In an age in which tech-savvy consumers have come to expect smarter, better and more efficient technology and quick-to-market products, the security industry is sometimes at a disadvantage. The combination of the economic downturn and slower-than-expected adoption of new technologies recently has hampered R&D efforts as well as integrators’ and dealers’ ability to sell upgraded systems as end users cling to what they have and make do with last year’s (or in some cases, last decade’s) technology.

The convergence of logical and physical access control has taken longer than some stakeholders had expected. 

SafeRise® from FST21, winner of the Best New Product of the Year Award at the 2011 Security Industry Association New Product Showcase (NPS) at ISC West, is an almost human controlled access solution that utilizes patent-pending second generation biometrics, a fusion of state-of-the-art voice, face, and license plate recognition technologies with sophisticated video, voice and behavioral analytics providing easy, highly accurate and non-intrusive recognition, according to its developer. 

Two documents were released by the United States government in February with an impact on the access control market. 

 Once again in 2011, the security industry will come together at ISC West in Las Vegas to learn about must-see developments and acquire tools to better their businesses. ISC will offer educational sessions April 5, 6 and 7 presenting technology panels, executive forums, PSA-led education and several education tracks including end-user – physical security, central station, access control and hosted security.