Editor-in-Chief Scott Goldfine, panelists included Per Björkdahl, chairman of ONVIF’s Steering Committee, Steve Surfaro, security industry liaison at Axis Communications, Matt Powers, technical director of security solutions for Anixter, and Jeffrey Slotnick, president of security consulting firm Setracon.

Among the concerns about ONVIF standards is that the specifications do not cover every feature of every camera, leaving some end users and integrators to feel shortchanged. However, Björkdahl stated, if ONVIF was designed to incorporate all features of all cameras, it would hinder manufacturers to develop unique features for their products.

In other goings-on, SSI hosted its annual SAMMY Awards and the SSI Hall of Fame induction ceremony on the eve of ISC. Check out the June issue to learn sales and marketing best practices from this year’s SAMMY winners, and the July issue for in-depth profiles of this year’s installer and installation award winners. You can also check out thesammyawards.com. The 2013 Hall of Fame inductees are featured in the March issue and securitysales.com/halloffame.

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