April 18, 2026
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Home Articles posted by a&s Adria (Page 229)

Wavestore appoints veteran sales director for EMEA growth

Wavestore, the British developer of innovative open-platform and highly secure Linux-based video management software (VMS), has appointed Simon Shawley as its new Sales Director to oversee the company’s sales strategy and drive growth across EMEA.
Simon has over 25 years’ experience in the electronic security market having previously held senior sales and business development positions for companies including Hanwha Techwin and Dvtel.

“It’s great to join the Wavestore team at such an exciting juncture,” said Simon. “Organisations are increasingly utilising VMS to maximise their investment in electronic security and Wavestore’s ability to bring together third-party devices and sub-systems such as cameras, intruder detection, access control and video analytics from the world’s leading brands onto a common, future-proof and easy to operate platform, delivers clear benefits from both a technology and total cost of ownership standpoint.”

IndigoVision Interview – a&s Adria Magazine

Mr. Pawel Domagala, for a start, could you please give us an overview of your educational and professional background and your role at IndigoVision (how and when did you started working there, what business area are you in charge with, what is it like working for a globaly renowned company, in what way does it supplements your career and is there something interesting from the time spent in your company you would like to highlight)?

My name is Pawel Domagala, I am Sales Account Manager at IndigoVision since 2015. The terriroty that I am currently responsible for is Central Eastern Europe and significant part of the Balkans region. Before joining current team I was representing Arecont Vision, a US cameras manufacturer, as Regional Sales Manager for same territory. My first steps in the security industry were (being still a student of Electonics and Telecommunication) with ADI Global Distribution where I worked for more than seven years as a CCTV IP Sales Manager. Being a part of the IndigoVision team is a great fun, all the people who support me everyday (Marketing Team, Orders Management Team, Product Management Team, Technical Support Team, Operations Team, Finance Team, Enginnering Team and Management) make you feel like a member of the family.

IndigoVision is a developer of complete, end-to-end video security solutions. Tell us more about your company. What does your product portfolio consists of and how is it different from the other security manufacturers?

IndigoVision is a flexible, scalable, end to end open platform solutions provider. All of our products are single-mindedly designed towards enhancing your security. Our solution is scalable and open giving the ability to add devices to your installation wherever you need them, including a wide range of third party cameras or other manufacturers’ security systems, such as Access Control and Perimeter Detection.

What are your key technologies you base your development on?

Across our end-to-end product set our Research & Development team utilize a wide range of software and hardware development technologies. This involves a range of programming languages, development platforms and test environments. The general principals we apply are quality, adherence to open standards and ease-of-use. We use Agile development processes in developing all products.

A distributed network architecture is central to IndigoVision’s business. Give us an example of how it works and why is it less vulnerable than to have a central server?

Old Analog systems relied on a matrix to distribute video through a single location. The system was limited by the power of that matrix. But of course analog is the thing of the past. Or is it? A centalized IP system has still a bottleneck and still has the same risk of the failure. This feeling becomes increasingly apparent when using, as is common these days, multimegapixel cameras and can result in a failure of the network, server or both. IndigoVision’s Distributed Network Architecture on the other hand has no such limitation. Data transfer, management and processing are bounced across the network or even across multiple networks. If by any reason the primary network fails, each local system continues to function with no single point of failure. In addition each node of the system can act as a failover to the others providing additional redundancy. We have to add that distributed architecture cuts down the latency of the system, is modular and totally scalable supporting anything from one to hundreds, thousands and even hundreds of thousands of cameras. To summarize DNA from IndigoVision is infinitely scalable and totally robust.

Most the industry uses generic image sensing chips, but you don’t. IndigoVision’s chip is dense and multi-layered, and you have 2 chips where most of the other manufacturers would have one. What are the benefits of investing into sensors of your own design and how does it stands out in the market?

We don’t design our own sensor chips. Our cameras are always based on a two chip design incorporating the best available sensors from industry leading suppliers plus the best available encoder chips. Across our GX/BX/Ultra ranges of cameras we use various encoder chips. On our high end Ultra cameras the current encoder is a proprietary IndigoVision designed FPGA. The benefits this encoder gives us is tight control of key elements of the video encoding process such as guaranteed frame rate and very low bandwidth.

