Hi-Tech Security Solutions was born in September of 1995 and hit the ground running, with news, products, trends and insights. What were some of the interesting products we covered that year? What were the trends that were starting to come through? The following snippets are by no means exhaustive, but they do hark back to the changes that were coming, the changes that helped Hi-Tech Security Solutions become the publication that it is today.
Cynaps' axon access control system
Cynaps introduced its Axon, a product it designed incorporating mainstream standards-based technology. Lonworks-based, the Axon was immediately interoperable with over 200 facilities management products from different vendors. The Axon catered for applications needing a simple 4-door controller to controlling up to 32 000 doors, and boasted a modular architecture for future expandability.
Irenco
Irenco introduced its locally manufactured infrared dual beam perimeter protection solutions. Cost-effectively manufactured in South Africa, Irenco, through its Denel roots, had already established an export market for its products, though commercial applications using infrared beams for perimeter protection were the exception rather than the norm in 1995.
Digit-Eyes, CAT
Digit-Eyes was one of the forerunners to the emerging concepts of remote monitoring and digital image management. Based as it was on Windows NT 3.51 (in its early basestation format), Digit-Eyes introduced terminology to the security industry that simply did not exist at the time. Server. ISDN. PSTN. JPEG. MPEG. Compression ratios. Transmission rates. Frame rates. Storage capacity. How much? The analog vs digital debate was in its early stages in 1995, and Digit-Eyes was a catalyst to the rapid adoption of digital surveillance solutions.
TVX camera on a chip
Remember TVX? It was dubbed the world's smallest video surveillance camera, boasting a lens the size of a ball-point pen tip, bonded onto a silicon chip measuring some 5 mm x 3 mm, allowing the device to be incorporated into existing and new alarm systems. Or that was the theory anyway. Essentially it was positioned as a low-cost visual verification add-on to existing alarm systems, which when triggered would result in the capture and storage of four images (taken at 1 sec intervals) which would then be transmitted to the alarm monitoring centre for action.
Impro wins President's Export Award
Impro Technologies was judged the winner of the 1995 President's Award for Export Achievement for its sustained successes in recent years. In spite of tough competition from sophisticated multinationals, Impro managed to double its export volumes and workforce every year, with more than 30 countries being added to its list of destinations since the company started exporting in 1990. Impro's export achievements were built on its introduction of the proximity card for its access control solution, a device that it developed, designed and manufactured in South Africa.
CSIR's ACL intelligent perimeter protection
The CSIR launched its neural network-based ACL 'intelligent' perimeter protection solution amid great fanfare and claims that not all IR perimeter solutions were created equal. Developed in conjunction with CSIR's Aerotek, the ACL solution was claimed to have been developed and designed to interpret the nature of the way in which multiple IR beams were interrupted (as opposed to merely detecting the breaking of a beam), and to use pre-programmed intelligence to indicate whether these warnings were genuine, nuisance, or truly false. The day of the 'dumb' fence was truly over.
Microchip acquires Nanoteq's code hopping technology
Microchip Technology acquired the Keeloq code hopping technology and patents developed by South Africa's own Nanoteq, along with the worldwide marketing rights for the technology. Nanoteq at the time was renowned as a leader in the development and implementation of code hopping and secure smartcard integrated circuits. With Nanoteq's patents in hand, Microchip introduced products which have since become ubiquitous, allowing design engineers the world over to create highly secure wireless/remote controlled systems, amongst others.
The battle of the bands
FSK, MAMI, RDC and Pi Electronic Security were competing vigorously in the alarm transmission and base station market, and as fast as one company introduced a product, the other would be working on its own next generation product. Pi's Sentry alarm transmitters and Cypher 200 base stations, were doing battle with RDC's TX4000 and TX8000 transmitters and Reporter 8102 central station decoders/repeaters. The early 1990s were frenetic years as these companies worked hard at establishing themselves as preferred suppliers in the alarm monitoring market, at a time when domestic alarm installations were going through the roof.
The Electronic Security Systems Buyers' Guide
OK, so I am a year late on this one. We actually introduced the Buyers' Guide to the security industry in 1996, as part of our 5th issue. It included a planned WWW presence (how cool was THAT in 1996!) and was quite revolutionary at the time. There were still no e-mail or web addresses on adverts in the magazine at the time, and here we were planning to implement a database driven online resource for security technology buyers. On the web. With access via scorchingly fast 14,4 Kbps modems. Ouch.
Today, the Buyers' Guide remains an essential tool in the end-users' hands when it comes to procurement. We have heard it from the horse's mouth too ... some major parastatals simply will not do business with a supplier not listed in the Hi-Tech Security Solutions Buyers' Guide! And with 10s of 1000s of searches done on a monthly basis, the online resource ( www.secureit.co.za) continues to add value to the supply-chain. If you are a vendor, make sure you are listed. If you are a buyer, make sure you use it.
Securex 95, DEXSA '96
The second Securex exhibition and second Defence Exposition were essentially reflections of the dynamic changes in the security industry itself. Securex boasted a significant international component, with the Rainbow Nation euphoria still coursing the veins of South Africans as they basked in the international limelight, welcomed back as they were with open arms. Of course there was business to be done too, and it was at Securex and to a lesser extent DEXSA, that the international community started to salivate a little at the prospects of doing business in Africa, through South Africa. And the local industry players started to shimmy up to their international courtiers, leading ultimately to a massive influx in investment capital into the security sector, as well as a deluge of new brands, and distribution rights being bagged left, right and centre. An industry built on its human capital had entered a new era, one in which technology would become a major driver. And that trend has not slowed. In fact, it has barely begun. Hold on tight, we are in for a helluva ride over the next 10 years!
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