Did you miss the recent ISC East tradeshow in New York City? If so, fear not—we’ve got you covered! Our team at Total Security Advisor walked the showroom floor, shook many sanitized hands, took notes, checked out the newest tech, and picked the brains of attendees about top industry trends.

The main takeaway? The security industry is expanding and becoming more integrated.

Held Nov. 17-18 at the Javitz Center, ISC East offered several insightful educational sessions and award ceremonies. This year’s event was also co-located with the inaugural Natural Disaster & Emergency Management Expo, a bonus for all attendees.

COVID Effect

Unsurprisingly, the lingering COVID-19 pandemic was top of mind for most ISC East attendees. And it wasn’t just because we were wearing face masks and seemingly indestructible vax bracelets (shout-out to the Javits Center security team for a job well done keeping everyone safe and compliant!).

According to some tech vendors at ISC East, the pandemic might have slowed the overall economy and certain parts of the security industry, but it also helped boost touchless solutions and video surveillance.

Dale Kougel, vice president of professional services and customer success at Alcatraz AI, said, “While many companies were investigating touchless access control technologies prior to COVID, the pandemic has definitely accelerated interest and adoption.”

Kougel said touchless solutions allow for a “safe and sanitary user experience,” noting some technology can also detect if a user is wearing a mask and restrict entry to assist with enforcement of necessary COVID-19 protocols.

However, Kougel suggested the increased interest in high-tech solutions isn’t just a temporary bump due to COVID safety concerns. He said, “The benefits of biometric-based access control systems go beyond a means of adding touchless authentication. They can also provide increased convenience and an added layer of security to any system.”

Kougel noted organizations like the Los Angeles Football Club are already using Alcatraz’s Rock system to secure their spaces, bringing these organizations into the “future of smart buildings” while “solving problems currently presented by the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, JC Powell, vice president of sales at Boon Edam, noted the request for touchless devices has slowed “since the beginning of the pandemic and the realization that the virus is not spread through direct contact with surfaces.”

“This was a common knee-jerk reaction to the pandemic,” he said. “However, there is a distinct line where safety negates security. This could have been achieved without such a drastic response. The interesting fact behind many of Boon Edam’s security entrances is that they have always been by nature touchless.”

Powell added, “The biggest change would be the integration with touchless readers such as biometric devices.”

Nonetheless, he said, “I do feel that there is a place for a touchless customer experience when it comes to entering a facility. The benefits of being able to conveniently move throughout a building while eliminating touchpoints will continue, but I see this being more common inside a building than at the point of secured entry.

“For instance, the use of automatic operators on bathroom doors is a great way to reduce touch points and provide a sense of health consciousness for the employees from their employer,” Powell continued. “Another instance we saw early on was to automate all doors, including those on the edges. Entrance points from the street can be automated; however, a clear line of secure versus non-secure needs to take place in the lobby of a building. The use of optical turnstiles can accomplish this, but only if used in conjunction with a manned presence [or certain touchless technology that] eliminates the need for a security guard at that entrance to properly vet employees entering a facility.”

Looking ahead, Powell said secured entranceways will “remain extremely important” as companies start bringing employees back to in-person work following the pandemic.

Ken Francis, president of cloud-based video surveillance company Eagle Eye Networks, stated, “Video has been changed and recrafted because of COVID.”

He explained, “Everybody that used to not care so much about looking at their video—they just went to look at it on-site when something went wrong and go find out what happened—are no longer OK with, ‘Oh, that’s a little grainy,’ or that the video they were seeing was ‘good enough.’”

“Now that they’ve spent a year-and-a-half having to try to see their building remotely—and across a wide area network or the internet—they realized that they can’t get good quality and that their video system, for lack of a better word, sucks.”

“It’s driving a lot of upgrades in general video, for sure,” said Francis, adding, “COVID had a huge effect on the deployment of cloud-based video systems.” He claimed the real-time upgrades, or “continuous delivery,” of such systems is the “secret of the cloud.”

Francis also said, “Analytics is king,” and, “It’s all about making the process easy.”

In the News

Covered on these news sites. Click the image to read more. By Joe Bebon