One of those things that differentiate IndigoVision from other security cameras manufacturers is its complete openess to all other solutions. Do you, as a company, benefit from this approach? Do you have some feedback from the customers?

Yes, being open means that everything effortlessly communicates. Regardless of any existing system installation the IndigoVision system can be easily integrated with this, any specialist security systems as well as any 3rd party cameras. This is made easy by conformance with various industry standards including ONVIF Profile S and OPC.

What product or product series would you highlight as a best-selling one/s and why?

Our Video Management System, Control Center is certainly a key part of our total offering. This enables us to  provide a complete (but still open) system including cameras, NVRs, integration modules and management software. To extend the functionality of the solution we continue to invest significantly and are now offering to the market Artifical Intelligence powered by BriefCam, FrontLine2 Body Worn cameras and  as one of the industry leaders we are also addressing cyber-attack and threats with our CyberVigilant® patented technology.

You also have your own VMS. Is communication with end users important for its development? What are some of the new features you’ve added to your VMS solution?

Yes, communication with our customers is key and we regularly meet with end users to gather feedback on their current and future needs, which helps drive our product development. New features include support for CyberVigilant® and Artificial Intelligence powered by BriefCam, as well as a restructuring of our software license tiers to help address the needs of medium-sized and smaller sites with our Lite, Pro and Ultra Control Center offerings.

IndigoVision Control Center. Tell us something about it, its applications and use?

IndigoVision Control Center is a fully integrated user interface for managing video, access control and alarms. It puts everything in your territory at your fingertips. Easy to install and intuitive to operate, Control Center video management software gives you vision, sound and oversight of all cameras, from 1 to 100,000. Map-based monitoring lets you navigate across cameras, while Pursuit Mode allows you to instantly follow and target from one camera to the next. You can respond to any event with fast forensic search, now including IndigoVision’s Artificial Intelligence powered by BriefCam.

With over 23 years in IP surveillance experience, IndigoVision know that data flows in predictable ways. By monitoring that flow, IndigoVision created CyberVigilant® technology. You showcased it this year. Tell us more about it since cyber security is one of industry’s major concerning issues?

IndigoVision’s CyberVigilant® is a unique VMS-integrated network monitoring device designed to monitor and detect network cybersecurity anomalies for surveillance devices. This can detect and report illegal configuration, access attempts, network reconnaissance, device access from unauthorised clients, shell access, use of unauthorised DNS and NTP servers, Denial Of Service (DOS) attacks. This has the potential to be extended in the future to support less malicious anomalies including, but not limited to, network health issues (poor network performance, reduced video quality).

CyberVigilant® achieves this by using two main sources of knowledge of the surveillance system that it “learns” – Topology and Experience. By combining site network topology and devices, and IndigoVision’s expertise in IP Networks, CyberVigilant® learns and sets up the rules needed to detect deviations from those behaviours through built-in detectors whilst also carrying out system health checks and catching any anomalies which might degrade the performance of the system.

15,000 installations is a quite impressive number. Present us some of your most important installations which were hardest to implement and which have some sort of cultural, historical or national significance? What verticals do you focus on?

Within my time at IndigoVision, just in my region, we did a lot of great projects together with our valuable partners including: over 60 courthouses poject in Lithuania, Deblin and Krzesiny military bases in Poland, Aupark shopping mall in Slovakia, Nikola Tesla Airport in Serbia, highways in Bosnia and Herzegovina, extension of border crossing points in Albania, or casinos and resorts in Montenegro. In terms of vertical focus while IndigoVision do sell into all verticals we do have a primary focus on Airports, Casinos, Education, Government, Health and Industrical markets.

Your opinion on Adriatic region market (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo) and IndigoVision’s position in it? How do you plan to increase your market share,?

Not only the Adriatic region but whole Balkans is a part of my territory which is very important for IndigoVision. This region is growing constantly, and EU is accelerating work over development of a common market in this area which will help companies like IndigoVision (EU based) to extend the presence there. On July 12th there was a Western Balkans Summit in Trieste which was attended by representatives of the EU and several member states and Prime Ministers of the six countires in the region that show EU ambitions: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia. Although all the countries in the region are CEFTA members, it has not sufficiently led to the elimination of the customs barriers. The general conclusion of the summit was that elimination of the customs barriers is the key target for the EU and the region for greater business development. IndigoVision is constantly extending the network of the Partners in the region and we do believe that it is worth to invest in the Balkans.

