Demystifying the Access Control and Physical Security AV Markets

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Pro AV today. Excited to have this episode. If you followed along with this show at all, you you've seen that we've had conversations about things like access control, physical security, command and control, mission critical, and that's a world that our industry continues to find themselves, evolve them. Especially as we look to roll out technologies like better video, integrated systems, better audio monitoring systems, even things like displays and command and control rooms, Our industry is continuing to cross paths with the access control, physical security side of the world. So I wanna bring on someone today to have that conversation, be able to ask some questions at a high level, to hopefully dig in just a little bit deeper. And that's John Neyenhouse, from integrated security and communications, John. Thanks so much for coming on today. No. Thanks, man. I'm glad to be here. Look, John, you and I first had the chance to meet, actually at a a security focused show where ironically enough, it was this collision of the technology side and the physical side. Right? You had everybody from the Boon edam's and the Garrett Metal detectors of all technologies and the folks like Securitas and ProDos who are the staffing side, but then you also had the barcodes of the world. You had the view walls, the RGV spectrums. You have Hahnwa, folks like that, and it's very obvious that technology plays an incredibly important role in the physical and access control side of the security world. As somebody who's been part of those system integration projects are really on both sides of the world, what are some of the things that you think are driving this this change and what are some of the ways that you've seen the industry evolve even over the last five to ten years? No, that's a great question. So I think the, the biggest thing is just the convergence of the different products together just helps to create a better solution for the customers and just, being able to tie in, say, the AV, the IT, the physical security, And, what people traditionally think of from security say the cameras and the door locks, but being able to tie that in as as one system in with, being able to work with the IT groups, the customer's IT departments tied in across their network, across their multiple locations and then, tie in the AV needs and pull it all together as one system creates a better solution and just a better experience for the customers and lens to that power of being able to pull from all the the benefits of each of those individual systems. Yeah. One of the things that that really, really intrigued me is that the, the integrated security side of the world, is far further ahead with the conversations around IT that we are on the traditional commercial AV side of the world where we're still trying to find ways to, to talk to IT professionals and get them more familiar with AV technology on the network, not to say it's not a problem on the integrated security side. But but holistically, the the the security side of the world has has had much better traction with looping in some of those IT professionals on the security integration side Why is that do you think? Well, so we've kind of been forced into it. And I see the same thing happening on the AV space as well, but especially in the security world as everything's moved to the IP realm. As we've moved away from analog cameras, moved into the IP camera space, and move to the more IT driven access control and, the IT centric systems on our side, we're forced to become, I guess, subject matter experts in that or hire the, hire the teams that can talk to the IT departments. It's a lot less common now to see security driven by, a retired police officer, and a lot of those responsibilities are moving towards the IT space. When you're driving four k IP cameras across the network, you really need to know what you're doing on the networking and the IT side so that you can actually drive that bandwidth and the throughput across the network that's needed for the IP side of of what we're doing in the security space now. So If you can't talk to the IT guys, if you can't talk their language, they're gonna find somebody else that can. And as I think on the AV side, some of that, I guess the AV systems have still been able to be side load to some degree. If you're just working in within a control room or the AV space doesn't necessarily need to ride across the network as much. But when you're working in an enterprise space on the security side, all of those cameras need to be able to be viewable across multiple locations. They want them on their cell phones. They wanna be able to look at their iPad in the morning to see if there's snow in their parking lot before they drive to before they drive into the office. And security managers and the security departments are are expecting that seamless, that seamless integration across their networks and to work with their IT space. Well, one of the things too that I I've kinda noticed in that world is obviously, the security side is driven a little bit more by mission critical or project critical technologies, whether it's installations and air traffic control centers, or pedis, in police departments or, you know, airports, things like that. Those conversations are a little bit more critical than a lot of our commercial installations which is why naturally it feels like a lot of those those, I don't wanna say fluffy