Essen 2012

The bi-annual Essen Security exhibition has now closed for another 2 years.

Boasting a huge array of Halls and technology to visit, surely Essen has now rightfully claimed its title as THE Security Exhibition to visit ahead of rivals such as IFSEC?

Essen security show

Spread over 11, yes that’s 11 Halls, Essen needed a transport system of its own inside just to get us from hall to hall !

Talking of transportation, the travel system, namely the hugely efficient DB Train system, delivered us on time every day – if the platform board showed 1 minute until the next train, 1 minute it was!

Anyway, back to the show.

Notable massive stands (or booths as our European friends referred to ) were Bosch, Honeywell, Siemans.

Bosch had their representation of an aircraft, complete with actual airline seats to sit and listen to the presentations! Rumour has it (and only rumour because we weren’t invited!) that all visitors to their stand (oops, booth) were taken out to the back of the Bosch area and treated to a full 3 course cooked lunch!!! Now that is customer care!

security shows

Interesting that their flagship new MIC 550 was represented by one, solitary lonely looking model on top of one of their product podiums…….

The British contingent were represented in the BSIA section by the likes of GJD with their HD CCTV lighting solutions, Elmdene and NVT. Also present for the first time at ESSEN was 360 Vision Technology, brave guys taking their range of Predators into the back garden of Bosch MICS!!!!

Talking of 360 Vision, they certainly flooded their stand with multiple-coloured Predators! Gold, orange, green and JCB Yellow ensured that sun glasses were needed for this UK manufacturer!

Into Hall 2 and the mighty Geutebrueck had an amazing stand – packed with staff and visitors it seemed for the full 4 days!

Some great video Analytics were observed over at the UDP Technology stand – fully expecting these guys to be taking the UK by storm real soon with their very clever technology!

MP was represented amply by the usual guys – Arecont and Avigilon had excellent displays.

We spotted  Todd Rockoff  at the show as well spreading the word about HDcctv . Keep watching this space for more news from Todd soon.

Visitors attending the show were from far flung regions – talking with some of the exhibitors, they had seen good quality leads from US, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East and of course the main Euro regions – affirming Security Essen’s status as a truly International show.

It therefore must beg the question, with such a high quality show held only every 2 years, is there now room for a smaller, certainly less well presented IFSEC anymore in the UK? We paid fairly low airline fares to Dusseldorf, stayed in a clean, functional but inexpensive hotel (compared to London or Birmingham hotels) and travelled effortlessly, cheaply and efficiently on excellent transport to and from the halls.

Our opinion? Security Essen is the show that is worth visiting……and waiting for!

Dallmeier DVR range goes end of life. Software from here on in!!!!

Dallmeier  have announced the end of the Leonardo product range’ and h.264 DLS series recorders.

As from the 14th May 2012* the following h.264 recorder models will be discontinued:

DMS ‚In memory of Leonardo‘ recorders and h.264 DLS Series recorders.

 

With this change Dallmeier will from this point onwards be promoting only SMAVIA software. The new products are completely forwards and backwards compatible and Dallmeier offer full support in order that new products may be integrated into older systems.

 

Dallmeier state that “SMAVIA is a recording technology which is based on 25 years of experience and competence in professional video security technology, thus ensuring maximum reliability. SMAVIA enables the recording of video images and streams in a large variety of image compression and transmission codecs (H.264, MPEG-4, MJPEG). In addition to standard definitions, SMAVIA also supports Full HD (1080p) and up to 8 megapixel”.

“The SMAVIA Recording Server Software can be used on a wide range of different hardware platforms; either on special video recording servers made by Dallmeier or as stand-alone software on standard servers or PCs. SMAVIA is compatible with both Linux and Windows. The corresponding management software SMAVIA Viewing Client offers the perfect interface for the comfortable processing of live and recorded pictures”.

 

Dallmeier have always been a company who evolve through good ideas which in turn become quality CCTV equipment, which helps them stay at the forefront of the industry. With this commitment to software Dallmeier have committed themselves fully into IP CCTV and it will be interesting to see how they compete.

The questions we challenge Dallmeier to answer is why? Are they just following the trend or do they see this as the future. Was it a result of a loss in sales? Or an effort to keep up with others in the IP CCTV market place? Were their DVRs too expensive to sell and to maintain and was their returns policy one that put off prospective buyers of their hardware?

Lets hear from you Dallmeier!

 

IFSEC 2011 news and reviews

So here it is again. IFSEC 2011, time flies. Well it was a good journey up . No traffic and straight into the car-park without fuss. Have to say we were well impressed with the organization there. Still £8 for parking and we were all thinking inflation was running at 4.5%!!.

So into the show and checking in was easy. Faced immediately with the Risco stand we thought we would take a look. Lots of wireless intruder options and generally helpful chaps, well done Risco. We had no real plan in mind so started to wonder around and see what caught our eye. Bold communications were advertising that they were celebrating 30 years in the business and their stand certainly outlined that fact. Bold communications are the suppliers of integrated security monitoring software for small to medium sized central stations but also boast some pretty good customers such as the Mitie group, they certainly were able to demonstrate some advanced monitoring technology and and we left quite impressed.

