IHSE’s Surprising Appearance at Security Conferences: The Verticals Convergence

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Direct Connections. I'm your host for today, Ben Thomas. Joined by two Dan's. We've got Dan Holland, obviously, a IHSC, very familiar guest on this podcast, but also Dan Gundry. The other day and living a little bit more on the command and control security side of the world. So excited to talk with both of you today a little bit about the convergence of all these different verticals that we see. So To add a little bit of context, we find ourselves today in in a studio in Dallas at a security conference. Right. Which If you were to ask me probably two or three years ago, I wouldn't expect to see an IHSE necessarily even attending a show like this. But The reality is is that not only is IHSE a massive player in the broadcast world and so many other places, But you're now seeing applications spread into areas like security and mission critical applications, command and control rooms, things like that. What are some of these verticals that are popping up, Dan, as some of these new potential opportunities, and and why are we here at a at a security show today? Oh, well, good question. The, the the biggest thing we see is the that as more and more, you're defining the, the backroom computers, what everybody has to be working with, and they need to be get to that information quickly is, you know, you you you pick up a standard computer, you run it through the network. Well, sometimes you're obligated to over that that bandwidth is or whether you're gonna be able to actually make that connection. So what the KVM is is now you have this this backroom switch that allows you to immediately pick up anything that you want as far as the, things that are pulled to your display so you can visually see it, or you can push it up on a display wall, or you can move it around, so either from a remote location or from the physical, location that you're about setting at, at your desk. So I think that It it's all people always was wondering what KVM is, you know, the the keyboard video mouse for those people that that don't know what it's all about. But, they're using it all the time. But the problem you get into is that if the network goes down, what do you do? So where the KVM system is, in some applications, you can put that in as a secondary or backup system. So if anything fails on the front end, you're always able to come in and and and connect those things up to the back end. So KVM system is starting to to finally see You know, a good use case, not only in the command and control environment, but in the broadcasting environment where it's very credit that you you have, you know, that you people are paying for the commercial space, so you don't want your your TVs to come down. You know? So anytime that get into those applications? I think that's where the the KVM is starting to fit. Well, in the constant between a lot of those places, especially across the AV channel. I I hate even to to bundle it in that world necessarily, but the common denominator typically is the integrator of the dealer and distributor which Dan is where you spent a majority of your time kind of building your name in the industries on the integration side. And, you know, they ask as integrators and as even manufacturers, have have Found their way into new verticals, the integrator has to typically be the expert across all of these places. Right? So I might say here's an enterprise office that I'm doing today, But tomorrow, I'm doing an airport control center. Right? And and there's gotta be that scale. There's gotta be that flexibility. What are some of the ways that you're seeing on the integrator side that push and pull into new into new verticals. That's a really packed question. So let me take a step back and So you add on to one thing that Dan said, and then I'll answer the question about the integrator. What is common across all these vertical markets? Whether you're asking answer your question or the other question is that there is an operator sitting in a chair. Okay? And that operator, we talk a lot about ergonomics. We talk about human factors. We talk about, you know, keeping them alert and awake and things like that, which means I don't like fan noise. I fall asleep to fan noise at night. Right? We don't want operators falling asleep to fan noise. We also try to get heat out of the room. That's where we start talking, remoting these machines and that's where the KVM solution is also coming to play as well. So I I think the integrating, the integration community, and, you know, first First, it's a question back to you. Define integration community, right, because you have security integrators such as what you see predominantly at this show this week with, with GSX. You know, you and I were in Denver last week at Cedia, so you have residential, end security and low voltage specialist type dealers. And then you've ProAV dealers, and then I'll argue there's another class, which is control room integrators. Right? And their job is to take the best of all these different technologies apply best practices, but then to your point, they need to understand the context of the environments. And I don't have an easy answer for you. It's just tough. I I I did it for twelve years, and I still feel I know this much about this much. So I think, you know, the the my suggestion, my advice is lean into one or two of those, right, because this is not your conference room audio visual. If that wall goes down, if that KVM solution doesn't go down, you mentioned earlier, Dan, in terms of redundancy and auto failover and uptime and stuff like that. The missions that we're supporting in the control room environment is truly life or death, and you cannot say that about most commercial AV channels. Alright. Twenty four seven? Yeah. Well, that's that's a great point. And I I wanna ask this, Dan, you know, for better or for worse, our industry has had a bit of a challenge of trying to shoehorn existing technology or hardware into different applications. And what that's done is created more fail rates has created a lot of different challenges and issues because you're trying to put, non enterprise technology or non non specifically verticalized technology into an application that it wasn't designed for. But the inverse has kind of happened with IHSE, right, where the product was built so well on the front end that it almost trickles down into some of these less mission