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Ener-Tel Services, based in San Angelo, Texas, started in 1984 as an automation controls company for heating and cooling units, explains General Sales Manager Ron Pullen. “The owner also did a lot of work for Verizon, so the ‘Ener’ is for energy management and the ‘tel’ is for telco. We started off as an energy management company and grew into all the other categories like fire, CCTV, access control, home and business security, and fire alarm and sprinkler. We do residential, light commercial and have a commercial group that does the integration side, talking to architects and engineers.”

To tweak a line from a famous Frank Sinatra song: 2017, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for connected homes, that is. Massive amounts of advertising from big players inside and outside the security space, a rapidly advancing technology landscape, and an avid interest from homeowners at all economic levels led to a connected home space that is growing by leaps and bounds.

Honeywell announced Resideo will be the corporate name of the Honeywell Homes product portfolio and ADI global distribution businesses when they become a stand-alone, publicly traded company following completion of a spin that is expected by the end of 2018. Honeywell will license its brand to Resideo under a long-term agreement for use in its home comfort and security hardware, and software solutions for all channels.

Security dealers increasingly are offering smart home devices such as smart lighting control, smart thermostats and smart door locks to their customers. By taking the right precautions, dealers can help ensure that those devices enhance the customer’s lifestyle without posing cyber security vulnerabilities.

The keypad has been a fixture of the access control world for a long time. The first pushbutton combination lock is credited to Alfred A. Peters in 1875. And since then, they have been a popular — and often a more affordable — option for securing doors when a customer doesn’t want to keep track of keys or cards.

In today’s security market it can be extremely difficult as a security dealer or integrator to truly differentiate yourself from your competitors, build and establish your unique brand, and remain sticky to your customer base. There is simply so much competition within the industry that everyone is basically saying “me too” and offering it for a few dollars less.

Without question, the availability of high definition over coax (HDoC) technologies has had a significant impact on security integrators’ ongoing efforts to upgrade end users from traditional analog solutions.

Just as there are a number of things that qualify as “video monitoring” — from verified video to guard tours and more — there are equally varied ways that dealers have found success in providing video monitoring services to their customers.

Technology migration can be tricky to predict, but it seems safe to say most video analytics will be deployed in the cloud within the next couple years or so. Already, a good number of companies are seeing the benefits of analytics, whether in the cloud or at the edge.