Against my wishes on a September weekend I found myself, wife and daughter at a little soiree called “RiotFest 2014.” Seven stages, four inches of mud, and 120 dB of 30-plus punk rock bands for three days in Humboldt Park in Chicago. The crowd was huge, more than 20,000 people on Sunday. I had managed to get out of going on Friday and Saturday, but my attendance was mandatory for the Sunday Cheap Trick show. The attendees sported bizarre hairdos, lots and lots of tattoos, and apparently some people think that they can now self-medicate because Illinois recently passed a medical marijuana law.  

Magalign Inc., Santa Cruz, Calif., produced a new product invention, which was designed in response to requests from homeowners and alarm installers for a magnet that greatly improves sliding window and door venting. Capable of functioning with virtually any reed switch, Magalign is a simple, effective, low-profile installation — being only 5/16-inch tall. Magalign can be flushed mounted to 1/8 inch.

In determining the best solution for a customer, “the big things are topology and what kind of communications they have on site,” comments Al Lewis, vice president of Okeechobee, Fla.-based dealer, Gator Security.

Qolsys updated its IQ Panel, which includes support for Dual-Path Connectivity, an improved and sleeker user interface, expanded home automation support and a robust dealer diagnostic toolkit enhancing remote service to the IQ Panel.

From the dealer’s point of view this should yield increased sales, a higher average sale and increased recurring monthly revenue, as most dealers charge an extra monthly fee for interactive control.

The Ninth Annual CSAA International Central Station Excellence Awards, co-sponsored by SDM and the Central Station Alarm Association, were presented at an awards breakfast during ESX held in Nashville, Tenn., in late June

 Honeywell added Summit Security Systems to its First Alert Professional dealer program. Summit Security customizes security systems that include local and hosted intrusion, access control and video verification technologies for homes and small businesses in Raleigh, N.C.  

In terms of lead generation, Facebook is a bit limited because company pages are stationary: only individuals can visit, like, and/or friend a company page. Additionally, few individuals care to use their personal Facebook accounts for work, so there isn’t the kind of mining you find on Twitter.

Monitronics was awarded the 2013 Annual Police Dispatch Quality (PDQ) Award from the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) and the False Alarm Reduction Association (FARA) at the Electronic Security Expo’s 2014 Icebreaker Luncheon held on June 24, 2014 at The Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee.