By Frank Pisciotta, CSC
IAPSC Past President
As a recent participant in the IAPSC Annual Conference in Napa, CA, I wanted to share a small success story which is a microcosm of the value I receive from attendance at the conference. During the two day event, I was able to spend some quality time one-on-one with all of our sponsors. Within only one week of the event, I have already connected five sponsors to various client projects in Ohio, Virginia, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York and California. I was introduced to some new technologies (e.g. Agent VI video analytics) who is going to help me to help my clients immediately increase the value of their video management systems. Many of our sponsors work well together on projects and by way of example, Axis and Genetec were able to collaborate with me to help solve a video recording problem on a project in Tokyo. Honeywell and RS2 showed some clear differentiators which justify their being specified on several upcoming projects. The Coldstore recording solution from Veracity is also providing us with an immediate viable alternative to recording client video when the Owner wants an alternative to virtualizing the recorded video in their internal environment. Pelco displayed their new VMS and an old friend of the IAPSC Jack Meltzer was there to show how DVTel secured the Boston Marathon this year. Ayal Vogel, an advocate for the IAPSC, was there representing Altronix. We appreciate all Ayal does throughout the year as he works to connect independent consultants with whom he encounters with the IAPSC. Kristen Cory delivered another excellent presentation on a strong panel of video related experts. SightLogix participated in this panel and displayed some new technology which increases the ability to detect adversaries in challenging outdoor environments as did Optex and Southwest Microwave.
Ben Williams stays on the cutting edge of the built environment and presented some interesting developments and issues to monitor in smart building projects. Finally, Ray Coulombe presented a proposed change to CSI’s MasterFormat 2014 for Division 28. This proposal or whatever part is accepted by CSI will have a substantial impact on specifiers in the security community. I am already looking forward to Charleston. I find the IAPSC conference to be much more efficient and effective that some of the larger shows given the intimate nature of the conference and the ability to have quality time with each invited manufacturer.