You have 7 regional offices around the globe and partner with 400+ authorized system integrators. Which center is in charge for our region, which regional companies do you work with and are you looking for new ones?

Our EMEA region looks after all countries within the United Kingdom and Europe. Within this region we have two offices, our head office in Edinburgh, Scotland and another office in Dubai, UAE and numerous Regional Sales Managers based in various countries across the region. Of the 400+ Authorized System Integrators more than half are based in Europe meaning there is a variety of choices depending on where you are based. We are always looking to expand our Authorized System Integrators so if anyone is interested in selling IndigoVision products please do not hesitate to get in touch.

INTERVIEW TO GIUSEPPE GARRI, SICUREZZA 2014 EXHIBITION MANAGER

With only 5 months to go till the opening of SICUREZZA, scheduled for 12 to 14 November at Fiera Milano, we interviewed Giuseppe Garri, Exhibition manager of the show3.

SICUREZZA 2014, the international exhibition of security and fire prevention, will open its doors next November  in Milan. Please, could you give us an update? 

All the pre-requisites are in place to suggest that this year’s exhibition of SICUREZZA will be a resounding success and will confirm itself as the only true landmark event for the industry in Italy. The numbers are very positive: till now, 75% of the available exhibition space has already been allocated to companies from 21 countries and the exhibitors are up 35% compared to the same pre-show period in 2012.An extremely positive result, which is a combination of companies which have always attended the exhibition and a large number of exhibitors who are returning to SICUREZZA after a gap of a few editions or are brands being presented for the first time.A strong sign of credibility, trust and loyalty. So I can say, without doubt, that visit SICUREZZA will be a good opportunity for trade operatives from all over the world, that will have the occasion to see first-hand the higher level of innovation, reliability and attention to design of the “Made in Italy” products.

How did you obtained this goal?

We’re very proud of this achievement, which is the result of the extremely positive figures obtained at the last exhibition, but also of the strong commitment we have made in terms of listening to many of the companies and associations in the sector and collaborating with them, which began many months ago. Talking to people who have daily experience of the market, listening to positive praise but also to constructive criticism, and investing to create an exhibition which really responds to their effective needs is a strategy which is certainly paying off. So this will be a larger exhibition, but also more representative, not only in numerical terms but, more particularly, in terms of quality. The top names will be present, there will be a large number of new features and previews and, as well as a very strong offering in the CCTV and access control segments, there also will be a wide range of products and solutions in the sphere of fire-prevention, passive defence and building automation.

What the novelties?

Leaving aside the great number of new product innovations available to the visitors, I would like to give you an update about the highly innovative servicesdeveloped both for exhibitors and visitors.

Trade professionals interested in attending the exhibition for the first time will not only be able to pre-register, but also to buy their ticket online. They just have to fill in the form on the exhibition website and make the on line transaction, which is absolutely secure. After that, they will be sent a pdf file with a bar code which can be scanned by the turnstiles at the entrance to the exhibition, or they can show it on their smartphone or tablet.

Exhibitors, on the other hand, can take advantage of the new, streamlined version of the E-service, the virtual store, which they can use to hire fittings and equipment. Not only that, but this time they will also have access to a new system track the trade professionalswho visit their stand, enabling them to identify ‘live’ the operators visiting the stand by simply using an app on their smartphone.

Moreover, to help exhibitors in their search for new customers in Italy or abroad, SICUREZZA have devised the EMP (Expo Matching Program), the innovative platform designed by Fiera Milano which enables them to contact the Buyers before the event has even started and to arrange goal-oriented meetings with them. Exhibitors can use the platform to consult and evaluate the profiles of potential Italian buyers, especially from the South of Italy, but also of 100 top foreign buyers, who have been selected and invited by Fiera Milano, from the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey and North Africa.

Do you offer also travel facilities?

We studied solutions both for those that come from abroad and for visitors from southern Italy.

Thanks to a deal with Lufthansa Group Partner Airlines, that  offer a comprehensive global route network linking major cities around the world, we offer special prices and conditions to reach Milan by flight.

