As even those in the intruder alarm sector may tell you, the products are not something to get excited about. But that is changing, according to a manufacturer’s autumn 2016 roadshow.
A change from the previous round of roadshows by Hikvision in the spring saw presentations and displays by partners; Western Digital, Sureview (the developers of the Immix control room software) and Pyronix, the intruder alarm panel company that Hikvision acquired in mid-2016.
Pyronix has been working on a cloud-based app, which has been on sale for the past year, Simon Reeve (pictured at Birmingham in September) told the roadshow audiences. The industry has long relied on PSTN lines; and there are still new installations. Simon said: “We are trying to drag people kicking and screaming towards the IP side of things.” For as he said, PSTN is an outdated platform; slow, with limited functionality; and there is the question over its security. And what do you,the installer, and the customer, get out of it? Low cost IP cameras are available; from £20, even, at the DIY, domestic end – but there are security issues if the user doesn’t change the password. Another drawback with such cheap cameras – who knows who is the host, of the connection and the data.
Hence Pyronix’s look at a ‘cloud solution’, for domestic customers. If you have an ethernet cable, you can plug into any router; no IT experience required; and you are not waiting for somebody to set and unset the alarm – including a hacker, as you use encryption. Pyronix are using Amazon servers, running out of the Republic of Ireland (in case you are wondering or worried whether American spies are viewing your back gate!?).
He made the point that your garage may be physically easier to break into than your house proper; and yet it may be storing expensive goods; likewise, the domestic customer may want to protect his car on the drive as much as his house. Simon spoke of a ‘grey area’; that is, an overlap, between the intruder alarm, and the CCTV market. A camera and wireless passive infra-red detector may be as simple as an alarm, he suggested.
More in the February 2017 print issue of Professional Security magazine.
