We continue our conversation with security industry leaders Tyler Couch, Paul Romanelli and Josh Dice on some of the hottest topics in the sector through the annual Resideo CONNECT roundtable.
After our panel of experts shared their thoughts on economic anxiety and the role of software in security system deployments in the first half of this conversation, this time they’ll look at the top trends in the security industry, the state of the security industry today and hot takes for 2026 and beyond.
Security Sales & Integration: Some people have said that the channel is fraying a bit because it was built as a system to move products as opposed to a system to assure outcomes. I’m hearing a lot of dealers saying, “I’m not just an integrator. I want to be an outcome guarantor. I want to be your partner.” Are you a provider of products or are you a guarantor of outcomes?
Josh Dice, president of Security Alarm in Salem, Ill.: It’s all about the outcome, not the products. We have our sales meeting on Wednesday mornings. I don’t usually run our sales meetings but this morning our sales manager was sick.
One question that we discussed this morning was, “What are we selling today?” One guy said that he was going to try to sell a fire system. Another guy said that he was going to try to sell a burglar system. And the next guy said that he was going to try to sell some cameras.
I asked the guy who was trying to sell a burglar alarm system why the customer wanted one. And he told me that the customer was worried. I asked the next guy why he was trying to sell a fire alarm system and he said that the customer was worried.
This question really makes us stop and wrestle with what we are really selling and it’s not products. So, what are we really selling? Are we selling products or are we selling peace of mind? Are we selling a solution to the guy’s worry?
The product is just the means to the end. But I think, so often, we get wrapped up in talking about motion detectors or glass break detectors or cameras or smoke detectors. We stay so focused on the products. But at the end of the day, what really matters is what that product is going to do for them. How’s it going to solve their current problem?
I know my biggest problem is when I go in to meet with somebody, I really don’t listen to what their needs really are. I have an agenda of what I want to go in and sell them. But the more we can listen to them and really identify why they called us there, then we can provide a solution using the products we have.
It’s not the product; the product is just part of the solution. That kind of selling will produce the outcomes we want.
Tyler Couch, senior director of design and engineering at Mereo Fiber: I think that the channel has a lot of value, and the product itself has value to us as a company — maybe more so than the customer we’re selling it to. And my thought behind that is there are a lot of shiny things out there.
You go to these conferences, see all these people with shiny gadgets and this new system and whatever. But as a company, you have to have confidence in the solution you’re selling.
And although the good companies have figured out how to make money on service, you don’t want to be having to roll out to a client on a regular basis servicing a system because it’s failing.
So, we want to provide a very reliable solution with the products that are going to provide support to us as a dealer. And then on the flip side, we want to sell a product that the manufacturer is not selling directly to our client around [us].
We don’t want to have to compete with the manufacturer for our clients. And so, that’s kind of the channel model — selling through dealers and not having a lot of internal sales targeting people individually and then just building a good product.
It goes back to the hardware versus software conversation. The hardware is very important, and anyone could go out there and just buy something off the shelf and install it. But is it going to be supported for the long run?
Paul Romanelli, president of Suffolk Security Systems: I always looked at it a little differently. I always started with just a conversation with a client, getting an idea of what their concern was and what their issues were and then backing into the product.
Certainly, we all have a certain agenda of a product that we want to, or think is going to, fit. But you can’t always put a square peg in a round hole. And you have to have something different to work through.
For many, many years, that was a challenge. You didn’t have the diversity of product. You didn’t have all the different apps and connectivity options that we have today. But most of what we do on almost every job today is start as a consultant.
We just listen, try to capture the issues, see where they are, and then look for opportunities in those. Just this morning, we had a client — a couple that came into our office today — who’ve been with us for about 15 years. And they’re doing a renovation in their house. And their contractor was going to bring in his electrician and start doing a bunch of low-voltage work.
And they said, “No, I think we should talk to Suffolk Security first and just have a conversation.” He came in with his thoughts and mine, and we spoke through it all, and we have a plan on how we’re going to move forward.
And that does a couple of things. One, it builds trust with the client — a longer-term relationship. We can sell them more at the prices that we want for the most part, right? But also, in all of that, you’ve got to have good partners behind you.
Every one of us — I mean, we’re working with Resideo, but we’re working with other manufacturers, as well — and you’ve got to have good, solid reliability behind you on all those things. So, yeah, it’s always trying to identify the problems and then find the solutions based on the arsenal of products that you have in your pocket.