Moreover, along with Fiera Milano official travel agency and Trenitalia, we propose competitive rail + hotel  ‘turnkey’ packages: by making a simple phone call you can not only organise your journey to the exhibition but save money too.

Jaroslav Barton, Sales Director of Identity and Access Management

HID Global in the Adriatic region: Jaroslav Barton, Sales Director of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey at HID Global

Worldwide known and over time successfully proven HID’s solutions are available for years on the markets in the Adriatic region through HID’s regional partners network. According to the claims of our respected source, when it comes to business operating performances in the region, HID’s key strength lies in its three main business segments. We have fond our interlocutor in Mr. Jaroslav Barton, the Sales Director of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in HID Global, who is managing the operations of the said departments in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe, in Russia and in Turkey.

a&s Adria: Dear Mr. Barton, would you be so kind to introduce yourself and to give us a brief overview of your professional career?

Jaroslav Barton: I am the Sales Director of Identity and Access Management (IAM) in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey at HID Global. IAM products include physical access control, identity assurance, card printing and issuing, visitor management and government-to-citizen ID solutions. I have been with HID Global since 2005, for 8 years, and in the security business for 16 years.

a&s Adria: HID Global is the trusted source for secure identity solutions for millions of customers around the world and a variety of markets. Widely known for its broad physical access portfolio, the company also has comprehensive solutions for logical access control including strong authentication and credential management, card printing and personalization, visitor management, highly secure government and citizen ID, and identification RFID technologies. HID Global is present in the countries of the Adriatic region through its distributors. What are the technologies that underpin the market performance of HID Global in the Adriatic region? For which HID’s technologies the most interest is shown there?

Jaroslav Barton: Within the Adriatic region, HID Global’s key strengths lie in three major business segments. Historically, HID Global has been synonymous for its access control cards and readers in many markets including the Adriatic region. It is still one of the cornerstones of our business. The second business segment is HID Global’s FARGO line of card printer/encoders. FARGO was acquired by HID Global in 2007 and it had been represented in the Adriatic countries prior to this as well. The third important business segment is Identity Assurance (formerly ActivIdentity) that delivers a full range of authentication and credentialing options that help organisations gain confidence in their users’ identities and effectively protects access to all physical resources, internal networks, systems and services, and public and private cloud-based applications. ActivIdentity has been the leader in authentication solutions in the Adriatic region and was acquired by HID Global in 2011.

a&s Adria: The market in Adriatic region is slowly recovering from the consequences of the recent economic downturn. In almost all countries in the region some new infrastructure projects have been triggered up, and those who, due to the poor economic conditions were temporarily suspended, now are reprogrammed. To what extent are such projects interesting for your company? Do they have the capacity to attract the interest of global industry leaders such as the HID Global?

Jaroslav Barton: We understand that the infrastructure business in any country is highly dependent on the economic situation in the region. Even though security should be a priority at all times, when the budget is tight, customers sometimes have a choice either to postpone a project or to purchase a cost effective security solution.  HID Global offers a robust, comprehensive and secure solution that also provides convenience to end-users. We have found that this is advantageous for existing and potential customers during tough economic phases.

a&s Adria: Each market is characterized by its specifics, which to a greater or lesser extent dictate the form of appearances of each market player. What are the particularities which characterize the market in the Adriatic region? Does HID Global receive sufficient information about the market conditions in the Adriatic region from its regional partners?

Jaroslav Barton: We work closely with our local partners to obtain the relevant information about customer demand within the region. HID Global is an international company offering solutions that can be successfully applied in any part of the world but we understand that it is imperative to tailor solutions to fulfil local requirements.In the Adriatic region we have experienced that that customers carefully evaluate and analyse the cost and benefits of a solution. They want to attain value for money for the lifecycle of the product and solution they purchase. HID Global has been successful in this region, as we are able to offer customers the solutions they desire at a cost effective price.

a&s Adria: HID’s Identity Assurance portfolio delivers a full range of authentication and credentialing options that help user gain confidence in its identities and effectively protect access to all users’ physical resources, internal networks, systems and services, and public and private cloud-based applications. In which way HID Global keeps the balance of the cost, simplicity and security requirements of such solutions and what is the final result of such measures on users side?

