ASG's Security Solutions Blog

By Boon Edam

One of the most common misconceptions about security entrances is that to defeat tailgating, you have to constantly train people to swipe their badge, not hold open a door for someone, and keep an entrance supervised at all times.  While this may be true for general traffic entrances and lobbies, a practical and cost-effective solution exists for employee-only entrances. One company that implemented this solution was UNUM Corp.

Future Proofing Video Surveillance at Orange County Convention's 2.5 Million Square Foot Facility

The Orange County Convention Center (OCCC), located in Orlando, Florida, is the nation's second largest convention facility and a world-class destination. The complex is comprised of two separate buildings connected by a 1,500 foot, open-air bridge with moving sidewalks across International Drive.

OCCC sought to increase the effectiveness of their surveillance operations by replacing its analog cameras and video encoders with superior performance IP cameras. During an extensive camera evaluation process, Manny Rustia, MIS Analyst for the OCCC, and his colleagues narrowed the choice down to cameras with resolution above 3 megapixels with H.264 compression and day/night capabilities as a way of “future-proofing” the system. “Arecont Vision was the hands-down standout based on megapixel quality and price,” said Rustia.

By Geoff Kohl, editor-in-chief/associate publisher, SecurityInfoWatch.com

I’ve been talking with a number of integrators this week about what it means to grow their business, and what I continue to hear is that what makes your business grow isn’t some profound marketing campaign that floods your sales center and which compels you to send all of your trucks rolling out for new installations.

Instead, what matters for growth is doing the fundamentals well. Doing the fundamentals well means that you retain your existing customers because you deliver on what they expect. That’s central to any type of growth, because we all know that you’ll never grow if you’re faced with high attrition and troubled with the “gain one, then lose one” business challenge. You need to be doing this: “gain one, keep one, gain another”. That’s what growth is about!
Throughout my conversations, I compiled some of those security business fundamentals that will lead to growth. Here are the ones that came out on top:

From Setracon's President, Jeffrey Slotnick

In the first half of my letter I posed some questions, some risks, and some possible approaches. In this I will try to delineate further the approaches that might be taken to secure your university.

Having a well-trained Crisis management team, well written policies and procedures, exceptional communication ability, and a collaborative environment can assist an institution in eliminating or mitigating most events. Crisis management has four objectives:

•    Reducing tension during the incident
•    Demonstrating corporate commitment and expertise
•    Controlling the flow and accuracy of information
•    Managing resources effectively

From Setracon's President, Jeffrey Slotnick

Every day you are responsible for the welfare of the institution and its stakeholders. It must make you uncomfortable when you read reports of incidents like Penn State University and realize that there are many different risks that may ultimately end up at your door step that may dilute the value you have worked so hard to create.

By Kevin Klemmer, Pivot3

ASG Editorial Comment: The following ‘case study’ reflects the approach of one of our premier National Account Implementation Team partners: Pro-Tec Design. This is an excellent account of their approach as well as the potential payoffs of virtualized storage solutions.

The city of Maple Grove, Minnesota, serves as the retail, cultural and medical center of the growing northwest region of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and is one of the State of Minnesota’s fastest growing and dynamic cities.  Its close proximity to the Twin City metropolitan center has led to high-quality residential, commercial and industrial growth including one of the area’s largest retail shopping centers.  

Maple Grove began re-evaluating its existing surveillance program after it secured a grant to upgrade its existing DVR-based system. The city had concrete goals: it wanted to connect surveillance networks from multiple buildings, including the transit station, various city departments, and the park and ride facility. Maple Grove’s IT administration knew that transitioning to an IP-based video system would provide the functionality and cost benefit the city required to make the project a success.

Systems integrator Pro-Tec Design worked alongside the city’s IT department to determine which Video Management System (VMS) would best fit current needs and would scale as the installation expanded. The team chose Milestone’s XProtect video management software to manage IP cameras from Axis Communications and Sony, while Pivot3 was selected for the high-availability infrastructure that would simultaneously meet the city’s needs to store large amounts of high-resolution video, increase retention times, and meet tight budget constraints.  

