ISC West, the largest physical security tradeshow in North America, once again was home to more than 10,000 new product introductions. Here are a few of the visitor management solutions introduced this year, from smart card readers to ID badges and more.

For Chanda Litten, light rail in Sacramento is the way to get around although she was sometimes faced with characters who made her uneasy. “It’s really dark, and you see some undesirables,” she reported to a local TV station. “It doesn’t happen often, but when it does it can be very scary.” Norm Leong, the head of Regional Transit Police in Sacramento, California, plans to improve the system through use of more video and patrol coordination with local police.

There are times and situations when security executives or law enforcement need to mount a covert investigation or monitoring event that may include cameras, sometimes infrared and low light, or audio.

Businesses have listened to staff and abandoned in-house developed tools in favor of consumer products and ubiquitous software-as-a-service (SaaS) capabilities. They want to exploit the benefits that extensive R&D and manufacturing can bring and are willing to trade off the minor compromises that come with standardized solutions. Also, security managers are starting to ask why sites can’t be secured in the time it takes to add a Dropcam to their home network…

This technology allows enterprise security leaders to retain their original investment in the wiring and cabling infrastructure of their existing surveillance system while upgrading to 1080p Full HD (2.1MP) cameras.

In the midst of mergers and acquisitions, there is still plenty of innovation and energy within the security industry, and enterprise security executives are in a position to benefit. As more and more end users attend the annual ISC West conference April 15-17 in Las Vegas, more focused solutions find their way to the forefront of booths, as manufacturers outline not only the technical aspects but the integration possibilities, risk mitigation benefits and problem-solving features of their new solutions for active end users.

Known as Music City USA, Nashville attracts artists from nearly every genre of music and from all corners of the globe. The community boasts approximately 200 recording studios as well as the supporting spinoff industries such as booking agencies, publishing companies, trade publications and more.

 In recent years, “cyber” has monopolized most of the serious coverage in the security industry, and rightly so, given the underprepared stance of many government and commercial organizations in the face of persistent “leakage” of information and malicious attacks. Yet too often, the equivalent dialogue around physical security has been disappointingly predictable. The industry fixates on pixel counts and IP versus analog. The more enlightened may debate the benefits of the latest breakthrough technology or an attempt at greater industry cooperation. At this point, insert “video analytics” and “ONVIF interoperability,” or any one of a hundred themes.