Jaroslav Barton: HID Global’s Identity Assurance portfolio provides the broadest and most integrated solutionsavailable in the marketplace in this region. It reduces the risk of network breaches with standards-based strong and layered authentication security solutions. A single, efficient credential management system simplifies and expedites deployment and increases the return on investment (ROI) for customers. The combination of versatile authentication infrastructure with acomprehensive  feature- rich credential management system and easy-to-use smartcards, tokens and OTP devices has resulted in HID Global offering both secure and cost-effective solutions.

a&s Adria: The wide spread of IT forces enterprises to take a review on how they establish trust in users’ identities and grant access to corporate resources and cloud applications. Operating in their businesses, more and more users are using their own mobile devices, desiring the same quick, easy and convenient access to resources at work, as they have in their personal lives. Many of these mobile devices are not owned or managed by the enterprise. In which way ActivIdentity can help organizations to establish the trust in their users’ identities when they are accessing resources from their mobile devices and then manage that access to protect their enterprise and cloud applications?

Jaroslav Barton: Bring your own device (BYOD) is a phenomenon that is becoming more and more popular in the corporate environment. Users expect access on an anytime, anywhere basis. The diversity of the user population and the multitude of devices in use also signal the ineffectiveness of a one-size-fits-all security policy. Organisations are presented with the challenge of finding a workable equilibrium between security and user-convenience. With HID Global’s Identity Assurance solutions, remote access security is achieved with multiple levels of assurance for security services, such as strong authentication, non-repudiation, digital signatures, and encryption.

a&s Adria: As a pioneer in development of NFC based solutions usable for a very wide range of applications, HID Global has successfully implemented its achievements in this field in the university environment, enabling students to use their mobile phones for gaining access into the campus area, rooms, classrooms, libraries, etc. In some countries NFC technology has been already successfully implemented in applications of non-cash payment of products and services. It seems that the possibilities for the application of this technology are almost limitless. In which direction will HID Global focus its R&D activities related to NFC technology in the future?

Jaroslav Barton: NFC technology is one of the main drivers for innovation in various applications, particularly within identification and access control. Therefore, HID Global has invested in the development of solutions that enable NFC based applications. For example, in 2011, we launched the iCLASS SEâ, NFC interoperable reader platform. Today, these readers are a standard solution offered, replacing older technologies. Even if you don’t use NFC today, you can be sure that with the iCLASS SE platform in place, you can add NFC phones or smart devices, as secure credentials any time in the future. The iCLASSSE platform also adds an additional layer of security to RFID technology security. Since iCLASS SE readers are field upgradeable and can be updated any time in the future as an organization’s needs evolve, end-users can be assured that a system can typically be upgraded without physically replacing readers.

HID Global’s iCLASS SE platform includes multi-application iCLASS Seosäthat feature a standards-based card edge and are portable for use on NFC smartphones so that customers can utilize smart cards, mobile devices or both within their physical access control system.  In the most simplistic model, iCLASS Seos credentials are provisioned over-the-air to NFC-enabled smartphones, where they are carried as digital cards and keys that can be “presented” to a reader or lock.

The phone communicates data to a reader or lock, which passes it to the access control system, which opens the door. HID Global and ASSA ABLOY have developed patented technology for the over-the-air provisioning and de-provisioning of access credentials on NFC-equipped mobile phones, and for using these portable credentials in a secure access network.  BlackBerry® now offers smartphones that are NFC-enabled and carry an HID Global applet that can be provisioned with iCLASS credentials.  HID Global is also working with other handset manufacturers to bring the same functionality to their NFC-enabled mobile phones. This secure mobile provisioning model makes it easier to revoke or cancel credentials when they are lost or stolen, and monitor and modify security parameters if required, such as when the threat level increases.

Interview: Borislava Nikolaeva Kenarova, Milestone Systems

Dear Ms. Nikolaeva Kenarova, tell us a bit about yourself, your position at Milestone, what are you in charge with, for how long, and something about your professional background?

