ASIS 2010, II: New solutions to new -- and old -- security problems

and text messages can also be sent out to warn others that an alarm has been triggered.

Schneider Electric. Schneider Electric has developed a new platform called Andover Continuum, which integrates a variety of security systems and sensors into a centralized, user-intuitive interface.

“When something goes wrong and you’ve got to take action, you’ve only got seconds to do that,” said Lonnie Laue, security center of excellence, buildings business, for Schneider Electric.

Laue says that the company took a “powerful” alarm management solution and made it simple. “The more integration (of systems) you have, the better opportunity you have to improve operations,” he said.

Another integral part of the system, according to Laue, is its power management capabilities, which not only can save businesses money in energy costs, but can also be used for security purposes, such as when a guard is sent to search a room within a facility.

Avigilon. A big hitter in the high-definition surveillance space, Avigilon was showing its latest network video management system, Avigilon Control Center Enterprise Edition 4.6, as well as a new line of ONVIF-compliant IP cameras at ASIS 2010.

Dave Tynan, Avigilon’s vice president of global sales and marketing, said the company has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several years and its technology is now being utilized in over 6,500 security installations in 55 different countries.

In conjunction with their new enterprise NVMS solution, Tynan said that Avigilon is also working to address the needs of other users in the market and has released a standard edition of its signature video management software called Avigilon Control Center Standard Edition. Tynan said that the standard edition software costs 40 percent less than its enterprise-class solution.

Geoff Kohl of SecurityInfoWatch focused focused on access control companies. His picks:

Schlage. IngersollRand/Schlage has launched the Aptiq smart card, which is a Mifare DESFire EV1 card. Ingersoll Rand’s security technologies portfolio marketing manager Jennifer Toscano told Kohl that the reason for the company’s launch of a smart card is driven cost and card security. On the cost front, Toscano said that smart card prices have come down to a point where a basic-level smart card now costs roughly the same as a proximity card. Unlike the proximity card, though, a smart card allows the user to do more than open doors. Cashless vending, cafeteria, records management, logical access, and more can all be linked from the same smart card