conversations. Right? They're not fluffy necessarily, but But those conversations are are far more essential on the security side of the world than they are, the AV side. Do you do you think that that's one of the reasons that that not only just with the IT side, but with the performance of AV, the longevity product life cycles, things like that tend to be a little bit better on the mission critical in in core security side. No. It it it definitely could be. And I haven't gotten to be I haven't gotten as much experience on the AV side. Unfortunately, I I have a good familiarity with it, but most of my experience has been on that, more on the security side throughout my time in the industry. So But yeah, it's, it is an interesting time, I think, in both of our spaces, and just trying to, trying to adapt to being in that IT centric realm and trying to to be able to I guess forecast out where our industries are going and how to stay relevant for the next couple years. And it's something we struggle with all the time, and just with the DIY and being able to get better equipment just off the shelf at, or even just being able to buy security equipment or I know it's the same on the AV side, but being able to buy stuff, a lot of customers feel like, hey, I can buy this at Best Buy or go to Amazon and get this and It's getting harder and harder to fight that and to show the the value and you really have to become that Be able to to show your value to be able to integrate and tie multiple systems together and and show your, experience level and to prove to the customers why they're better going with you and your solution than just what they can get from just doing a web search or going with ring or a nest camera system or, hey, I've got this in my garage at home. It works great, but that doesn't mean it's gonna work well in, for what they're trying to protect on the commercial side. Agreed in in ironically enough, the residential technology world is one of the biggest informers and influencers on commercial installation and AV and, obviously, the the security side of the world too, because there's familiarity there. And there's, I was at, Cedia recently, which is a more residential technology focused show, and you see folks like Sonos who have their roots primarily, or were initially primarily in the residential technology community who are now having conversations and and doing larger scale commercial installations because there's that familiarity. But what's what's interesting is that's actually changed the channel on both sides of the world, right, not only from hey, what can my integrator do? My integrator, okay, they typically historically have installed, and they're my dealer, so they get me access to products that I might not have had historical access to. But now with your Amazons, with your B and Hs, with your your Cheggs and in places like that, you know, folks can buy these technologies, which has forced integrators into this kind of position of, okay, we need to double down on expertise or we need to find ways to create value outside of our traditional workflow. What are some of the ways that you guys at ISC have seen some of that and what are some of the ways that you're at you're providing some of that value, even beyond just some of the traditional dealer installer relationships? So, I mean, the big thing is just trying to make it easier for the customer and trying to be the easy button wherever we can be. If we can take that if we can be that go between between the this typical security department and the IT groups and be able to talk that language and be able to get the security and IT to play nicely together. And kinda be that go between. We we've seen a lot of value and been able to drive a lot of business that when we can go into meetings and and talk about the difference in networking technologies and what we really need for the, the camera systems to be able to work. And when the security guy turns and talks or looks at the IT guy and the IT guy gives a thumbs up or, yeah, these guys know what they're talking about, It really helps. And the IT guy is more comfortable. They know that they're not gonna be getting huge burden on their shoulders, that they're not gonna have to do the heavy lifting. But the big thing is just also trying to figure out how to be that true integrator level and tying multiple systems together being able to tie the different technologies and and leveraging the use of the AI, the machine learning, the, the advances that are happening within our industries, and taking advantage of that, that converged type environment and the environment or the networking, being able to tie multiple systems together from multiple patience and give one seamless single pane of glass interface to a customer. It really it really helps set you apart from just some guy that's buying something off the shelf at B and H or, Amazon can't do that. It's you really need to have that that expertise and the forethought to be able to to figure out how to explain to the customer how this is gonna benefit them going forward as opposed to oh yeah. Hey, you want a camera here. I bought this online. I'm just gonna Velker list to your wall. And when it dies, we'll just, we'll just rip it off, put a new one up. It's, there's a a big difference between the two. Well, and, obviously, there's network security and things like that. Normally, normally, typically in the enterprise setting, hopefully, folks are a little bit more educated than that. But, you know, one of the places that that folks might not