I am Regional Sales Manager for Central Eastern Europe and I am responsible for the Go-To-Market strategy development and execution across 14 countries. I have been working for Milestone Systems for 2 and a half years

now and CEE region was recognized among the fastest growing regions for Milestone Systems in 2017. My goal is to lead the team to continue delivering great value to our customers and partners with a focus of further development of the local Milestone community.

Milestone position is stronger than ever. For the 10th year in a row, Milestone Systems is the number 1 global video management software (VMS) provider by company revenue, according to market research from business intelligence provider IHS Markit. In 2017, Milestone Systems had a global VMS market share of 10.2%, which is an increase from 9.1% in 2016. What is the reason behind this success?

Milestone Systems not only retained the number one position globally but in EMEA our market share increased to 17.1% from 14.8% in 2016. Our revenue growth in 2017 was 21% so it was triple to the overall market growth and the main reason for the positive development and for keeping the number one position for 10th consecutive year is for sure our partnership business model and our open approach. Milestone has always been very committed to bringing innovations to the community with its open platform Video Management System and to deliver great value to our partners.

Your company stated that it sustained growth by sustaining quality, having three release cycles, embracing partners even more by with strong lineup of software and partnerships, and maturing of its hardware line. Tell us more about this, what specific accomplishments within each of this points did you achieve?

The open platform gives the ability to take advantage of an entire industry’s innovation, increasing the value of the surveillance system. We are working in close collaboration with our community partners and as a result the end customers can have the freedom to add new technologies as they are developed. A recent example of our open approach and embracing partners even more is Milestone System Builder Program which we have recently launched. It will allow hardware manufacturers to design, build and ship hardware optimized for having XProtect VMS pre-loaded. In this way the System Builder program will enable hardware manufacturers to explore new business opportunities with new products in their existing channel and expand their market reach through Milestone’s worldwide channel network.

Milestone Systems will increase innovation capacity by 45 % by 2019 year-end and deliver on its promise to develop unique innovations that will meet future market demands in six key long-term innovation areas. I pressume this is a strategic way to gain pace in security industry. What are the objectives of this investment and what six areas are we talking about?

Nowadays the demands for smart solutions and machine learning technologies are growing and customers are more and more interested in scenarios beyond pure security. That is why we have made the decision to increase our innovation capacity. The objectives of this investment are to increase the development capacity of disruptive innovations within deep driver integration, advanced rendering, IoT and metadata sources, online services, advanced data management and Milestone Systems’ platform software development kit (SDK). As a result, we expect acceleration of Milestone System’s leading position in enabling the processing of video and data from solution partners who use neural networks, deep learning and AI technologies.

“There is no doubt that our open platform community and partnership business model is the reason for the positive development, and we are proud to be a trusted and reliable partner in the community. We will keep investing in our partner community, focusing on new technologies within cameras, access control and video analytics. We believe in a future where video will play an even more significant role in understanding data sources from the increasing numbers of devices that connect people and assets”, said Lars Thinggaard, President and CEO of Milestone Systems. Can you comment on this?

Milestone Systems wants to be part of every video installation in the world, so we need to be able to offer our customers the most innovative Video Technology Platform. We want to push our technology beyond traditional security in many different areas such as smart cities, retail, transportation etc. We are working in a direction to enable our partners to address the challenges that our end-customers are facing and in this regard our video technology is playing a vital role.

A couple of years ago, the entire industry was shaken when Milestone became a part of Canon. Yet, even today it is not quite clear what changes took place since you entered into a partnership with Canon. What did happen since 2014, what exact benefits did you gain by entering the group, and how it reflects on your business today.

Milestone Systems became part of the Canon family in 2014 and since then we operate as a standalone company. Maybe the most important thing after the acquisition was that we were still able to work with our own brand and to cooperate with multiple camera manufacturers. Since 2014 until now our turnover has doubled and the number of camera manufacturers that we support has increased from 130 to 150. We have proved that we can be successful as an independent company within a huge conglomerate.

Partnerships allows businesses to mutually recognise strengths and weaknesses and help each other improve. It can lead to valuable knowledge sharing, allow innovation, access to new markets, and increased customer loyalty. The security ecosystem has always come together to create something greater. One of the examples is a tripartite relationship between Promise Technology, Milestone and Axis to monitor a production line for the mixture of general synthetic fiber in a petroleum company in Singapore. What was the result of this collaboration in Singapore, what benefits did you customer gain? And be free to present some other examples.