critical applications as well. Obviously, goes up into the security side. You know, how how important is the product development design side of things on the front end to e even before we could have the conversation about verticalization? Yeah. Well, that's that's actually where we shine is is because when you you look at the the number of different types of computer systems that are out there are the the connectivity, you know, where whether you're using HDMI or display port, in some cases, a lot of these, secure environments, you know, they have to have things that are hardened. They're still using VGA and DVR. Right. You know, it's been gone for since nineteen nineties. K. But you still have to have those pieces in there. So what we've done is that we we allow you to do that integration between existing technology. I'm I'm working on one right now where they're using NTSC. Composite video. Wow. I haven't heard those four letters in a while. Yeah. That in, to a system that will allow it to run out HDMI. Now, of course, you're talking about the thing that that is is crazy is is that remember the the the resolution. Right. Right? Okay. So you have you basically a four eighty, you know, four three format that we're going we're not gonna manipulate any of the signal formats. So when you get into it, you run into a sixteen nine display is that you sort of center punched that in image in there. And of course, the the the first thing the customer says is, why do I have all this black space when I paid for this big display? Yep. Well, know, that's just the nature of it. I can't change those things out. And then they say, well, I wanna see full screen. So when you do that, and, of course, you know, all You lose the image. Yeah. Yeah. So you have to explain that to the customer, which, you know, it's like, okay, well, we'll do what you want. Okay. But taking all of those different pieces in and understanding, you know, whether you've got a customer that's been with you for forty years or one that's just on board right now is that'll the same problem. And that's where the KVM, you know, part part of what we're doing is is no matter whether you're using, HDMI, display port, SDI, BGA, whatever those those resolutions is, is that we can take that put it into our our switch system and then manage that on the output side as well. So legacy says systems, new systems, you know, the convergence trying to make that simple. And then, as you pointed out, as far as in integrating, you know, is, you know, reduce the cost of thinking. Right? Yep. So that you now have some software or or some keyboard commands that allows you to go in and pick those things up quickly. So you don't have to have paid pay this guy and, you know, an absorbent amount of money to be able to go in and configure something. Our our system is when you plug them in, they automatically recognize it as an input device or an output device, and you just tell it where you wanna move the circuits. Mhmm. So we we look at you know, how do we define things for the people that are actually installing it, and then how do we define the technology so that it talks nice to each other? Well, one of the things that you brought up to is the need for not only flexibility and resolutions and and distribution, but also flexibility and application. And that That is where the the integrator and operator side falls in a little bit more where the where the operator wants to change up a look feel or personalized something. And so they go to their integrator and say, hey, Sally's got x y z profile. I don't wanna go in and blow the system up. But how do I how do I have that conversation, obviously leveraging a great piece of hardware, but how do I have that modularity that I need as an operator? And how do I as an integrator helped empower my end users in that way. Yeah. And I also think it's it's how do I convince operators and and users that there's a better way to do things? Because operators are stubborn. So, but, generally speaking, not specifically speaking, you all sleep, and you're all stubborn. They fall asleep. They don't sleep. They fall asleep. I you know, I I think you need to go in and have that conversation. Right? We talk about discovery and needs analysis, when we're talking about integrators going out and talking to users, first and foremost, I think in terms of that part of the process, I always like to apply the Jerry Garcia principal. And if you have not heard of the Jerry Garcia principle, and this is not mine, I did not come up with it. I stole it from somebody else I heard it from. Brad Malone, thank you very much. Stay as high as you can as long as you can. Alright? So then start with the mission, start with the workflow, start with what they're trying to achieve in the space, And that will start to boil into the workflow that will start to boil into normal activities and then non normal activities. We talk about gray skies versus blue skies. I think that becomes really important to understand what the operator is trying to do, what their day what what their task level work is forensically here in front of them, and that will back you into the right technology solution around content, screens, and actually flow. No. Go ahead. No. I was, I was, just gonna kinda add on to that, is that's that's one of the things we found, we sell into the air a control environment. Yep. And, you know, it it's similar to to the command and control. You may have four to ten guys that's in a space smaller than this room. Yes, sir. And they all have to talk with each other, but they have to be, you know, a hundred percent aware, so like you were saying, the noise becomes an issue. You know, the the, latency, you know, it's another one, the bandwidth as far as can I get all that stuff up there? Even the ergonomic of where the, displays are because you still have to have that eye visual. But they had all of these computers that were setting there, and each one of them would be managing something else. So you'd have a keyboard that was color coded yellow, one that was red, one that was blue, And now you can pull all that stuff in there. You simplify it for the user, but the like you said, the ergonomics, being able to under stand, all of those pieces. I think it's an important part of just the not just the KVM, but people that that have to do the twenty four seven, you know, you they're you are depending on them to make decisions. And, you know, when I fly out of here, that that was worth worth here. And I hope this guy