always be it on, and you mentioned it as, AI machine learning. Right? And that's one of the interesting ways that that I think integrators can continue to serve the industry is by being subject matter experts. You know, thinking about AI machine learning, what are some of the ways that not only have have you all seen it be rolled out in installations, but what are some of the places that you continue to see Hey, maybe this is gonna continue to impact installations, across all sorts of different verticals and applications. Yeah. So it's an interesting It's an interesting space and it's, it's something that's evolving kinda every day. It's one of the first things I look at at any of the big any of the big shows like GSX or IC West, is to see where the advancements are going and and what's the latest on that side. Where we've seen the use of it the most so far is just ease of video searching and, taking down the, having have somebody sit in front of Like, when you think about security surveillance in the old days, it was sitting in front of a a VCR with the jog button and going forward, going back and trying to Oh, wait. The something's there. Now it isn't. It's somewhere in this block. Whereas now, on the video side, I can just type in a search and say girl with red shirt and it'll stream back the video and show me just instances where there was a girl with a red shirt. I can type in Silverado, and it'll show me just video clips. I have a Chevy Silverado in the video image. So having the the intelligence on the camera side and being able to leverage that, that analytic and the, the machine learning to, to reduce some of that time and show the power of what we can do on the video side. It's been huge. And just then using that for real time alerts and analytics and being able to say, hey, look, if there's just the typical, say, line crossing or people counting, being able to take that a step further and and show heat mapping and show different time frames. And we can apply that across multiple industries, say on the, a supermarket. We can show what times of the day have the most people in line at a customer with the or waiting for a cashier, what the average wait time is, when they need to change their staffing and being able to take that and apply that to other parts of their business so that the funding isn't necessarily coming the security side and being able to use those security devices for helping with staffing or marketing or business needs within the customer or even then, a tie into the AV side is then taking what's happening on the security side and tie it to the digital signage so that when certain shoppers come in or when a certain employee comes in, you can change that digital signage to match what that person would wanna see or or now the building's occupied to a certain level. Let's change something to to reflect that. And, a big part is the data gathering and just, on the access control side, being able to use that that machine learning and the big data side to say, okay, this person always reads their card nine AM to five PM. Now they're coming in at two in the morning. This is a different behavior than what they're normally doing. And maybe tripping alert that wait a second. Somebody's coming in at a time. They're not normally here. Yes. They're allowed to be in the building, but let's pay a little more attention to them or notify security that somebody's behavior has changed than from what they normally have. So being able to apply that that computer, machine learning piece across multiple different parts of our industry and figuring out where it fits or where it actually benefits customers is It's kind of the tricky part right now, but it it is a very exciting time and and really cool to see some of the potential that exists or is coming from that, those capabilities. The the security industry actually has been doing a great job of that for a long time. And I think that it's a great place for us, as I would say as a commercial AV community to continue to look on that same token, one of the things that I found may be a little bit frustrating. I don't know if frustrating is the right word, but at least at least intriguing to, to a strong degree, is that many AV manufacturers have tried to shoehorn products into the security industry maybe without fully understanding the needs of the technology. Right? And I'm not even really necessarily just exclusively talking about mission critical. Right? Cause that's sort of its own animal But you've got, you know, you've got folks like Access technologies and Hanwa who, have been making great security centric technology for the first time. For for a long time, but then you've got folks, maybe camera manufacturers, display manufacturers, audio, speaker manufacturers that are that have found security as a new market, but what are some of the things as an integrator as somebody who has to be that last touch point before the end user What do you wish that some of those manufacturers kinda knew ahead of time and didn't have to trial and error a bunch of these things by by coming into the industry for the first time? Jeez. That's a that's a tough one. It's a it's a it's a heavy question. That's why I saved it for last. I I think a big part of it and I one of the simplest things is just the the ease of installation, the ease of serviceability, And just what happens, how do we, what do we need to know to be able to install it and how easy is gonna be to, to deploy. Can we program stuff beforehand in our office and send it out, can we preset the, to