Every day it seems as if there is one less thing mobile devices can’t do. Personal applications now range from restaurant guides to movie players to virtual fortune cookies. But professional applications that enhance productivity and efficiency are quickly catching up as mobile devices continue to prove their worth to businesses across the board. When it comes to security installers or service technicians in the field, some companies have jumped on cutting-edge mobile technology while others are still keeping the gloves on as issues such as data security and cost make that edge just too sharp.

PSA Security Network, an electronic security cooperative representing security system integrators, held its annual training and conference event May 16-20 at the Westin Westminster in Westminster, Colo. 

his year’s SentryNet dealer conference and cruise was held on board the Carnival Elation, an 855-foot long cruise ship sailing from its home port in Mobile, Ala. to sunny Cozumel in Mexico April 28 to May 2. As the exclusive media sponsor for the conference, SDM was present to report on the event and continuing education classes, talk to dealers, pick up on upcoming trends in the monitoring space and learn company news.

The internet is once again calling Schneider’s bluff as new reports surfaced today that the French global company is exploring options to buy out Tyco International. 

ONVIF, a standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, is making expansion plans for the future, and those include the addition of physical access control to its specification and building on momentum that has gotten the three-year-old organization to more than 700 conformant products.

Friday morning, dealers attending the SentryNet conference and cruise decided to forgo the beckoning call of the lido deck and its waterslide to attend a few classes and earn CEUs.

Though the economy is slowly picking up and more dealers are reporting a favorable outlook for 2011 — 82 percent of SDM 100 companies expect improvements over the next year — 2010 still saw companies struggling to keep their bottom lines from dropping.

Since Norbert Basler founded the company in 1988, Basler Vision Technologies set the bar high on innovation in various markets and continually rose to that challenge.