March's Industry Brief

TOP NEWS STORIES
* Kastle sold to investor Mark Ein in quick close. After only two months of negotiations, Mark Ein, a venture capitalist and former principal of the Carlyle Group, has purchased Kastle Systems International, which installs and manages security systems for multi-tenant commercial office buildings. * GE, Smiths form joint venture. General Electric and Smiths Group announced in January a letter of intent to form a joint venture, to be called Smiths GE Detection, which will join GE Homeland Protection and Smiths Detection, and be owned 64 percent by Smiths and 36 percent by General Electric. * FCC considers AMPS sunset extension. Alarm industry advocates are eagerly awaiting word from the Federal Trade Commission about whether the regulatory agency will agree to extend the AMPS sunset beyond the February 2008 deadline.

COMMERCIAL & SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS
* Condortech to help PSA secure government business. PSA Security Network members will have a leg up in securing government contract work thanks to an agreement announced Jan. 17 between PSA and member company Condortech Services of Alexandria, Va. * Nexus to acquire IT integrator Linear. Homeland Security Capital Corp., a Pink Sheets-traded holding company looking to consolidate homeland security-related businesses, announced in January that subsidiary Nexus Technologies Group, a security systems integrator, has signed a letter of intent to acquire Linear Technologies, an IT integrator specializing in data networks and telecommunications based in New York City.

FIRE SYSTEMS INSTALLATION
* Barrier to sprinklers? Wrightsville Beach advocates woo realtors & homebuilders. * Rep. Tubbs Jones pushes fire bills. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) is hopeful that fire-safety legislation she reintroduced in January will receive favorable attention from the new Congress.

MONITORING
* UControl unveils new dealer program. 'May solve AMPS issue by shipping a box.' * Criticom leases new space in Southern California, New Jersey is next. Criticom Internationl, a division of Integrated Alarm Services Group, announced on Jan. 19 it has leased new space for the secure office property in Cypress, California.

RESIDENTIAL SYSTEMS
* Brink's executives tout fourth quarter results. With profits up, the residential giant eyes acquisition opportunities. * AlliedBarton buys Florida-based firm. Guard firm AlliedBarton Security Services expanded its presence in the residential market with its Feb. 1 acquisition of The Fox Group International, of West Palm Beach, Fla.

SUPPLIERS
* More reasons to lease. Ingram Micro, a distributor increasingly offering more products to the physical security reseller, announced in January a new financing program with Cisco Capital. * HID man Sullivan to head Fargo. Fargo Electronics, the identity management manufacturer recently acquired by HID Global, announced in early February that David Sullivan is the company's new president.

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Hello and welcome to the Security Systems News Industry Brief. Each month a prominent person from the security market is asked questions about their niche. This month's interview is with Tom Hansen, Founder and CEO of AirVisual, Inc.

Tom Curry: How do you see the wireless security market? Is there any segment of the market that holds more potential for growth?

Tom Hansen: The market is growing at an accelerated rate now that there are viable, cost-effective means of establishing remote monitoring and control solutions for complex systems. AirVisual's unique approach to wireless connectivity for professional security applications has been a driving force behind this market trend. In addition to providing monitoring and control functionality, AirVisual's open architecture allows legacy systems to be integrated with today's more advanced networked systems. This "open" solution has broken down the integration barriers. We see significant interest in law enforcement and first responder applications - basically government operations on the local and state levels. The open architecture of our solution makes this possible since it virtually provides universal compatibility.

TC: Do you have any estimates as to the dollar size of this market today? Where do you expect future growth to come from?
TH: There are no definitive estimates on market size. However, the applications for this type of mobile video solution are extensive as it applies to so many vertical markets. We see the greatest growth potential coming from law enforcement, however, we are pursuing partnerships to extend the application to the alarm industry. We see tremendous growth potential in vertical markets such as retail, small business and residential applications.

TC: What has AirVisual done to position itself for this market?
TH: AirVisual is the only company that offers a truly functional mobile video solution with open architecture to accommodate virtually any video surveillance and access control manufacturers' device. This puts us in a unique position. Many companies have touted mobile video capabilities that they simply could not deliver. Hence, as a new company on the scene, proof of performance was and continues to be critical. We've done extensive field trials, which are now resulting in field deployments. As a result, we are experiencing exponential growth as we continue to expand our capabilities with a host of new partners and alliances. Additionally, AirVisual has been a leader in the industry for a number of years and our experience and information gathering has become invaluable to our customers for their planning and deployment of this type of system. Our cycle of evangelism and education is nearing conclusion. More and more, customers who have invested into camera networks or other hardware for their security understand the need to extend their present systems and make them available over wireless and across multiple agencies, offering peer-to-peer information sharing unlike anytime before.

Thank you Tom Hansen for your comments.

Tom Curry
Group Publisher

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