Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/31502
MARKET TRENDS Betting on biometrics Group studies usage at airports SEE PAGE 22 SOURCE BOOK Video Surveillance Thermal cams go mainstream INSIDE OWN THE NIGHT. PIR Cameras Deter Crime Before It Happens... See Our Ad On Page 7. VOLUME 14, NUMBER 5 MAY 2011 n $7.00 COMMERCIAL & SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS n n Security-Net eyes national accounts PAGE 16 Is Schneider going to gobble up Tyco? PAGE 16 FIRE SYSTEMS INSTALLATION n UTCF&S revives brand, gets new president PAGE 20 n Fire-Lite’s seismic solution PAGE 20 MONITORING n n AT&T ditches Xanboo dealer agreement PAGE 25 Mace acquires another central station PAGE 24 RESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS n n Vivint closes colossal credit facility PAGE 27 American Alarm bolts on in Worcester PAGE 27 SUPPLIERS n n ObjectVideo sues three major camera companies PAGE 30 Motorola looks to make another investment in security PAGE 30 STATS ........................................2 NEWS ........................................6 EDITORIAL ..............................12 GUEST COMMENTARY ............15 MARKET TRENDS ...................22 QUOTED ..................................33 AD INDEX ................................33 DATABANK ..............................34 www.securitysystemsnews.com ADT buys Proximex ADT will own but not operate Proximex By Martha Entwistle LAS VEGAS—ADT made news two days before ISC West with the April 4 announcement of its acquisition of Proximex, a well-known physical security information management (PSIM) manufacturer. John Kenning, president of ADT Commercial, said the deal is part of ADT Commercial’s evolution and “stated goal of becoming a leader in the managed ser- vices space.” Speaking Jack Smith with Security Systems News at ISC West, Kenning and Jack Smith, president of Proximex, emphasized that ADT will own, but not operate Proximex. Smith will continue to run Proximex, and will retain his 40 employees, branding, and its relationships with customers, manufacturers and vendors. “Proximex will remain agnostic and independent,” Smith said. How will the two companies ensure that there’s no conflict? “We’ll put the proper firewalls in place,” Kenning said. “Competitive information will not be passed back to our ADT sales organiza- tion. That’s Jack’s and my cred- ibility at stake...We’re not going ADT see page 17 PSIM PLAY Smith&Wesson cuts ties Gun maker ends licensing agreement with NationWide Monitoring By Tess Nacelewicz FREEPORT, N.Y.—Major gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson terminated its licensing agree- ment with NationWide Digital Monitoring Company effective March 31. NationWide, based here, told Security Systems News that it instead plans to create a new name and identity for its Smith & Wesson Security Services dealer program. Howard Avin, VP of sales and marketing for Nationwide, said the new program would be called Security Doctors and won’t involve partnering with another vendor like Smith & Wesson, so will be less costly and won’t The reason for the sudden end to the nearly three-year part- nership—which had allowed NationWide to sell Smith & Wesson-branded security prod- ucts—remained unclear on March involve the risk of the vendor end- ing the relationship abruptly, as Avin contends Smith & Wesson did. 31. What is clear is that it has baf- fled and dismayed the 70 dealers in NationWide’s dealer program, who were told in late March that they had until April 30 at the latest to strip away the Smith & Wesson name from their security products such as advertising, trucks, uni- forms, doorknob hangers and lawn signs, in all of which they have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars. Avin told SSN on March 31 that Smith & Wesson had a change in management in its licensing department, and the company exercised an option in its contract with NationWide to opt out of the DEALERS see page 28 Parsing the AT&T deal How does AT&T buying T-Mobile affect the security industry? By Daniel Gelinas YARMOUTH, Maine—Ever since rumblings of a POTS sunset began last year, the security indus- try has been concerned with where a dependable communications pathway would come from. Most eyes have turned to broadband and GSM as two alternatives. With the March 20 announcement of AT&T’s agreement to buy competi- tor T-Mobile for $39 billion, a new wrinkle to the communications pathway has been introduced with which the security indus- try must con- tend, assuming the acquisition passes muster with the SEC. Wireless communica- t ions r ight Morgan Hertel now come in two flavors: CDMA (Sprint and Verizon) and GSM (AT&T and T-Mobile). Both have a voice side and a data side (EVDO for CDMA and GPRS for GSM). GSM is the most widely adopted platform on a global level, and for that reason is the one security solution manufacturers use for wireless communications devices. The T-Mobile deal will give AT&T a GSM monopoly. How will this affect the security industry? According to some, it’s nothing AT&T see page 25 The great ISC West round-up More people, acquisitions, and PSIM, PSIM, everywhere in 2011 By SSN and SDN staff LAS VEGAS—There are always lots of announcements and opin- ions on the ISC West show floor every year, and 2011 was no differ- ent. Topics of discussion included PSIM, partnerships, acquisitions, and identity management, and there were some whispers about lawsuits as well. There seemed to be general agreement on one topic: There were more people in the aisles and they were more interested in doing business this year compared to the past two or three years. Preliminary estimates were for about 15,000 attendees, said Beth Blake, PR director for Reed Exhibitions. “We had more than 900 companies, tens of thousands of new products, 300 global com- panies in our global expo and over 150 new companies on the show floor,” she said. If you didn’t know much about physical security information management systems before ISC West, chances are you now know at least a little something about PSIM. There were several signifi- cant PSIM announcements at the show. The April 4 acquisition of Proximex by ADT Security Service was much discussed during the show, which was held ISC WEST see page 9