what we need on it? And One of the big things on the camera side has been that ability to do the remote aiming and focusing on the cameras, which has been huge in our space. Like, we don't. If we put a camera forty feet on a wall with a lift, and that camera goes out of focus or wasn't focused right, or they wanna change that that viewing angle on it. It's worth that little bit of extra cost for that camera to be able to tweak that the motor now on the lens to to adjust the image or change the focusing on that, remotely instead of having to roll a truck and get back up, or get another lift on-site to to get to that camera. So, a lot of these devices aren't always so like you said, the, the twenty four seven reliability or that enterprise grade or the, being able to have it running all the time. But, but also, a lot of these are remote. So trying to trying to fix things that can be done, or be able to fix it remotely or troubleshoot it without having to necessarily go out or somebody physically on-site or even just the health monitoring remotely. Some of those features are a payoff dividends in the long run and really help, with the longevity of the system and, just even the customer's view of the system. If you can fix it in a a couple hours remotely without them having to wait two or three days for somebody to physically come out and physically swap it. It gives them a much better feel for their system as well. Well, John, I I appreciate you sharing that. I know that that we are really just scratching the surface of some of these conversations. I feel like we could spend, hours on each one of the questions, kinda that I asked here. But, I really appreciate you providing a lot of this context. Right? And and as I mentioned, a lot of us in the traditional commercial AV installation world, as we continue to grow and expand in in verticals like education and health care and hospitality, security is one of those verticals, right, and there are the incumbents who have been doing a great job for a long time. But one of the great things about the commercial AV community kinda coming in is that drives innovation across both sides of the world. Right? At the end of the day, hopefully, to best support our end users and our installations. So I'm looking forward to continuing to see how these industries continue to collaborate. Highly recommend, and and John, I know you you you mentioned this earlier. I shows like ISC West GS even if you don't exhibit. Attend, ask questions, meet some of the folks out there because it'll give you a little bit better insight into some of the needs of, the security world specifically versus maybe some of the traditional commercial installation. But John Nine House, we appreciate you coming on the show today and and sharing your insight. I'm sure we'll we'll have you back on soon because like I said, we're we're just scratching the surface here. I don't know if you I know we're running out of time today, but, I had one thought I did have just I've been doing a lot of thought around the AV and security piece. And, just one piece and you kinda just spurred my memory on that by saying the the health care of the schools. So a lot of it does depend on, I guess, the the vertical or the end user, but one spot I really see that's kind of an underutilized piece between security and AV is just the use of the digital signage. Digital signage throughout a facility say in a school, If we can take that digital signage and change that based on what the threat level or what's happening on the security side, we're being able to repurpose a digital signage screen in a lobby of a building so that a first responder can see a floor plan of the building or pull up security camera feeds right from the lobby of a building without having to go to that security command center or, even in a classroom in a school, being able to change that smart board or what's on the digital sign or the, the bell system within the classroom to notify the teacher or the students in that room of, hey, there's an active shooter or, oh, there's a shelter in place. And being able to use that that AV piece for more than just the, the signage or the the standard communication. Or take those signage and be able to use those, like, in digital concierge. So when you have an unmanned lobby or being able to use, a digital signage to repurpose it as a a receptionist after hours and then say at that certain time when the the person in the lobby Hey, meet me on the second floor and then have that security operator jump in on the digital sign on the second floor lobby when they go up the elevator. And being able to tie that AV system in better with what the security needs. I think when we can get to that point and being able to tie those two together, to create that seamless solution for the customers. I I think it really benefits everybody. I would agree. You start talking digital signage. See, now you're in my world. But, John, I appreciate it so much. And and even having the context and sharing things like you just mentioned, being able to to tie all those systems together and for proactive security for for wayfinding for effective communication, I think, is an incredible application for, a lot of these technologies. And I appreciate you coming on. Like I said, we're gonna find a way to get you back on the show. For sure, but thanks so much for joining us today. That sounds great. Thanks, Ben. I appreciate the time. And thank you all for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe and watch next time for ProIVe today.