ISC West Dazzles as Industry Grapples With Physical-Cyber Convergence – Security Sales & Integration
With an expanded show floor and record attendance, ISC West reflected a vibrant industry in the midst of bringing to bear connected products, advancing technologies, and newfound security and business intelligence services.
SSI spoke with multiple attendees who expressed a similar regard for the 2018 installment, including industry luminary Les Gold, a partner with Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp (MSK).
“Having formed the original corporation, which is now ISC, I have been to all of the shows and I certainly believe this show was the most well attended and the best,” said Gold, an SSI Industry Hall of Fame inductee. “Everyone I spoke to seemed genuinely satisfied with the number of folks who visited their booth. There was a genuine interest in the connected home, the drones and cybersecurity.”
Saliq Khan, a vice president with Imperial Capital, said each year the tradeshow affords him the opportunity to actively mine the exhibition floor for starts-ups and large conglomerates that are introducing innovative and meaningful products that investors care about.
“This year was no different and I walked away with a dozen or more names of relevant companies across IoT, smart premises, access control, alarm monitoring, biometrics and video analytics,” he said.
“Companies must embrace the physical-cyber technology convergence and provide relevant systems and solutions to fully protect the residential, commercial, industrial and critical infrastructure,” he said. “These are exactly the types of conversations that we at Imperial Capital have been having over the last several years.”
Beyond cybersecurity — and an accompanying sense of urgency the wider industry needs to step up its game — perhaps the heaviest promoted trend at the show was artificial intelligence (AI). Dahua, in particular, aggressively marketed this theme outside the exhibition hall with massive banners, along with making it a focal point of its exhibit space. The company also hosted a presentation titled “AI Creates Value” during which its president, Ke Li, and others, addressed a packed ballroom.
Other big takeaway trends SSI editors observed on the show floor were the further entrenchment of: analytics, integration partnerships, robotics, higher resolution and more refined video, wireless, remote diagnostics, gunshot detection, as well as the continued rise of the smart home. Key to keep in mind: the industry awaits major traction and breakout opportunities in most of these areas.