Bombarded with literature we carried on taking in as many stalls as we could but generally attracted to the big names on show. Panasonic stood out and we headed that way. We have to say the stand was impressive, the cameras look great , the DVRs seem to be able to do just about anything, but the guys on the stand just did not seem to understand any of their products, each seeking answers from each other from what should have been simple questions. Not impressed although this observation can only reflect on those we talked to not all the guys on the stand. The Bosch stand was good and the Dallmeier offerings equally impressive, still exhibiting the Netbox we noticed! Walked past dedicated Micros as it just did not seem to have much interesting going on. We wanted to get some information on the Honeywell HRDP DVR did not seem like there was any literature left though, but the staff were helpful, so fair enough. Then we became interested in the HDCCTV on show. Now HDCCTV is a concept where by HDCCTV cameras can be connected to existing coax and the cameras viewed without the need for compression so true HD images can be viewed. Well plenty of  HDCCTV cameras on in the exhibition but no-one seemed to be able to offer us a recording solution, that was until we found Everfocus. They are pioneers of  HDCCTV over coax and offer the complete solution. This technology will sit nicely with smaller installers who have customers craving  HDCCTV cameras but without the cost involved of upgrading analogue to IP, lets see how this HDCCTV technology develops.

Lunchtime……. could IFSEC 2011 beat the offerings of IFSEC 2010? Well….. it was …..ok……..So on we go to the Adpro stand. They have released the new FastTrace 2 , now this one is a winner, a good name and a great product. A Hybrid recorder with transmission that central stations are familiar with and rock solid delivery of images, quality images at that.

Stand of the day was Samsung, fantastic,impressive and must of cost a few quid but it drew the crowds in and with good reason, excellent products to view and very helpful staff. Panasonic, learn from this!!!

Now a few mentions for others. Silvernet, great product.Wireless IP transmission, easy to set up and and some rave reviews about how successful some of thier projects have been. Recommended if you need wireless IP. Paxton as always were there and their new POE IP solutions look like they will make life easier for installers, so well done Paxton. Avigilon………..Quality !

Finally we had the side shows lots of exhibitors who had obviously travelled from afar to show off their cameras, DVRs, IP products etc. but they still lack the clout in the UK enjoyed by the recognised names so they tend to get politely passed by.

All in all a good exhibition, was not so IP focused as last year but the market place is still taking time to move that way , much to many peoples surprise. However IFSEC 2011 as an exhibition certainly held its own and will be worth a visit again next year.

Lilin NVR…..new in the LILIN CCTV range

  • Lilin NVR range
  • Lilin NVR
  • The new LILIN NVR range  means they have expanded their range of network video recording solutions once again. The CMX CCTV software and the GVD range of HD NVR’s are capable of recording up to 32 megapixel IP camera streams and displaying these simultaneously. Search options include a time line that allows the operator to easily find video that the end user may wish to export or burn onto a DVD. Points or regions of interest within the megapixel image can be created and this allows flexible recording and reduces storage of unnecessary data. With NVRs capable of up 14 TB of internal storage the GVD HD network video recorders offer some excellent features.
  • The LILIN CMX management software is also capable of managing remote IP cameras and DVRs . Emap alarms and motion notification enable the end user to be kept informed of all important events. Enabled with a powerful HTML feature hyperlinks means the user is able to bring up live video by just clicking on the mapping feature that is presented to the him when an alarm activation occurs.
  • Third party cameras can also be integrated into the system including ACTi IP cameras along with Arecont,  Pelco, Axis, Panasonic, Bosch and Sony Quite a selection of top make names. ONVIF compliance means that this recording solution can be applied to a site that has a multitude of different cameras installed
  • lilin cameraLots to look at on the LILIN website if you would like to see more detail

Videcon VXH264 DVR

VXH 264 videconVidecon VXH264

The Videcon concept pro DVR series comes in 4,8, and 16 way versions. A
quick glance shows that it includes the following features as standard.

1) H.264 compression is a powerful compression engine that allows
anything up to 30% more footage to be stored on the DVR compared to
MPEG4.

2) As you would expect the VXH264 comes in 3 versions. 4,8,16 ways and Videcon
have made sure the new DVR will integrate seamlessly with other products
in Concept Pro range.

3) For enhanced on- screen operation and ease of use , the CCTV software
interface has a colour coded GUI. In addition to this the operator is able to use
a 24 hour single channel overview in the form of a panoramic search. This helps drill down an event into 3 hour periods and makes finding information very much easier.

4) To ensure a rapid response to events as they happen Videcon have
included an instant playback feature.Very handy if the operator has just witnessed an event and wishes to review it immediately.

5) 2 forms of remote connection are also available either through your
PC using an on screen web browser or alternatively from your smart
phone or iPhone. Apps are simple to download and very easy to use. This is something that we believe is always going to help sales.

6) Remote monitoring is possible using the VXH264-4 VX264-8 and the
VX264-16 .Each unit can connect to any professional monitoring station
that employees IMMIX software as its front end alarm handling software.
By using broadband as your primary path to the central station it is
quick cheap. The line can be monitored securely using Emizon giving you an
excellent overall package. With remote monitoring giving an on going
annual revenue stream it makes sense to push this option to end users.

videcon VXH DVR

In addition to the above the DVRs run a watchdog that will monitor the
health of the hard drive and log any faults that may be occurring. This
enables action to be taken before any footage is lost. We find the major
gripe customers have is when they need footage only to find that the
hard drive has failed. The Smart system check functions within the
VXH264 come in very handy in terms of preventing this.

Active audit trails; multiple archiving facilities and reserve data
management all help to sell this product on
merit. Add to this a smart search facility and a 3 year warranty and you
have a very tidy package here from a forward thinking company.

For more information on the concept pro VXH264 range.

Telephone: +44(0)1924 528000