The storage appliances by Pivot3 combine server and storage functions into a single platform and the idea of hosting servers in an iSCSI SAN eliminates the need for standalone physical servers, reducing cooling, rack space, and power costs by up to 40 percent. The cost reduction from combining server and storage functionality was a powerful selling point for the city, which envisions expanding its surveillance system to upwards of 200 cameras. The money it saves by not having to purchase additional standalone servers convinced the IT staff to move forward with the Pivot3 implementation, and repurpose existing servers from Dell and HP for other IT-focused functions.

Today, the city monitors activity at multiple locations with 170 cameras. There are plans to add more devices at the community center and police station as well as increase coverage to the newly developed public works facility and government center.  The entire surveillance solution delivered substantial upfront and ongoing cost savings, which enabled the city to expand its surveillance system quicker than if it had chosen a conventional configuration. The ROI is significant; support costs are reduced significantly and valuable video footage is protected.

In recent years, incidents such as the Virginia Tech Massacre have heightened public awareness of the need for strong security plans and policies at college campuses to protect students and faculty from crime. The challenge that universities face is ensuring the safety of students and faculty within an open and free environment that allows public access in varying degrees. How this challenge is met is becoming a key consideration by parents and prospective students, alongside the quality of education and degrees available, especially for universities in densely populated or urban areas.

Every Year I feel blessed.

As I reflect on the past year, I am once again reminded of this 'fabric of trust' that is unique to our industry.

Every day, each of us in the security industry wake up to find ourselves with a very special and humble role: to protect lives, protect the core assets of our organization, and, through our strategic and tactical efforts, increase the ability of our organizations to achieve their strategic objectives.

Security's business is the business.

By Kevin Klemmer, Pivot3

The IP surveillance market grew immensely over the past decade with many new players emerging and traditional CCTV manufacturers expanding into networked technologies. With the avalanche of new companies and technologies cascading over the industry, there is no wonder there is confusion surrounding the proper configuration of networked-based security technologies, and what is necessary for a successful and reliable deployment.

The new approach to the door opening that is changing the industry.

By Martin Huddart, Vice President, Electronic Access Control for ASSA ABLOY

We live in a world of constant change. The security industry is no exception.  Every day decision-makers are faced with not only ensuring the safety and security of personnel and property, but are also required to achieve new compliance standards, without the necessary budget or additional resources to do so.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Rodney Bosch from Security Sales & Integration about the growing medium security market that’s changing the industry as we know it. In the article, Cracking the Electric Lock Marketplace, we discussed the benefits of electro-mechanical locks and how they’ve become a new player in medium security access control.

Looking at the big picture, access control allows us to enforce policy through technology and apply it on a sliding scale. This means that we don’t have to apply a one size fits all model, especially when many of the openings are non-traditional (non-door) openings.

This sliding scale can be explained by a security technology continuum that illustrates the full range of options, from patented key systems to full-featured, online integrated locksets with many options in between. This allows a facility to upgrade padlocks and gates to support audit and centralized control of access as well as extend the security envelope to include, not only perimeter doors, but interior doors as well, that were typically too expensive to include in traditional access control.  

I believe the middle of this continuum, or the medium security segment, is the fastest growing segment in the industry. A broad suite of products has become available; from $200 mechanical locks up to $3,000-$4,000 online access controlled openings.  

We have found that integrators and end users are seeking assistance with the specification and product selection to meet the right level of security. This assistance would include combining components, leveraging existing network infrastructure, and emphasizing convenience features to create the perfect fit for medium security.

An example would be a facility manager looking to update the openings in a few remote locations that lack an existing wired infrastructure. Old mechanical locks can be replaced by electronic locks and cylinders at a very affordable price, and fulfill new security mandates for industries facing new regulations. This doable upgrade results in a higher level of key control, forensic audit data and boosted accountability. Finding a team to work together to ensure that your needs are properly assessed, products are benchmarked against that need, and, finally, configured and installed properly is paramount.

It would be interesting to hear from you on your experience in dealing with medium security needs and approaches you have taken in response.