Although Latin America has presented difficulties for the implementation of new technologies, and at times is reluctant to some others, the region is gradually integrating more and more alarm and monitoring systems to its security facilities.
by Santiago Jaramillo Hincapié
A categorical statement by professionals in the security industry is that the region is accepting with agility and increasingly the implementation of alarm and monitoring systems in its projects.
Latin America has grown in all areas of security, especially in the item of video surveillance, however a segment that has been pushing with great force is that of alarms and monitoring, as evidenced by the figures of imports and exports of this type of elements in the countries of the region released by the statistical portal Datamyne.
They are mainly private security companies, from electronics to physical, which adds up to approximately 70% of the market. 20% is required by corporations that decide to form their own monitoring centers to control their dependencies, branches and warehouses. 5% of the market is reserved for financial and banking entities, and the final 5% is represented by housing condominiums, private urbanizations or closed neighborhoods, which provide electronic security not only to homes but also to the outer perimeter.
Another aspect that can be considered as positive for Latin America is the good momentum that the market has taken, especially in IP signals of residential and commercial alarm panels, which leveraged by video, audio and GPS signals will most likely continue to grow and expand.
Basilio Ángel Holowczak, engineer of the Latin American & Caribbean Area of Takenaka engineering Co. Ltd., highlights that Takex's balance in Latin America in terms of the market for alarms and intrusion systems is one of sustained growth especially in relation to residential external security, given the prevailing insecurity in most Latin American countries and the desire of the residential user to detect the intruder not when it is inside his interior of his house, but just do it early on the outside of it for the taking of countermeasures in time to counter such intrusion attacks.
Meanwhile, Luz Sánchez, representative of the Argentine company Central de Monitoreo highlights that in the security market, 25% belongs to the participation in electronic security, 50% to CCTV and 25% between access control and fire. Notwithstanding the above, and despite the fact that his strength in the industry is shaping up towards training and instruction for medium and small monitoring companies, especially in access to 100% monitoring software in the Cloud, the present and the prospects for his company are very favorable.
It is also highlighted by Basilio Ángel Holowczak, who affirms that "the strongest segment of sales of Takex is related to exterior security, especially home security through volumetric outdoor detectors with unlimited tolerance of pets (the most used outdoors of houses) in their types wired mostly and to a lesser extent their wireless versions (80% of the percentage of sales) and secondly to external security to protect large perimeter lengths with active infrared barriers of 4 beams of Closed Neighborhoods or Country Clubs, Industrial Plants and since 2008 given the International Crisis to notice the beginning of the use of stacking of 2, 3 or 4 barriers of 4 beams for the protection of High Level Security Prisons".
The industry is not static and is renewed
On the technological issue, the total integration of alarms with GPRS systems stands out, among other factors, in addition to SMS instant messaging for event reception.
This is largely due to the adoption of total integration policies, this applied to the new links and equipment such as the control of guards with devices that transmit by GPRS each marking of the guard when crossing a perimeter; the video verification of the alarms uniting all types of imaging devices such as DVR, IP cameras, Video servers through the Internet and Pir Cam equipment that include in the same infrared sensors a camera to capture the image of the exact moment of the intrusion.
SMS has also been integrated as an event reception link, giving the monitored user the ease of sending different emergency warnings directly from their cell phone to the monitoring center.
In the field of software is equally salvageable the advances and options that are offered today, can be achieved from the simplest that simply receive and decode the reports of the alarm systems, which are sent to the monitoring management software to manage in an organized and effective way the reports of each client, as well as those that offer security levels, such as, for example, the encryption of the information so that it travels confidentially to the monitoring station, including anti-substitution and anti-forwarding option; to versions that offer a powerful database that allows you to perform all the monitoring management in the same software.
On the other hand, according to Alex Swanson, director of engineering at IndigoVision, the latest version of SMS4TM, IndigoVision's management software suite, introduces alarm deployment options that will make it easier for users, more than ever, to respond effectively to alarms. Operators choose precisely where that alarm will display in their SMS4TM Control Center interface, and each alarm is clearly identified when deployed.
It also highlights that as long as there is no alarm activated, the operator can see any live camera on any video panel. When an alarm is triggered, however, the assigned panel switches to the associated camera view, with a distinctive "alarm" ID, so that the user knows exactly where to look.
This feature puts the user in complete control of what he is seeing and where he sees it, since what is sought is that the configuration of the alarms is simple and intuitive.
"The faster an operator can react to an alarm, the better. That is why the importance of this type of technology that gives the user options for the visualization of alarms and allows him to respond even faster than before, "says Swanson.
Basilio Ángel Holowczak, for his part, highlights that as in the last year that Takex launched the first 180º wireless outdoor Pir, this year it expects to present active infrared barriers of 4 wireless beams for 50, 100 and 200 meters.
Meanwhile, the representative of Central de Monitoreo highlights the placing on the market of CKBD systems (monitoring is 100% GPRS and IP without infrastructure) and Wifi communicators for alarms.
Moving on to the issue of what are the main barriers or difficulties encountered by companies in this segment of the industry, the Representative of Takex affirms that "they are not really significant because they are focused on satisfying the medium and high level of the market and not the range of economic sensors in which the competition is very high, therefore, it offers equipment with exclusive characteristics and superior technology within the basic detection technologies (today the most used) and some models not manufactured by some manufacturers of similar equipment such as external barriers for 400 and 600 meters. of effective distance of protection and anitexplosives for 200 and 400 mts., and additionally because the Takex sensors enjoy good prestige and credit from the professional guild of international electronic security, prestige that was formed over time and since 1959, date of appearance of Pulnix-Takex in the international market for maintenance, improvement, advances and constant developments related to the quality of the sensors they manufacture".
For her part, Luz Sánchez indicates that one of the factors that represents the greatest difficulties for this area of the industry would be the lack of knowledge in the guild of long-term planning, improvisation and that generally people do not know what they want. "
Moving on to the issue of where the main investments in this industry are inclined this year and in which the hopes of the business are encrypted in the future, Basilio Ángel Holowczak, argues that they are mainly inclined to investments aimed at security or external detection, especially the development of sensors or wireless systems with accentuated focus on home external security and the hopes of the business in the future are encrypted in the types of security already indicated, of course without neglecting other segments that also add and deliver dynamism to the sector".