is using other stuff. That's confidence right there. I I I can tell you that, one of one of and and again, we talk about this as mission critical, and mission critical is a very overused phrase out there. And I, especially in the Pro EV space, I like to define business critical is one thing mission critical is an entirely different beast. We talk about first time every time a good friend of ours in the industry says that this technology needs to function on the worst day of these people's lives. You know, that that the kind of, you know, thought process that should go into it to use the right products, the hardened products, the secure products, the way that are meant to run twenty four seven, even if your control room is only being used for eight hours a day, when there's an activation, it needs to run like a twenty four seven control room. So all of the above down. I agree with you. Well, what's interesting, and this is for both of you before we we land the metaphorical plane is that, there's this push and pull of you know, say I'm a hardware manufacturer, oh, I've identified these verticals that our product is really good at versus an integrator installer and user saying Oh, this is a great product for air traffic control. How can I apply this in my, police department real time crime center? Right? So there's there's almost this weird push and pull of I want my stuff here, but the market says that I want it to be here. How do you how do you find that balance? Are you asking integrators? Are you asking end users? How do you typically find some of those ways to to best apply the products? We'll be a marketing guy. The, you know, my my buzzword is everything starts with KVM. So, you know, when you're doing stuff, you have to have the keyboard and video on the mouse to actually get to that point. So the idea is that no matter, you know, it's it's usually a, n plus one type environment when he was talking about KVM, you know, you if doing one to go on extender stuff, you know, that that's we do that as well, but our, you know, our sweet spot is is when you start talking about doing, you know, twenty or thirty different computers And it doesn't matter what vertical it is. I mean, it can be, you know, we started out in the educational market. The, student your concept. You know, that moved into air traffic control. That moved into, you know, some of the command and control of the military applications. So all the petroleum, we do some things for the medical industry as well, where, you know, the hospitals we found out that, like an epileptic center, they, all of the doctors get in for a young children as it becomes problem because the, you know, the nervousness of, a young, young child with all of these doctors doing, doing all that stuff, with what they is they took all of that information, and they moved it into a back room. So they could still monitor everything, and then that that, you know, calmed to the the patient down. So we, you know, we learned how some of that stuff, was actually working in the medical industry. So you take any vertical that is having to move video or manage multiple computers. It it's you know, we we're there. I mean, we we do all that stuff. Some of our best customers are actually, mobile production fans, the OB Vista. It's where, anytime that you watch, football or baseball or, NASCAR racing or any of those, normally is is that those remote trucks. When they're setting up, when you see the replay, a lot of times, I will almost guarantee you that that replay going back through our KVM is where they have to manage a lot of stuff. So you you pick a vertical, and I can I can pretty much tell you that we fit? I love it. Yeah. Dan, same question to you a little bit more on the the integration side. How how do you help find products that that subvert industries, and almost, you know, how do you go find solutions that may not even exist in a specific industry to help apply to different situations? Well, I think it goes I mean, we talked about it earlier, right, in terms of the needs analysis and discoveries. So listen and be curious. Be curious has served me very well. I played dumb really, really well. Even if you walk into a security operation center like here at GSX, I I probably have been in over four hundred different control rooms in my life, no two are exactly the same. So while you may think you know eighty percent of their their pain points, their problems, the things you can do for them, you're always gonna have that twenty percent that's fluctuating. You know, a health care security operation center is very different than a corporate campus, and a corporate campus security operation center is different whether it's higher education, k to twelve, private versus public, corporate, you know, stadiums, they're all different So I think listening is where it starts. I think it's seeking out those, those manufacturers that purpose build and engineer solutions inside the mission critical spaces. Right? It's don't force a product into something where it's not a good fit. I think that's a really good lesson. And, you know, and and talk to people. Right? Talk to talk to the talk to the Dan Holland, talk to the Dan Gunies, talk to the Dans. Right? Talk to the Dans and only really the Dans. Or we can do the Ben the three letter names. You can do that. You can talk to maybe once. Yeah. But, but, no, I think, I think it's listen. I think it's be curious and not be afraid to ask questions. But also do it right. Yeah. Well, look, at the end of the day, I I end whenever I host my own show, I typically always circling back at the end. I love Bob Barker style, and and I like to refocus that the users are why we do what we do to help them to empower them to have the most success that they can at their job. Sometimes it's worst day of their lives type application. Sometimes it's a broadcast control room. Sometimes it's a truck. It there's a lot of different places that technology applies. And as long as we keep that our true north, I think that we're we're gonna continue to grow as an industry, and really serve folks across different verticals as our technology really reaches a point of of Ubiquity where we are in all places at all times. So, Dan's, I appreciate you joining me today. This is, it's been a lot of fun having you both, and I'm glad that, the proximity brought us both together to have this conversation today. Thank you for listening, to direct Connections today. I'm your host, Ben Thomas. Be sure to tune in next time.