SSI: What would you say are the hottest technology trends that you have your eye on when it comes to your business?
Romanelli: I’ll tell you, our two biggest focuses going into the next year are more hosted access and also hosted video surveillance. I mean, what’s happening with the analytics and the technology in that realm is so beneficial to our clients, and hosting that is just a big part of what we’re looking to do in the next year.
Dice: For us, our biggest focus is video alarm monitoring — using cameras for intrusion systems instead of using a traditional motion detector. We’re seeing this especially in the outdoor arena, being able to use a camera to detect a person or vehicle and then have video verification that can go straight to the police to catch the bad guy.
That’s one of the big things we focused on this year, and we will continue to focus on it for the next several years because I think in 10 years, I don’t know that we’ll even have motion sensors anymore. I think it’ll all be done through the analytics of cameras. And so, that’s what our big focus is for this year, next year, and the years to come.
Couch: Yeah, Josh, it’s interesting. I just heard about a big commercial property that replaced all their beam sensors with cameras because the beams were giving false alarms, and the cameras were giving valid analytic responses. Then you could tie in live video monitoring. So, there’s so much that goes along with that. That’s a good insight.
From the multi-family perspective, again, a lot of ours is going to be the smart home, and two of the biggest things that are being looked at are the thermostat and the door lock.
And just because it adds energy efficiency for a vacant unit, it adds capabilities for maintenance people to access those units without having to do key control, and then it gives tenants this feeling of control through their mobile device of their unit.
SSI: What would you characterize 2025 as having been for our industry?
Dice: I would characterize 2025 as a year of stabilization overall. We aren’t drinking from a fire hydrant like we have been for the last five years. We aren’t hitting grand slams, but we are stable.
Areas of growth have definitely been in hosted access control and AI (artificial intelligence) video. Those two things have been a large chunk of our growth here at Security Alarm in 2025.
Romanelli: For us, the areas of growth have been really bringing in new products. We did a tremendous amount with the new Vista H3 this year, bringing that online. We just stopped selling the older Vista 20 panels altogether and went all in. And there was a little trepidation at first, but it has been exciting, and we have had a tremendous customer satisfaction experience with that.
The systems respond faster, and there’s lots of new stuff that’s going to integrate with this platform going forward.
Honestly, it’s kind of funny. I’ve been doing this now for 26 years, and I started and felt like I knew nothing about this industry. And then I joined organizations like First Alert and others earlier on to learn from others in the network.
And I still go to these events, and I still learn, and it’s fascinating for me. I’m 62 years old, rolling up on 63, and I’ve been doing this for 26 years of my life. And every time I go to an event, there’s a new guy there or another guy who I’ve known for years and there’s some tip or fascination or something that I’ve learned.
I end up saying, “That, we’ve got to do when we go back home and bring it back to our customers.”
So, for me, the year’s been like that. We’ve brought a lot of new stuff in. It’s been fun. And I get charged up when we have a product that we can really stand behind and make work for us.
Couch: Yeah, I think it may be a year of innovation. We’ve had to innovate on our sales process, innovate on best practices [and] innovate on new deployment techniques. Through the new technology coming out, the economics we discussed, and the ways to overcome different challenges, we’ve had to innovate in all aspects of the business.
SSI: Finally, I’m asking for your boldest prediction or your hottest hot take when it comes to the industry in 2026.
Dice: It goes back to what we are really looking at this year and next year — video alarm monitoring and much of it. What I am talking about is using cameras for intrusion detection. I think you’re going to see much more of that. I also think we’re going to start seeing the industry figure out how to use the AI that they’re putting in all this stuff.
Couch: I don’t want to parrot Josh, but I would say at least in 2026 — if not the next two to three years — security will look different than it does today. There will be less traditional systems and more integrated solutions with analytics and cloud-based solutions.
Romanelli: I agree. I think it’s going to be harder in the next couple of years to define who the integrator is. Is it the AV guys who are pulling into the security network and corporate network, or is it the security guys who are bringing a certain expertise into that side of the business?
The smart home, the smart business today is really coming to fruition in a really great, connected way. And I think you’re just going to see more of that trend happen along the way. We saw a lot of exciting things at Resideo CONNECT and I think we’re going to see more of it.
