Throughout the event a comedic mind-reader, Eric Dittelman, provided an element of lighthearted fun. Dittelman appeared on season 7 of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” in 2012 where he advanced to the semi-finals.

In this year’s market, growth is coming from newer technologies including emergency communications systems (ECS) and mass notification systems (MNS), carbon monoxide (CO) products and legislation, Internet protocol (IP) and wireless options.

More homeowners today are asking to extend security outside their homes. With advice from experts, SDM explores the challenges and the opportunities.

Someone once suggested that to get an invitation to a party you really wanted to attend you should offer to contribute something to the party. If the video market’s predicted strong year in 2014 is the kind of “party” access control is hoping to attend, then the market has tapped into that principle, contributing a strong argument for security systems that integrate both video and access control.

When United Technologies Corp. (UTC), Hartford, Conn., (parent company of Casi-Rusco) announced that it would “end-of-life” its Secure Perfect and Picture Perfect solutions, it sent integrators — and other manufacturers such as AMAG Technology (AMAG), Torrance, Calif. — searching for a solution to provide to end users.

When Google purchased Nest Labs Inc. for $3.2 billion late last year, some security dealers groaned while others, such as John Loud, president, LOUD Security, Atlanta, positively accepted the news.

In 1929, Hungarian author Frigyes Karinthy proposed the theory that the modern world was “shrinking” due to ever-increasing connectedness of human beings. He believed that any two individuals could be connected through at most five acquaintances, which is the original version of six degrees of separation.

Researching the 2014 video surveillance market revealed one clear fact: video is spreading exponentially.