This is a very good example of how the ecosystem benefitted everyone by providing the customer with a smooth-running solution and at the same time all three companies working in a better, more connected way by collaborating with each other. We have many interesting success stories and we see that more and more the end customers start using the video surveillance systems for scenarios beyond pure security where we collaborate well with our community partners. In our region we are recently focused on the following verticals: Smart and Safe City, Retail, Transportation and Logistics and you can find more examples on our dedicated portal for Customer stories.

One of the major specifics of Milestone is its Learning & Performance Program. It has evolved over recent years to include a vital eLearning component, sessions are now available in easy modules, online or in-person, self-paced or scheduled, a new design has been added, partner expertise dashboards were developed, etc. If you were talking about them to your new partner, what would you point out, how would you explain Program’s most important benefits. What are the results of this program: how many certifications in how many countries?

Yes indeed, Milestone Learning and Performance program has evolved a lot. We have introduced free eLearinings which are being updated regularly and are a great tool to start with and are very popular among our partners – there are more than 1500 enrolments each month only in EMEA. For more in-depth knowledge we have our instructor led classes which are focused on on-hands experience with our products and one of the important benefits of our program is that we can adapt our trainings and consult customers based on their business challenges.

“The world market for VMS is estimated to have grown by 8% in 2017. Supply to this market is gradually becoming more concentrated. The top largest vendors are estimated to have accounted for 48% of global revenues in 2015. In comparison, this figure was 57% in 2017”, stated Jon Cropley, a senior principal analyst for video surveillance at IHS Markit. Can you comment on this from a Milestone perspective? What is the primary reason of this market segment becoming more concentrated?

The reason is very simple – it is not an easy task to keep up with innovation and only the companies that invest in the future continue to grow and win market share. That is why the supply to the VMS market becomes more concentered.

How do you tackle cyber security risks?

Cybersecurity issues are a core focus area at Milestone and continue to be a big investment area for us in 2018 and 2019. As the technology progress, cyber threats become more intricate, requiring defense mechanisms that react quickly so in this regard Milestone is committed to providing the most secure tools for operational excellence, and to making sure its products are delivered with the maximum network security available, guaranteeing end-to-end evidence integrity and authenticity.

Milestone’s Chief Sales and Marketing Manager Kenneth Petersen said that “the biggest trend on the market is definitely that the end users are now demanding a solution and we must help them create it”. Would you agree on this and how would you help your customers to have a complete solution? 

Yes, it is important to see the full picture and offer not simply a product but a full solution. We usually start by analyzing the customer needs and business challenges and offering them a complete solution which may also require 3rd party integration or even Custom development so the end customer can have a personalized experience. We follow this approach also when we organize our regional community events – we focus on a specific vertical and show the industry demands, the challenges and the respective solutions together with our community partners.

At MIPS 2018, Milestone Systems highlighted artificial Intelligence as next market disruption for video technology. What is your company doing in that area and what can we expect from Milestone in the years ahead?

As mentioned earlier, we started by increasing the development capacity. We believe in a future where video will play an even more significant role to understand the data sources from the increasing numbers of devices that connect people and assets. We are constantly looking to find more efficient ways to translate this data into intelligence for taking faster decisions both for making the world a safer place, and for moving beyond security into many improvements for video business systems.

In the end, Milestone is doing quite good in Adriatic region. Do you have any data on increasing your market share in this region? You receintly opened up a new office in Belgrade, can you tell something about that? Are you looking for new partners?

We cover Central Eastern Europe from our office in Sofia which is the second biggest office after the HQ in Copenhagen. In Sofia we have professionals covering all major roles including sales, marketing, pre-sales and post-sales support and we are all in daily contact with our partners in the region. We are always open to establish new partnerships so don’t hesitate to contact us.

Interview: Pierre Racz, President and CEO of Genetec

Genetec, a leading provider of open-architecture, unified IP security solutions, has its finger on the pulse of the industry, enabling it to continuously develop products that more than keep up with the latest trends.

a&s Adria: How has Genetec evolved alongside the industry over the past few years?

Racz: In 1997, when Genetec was founded, we created an internet protocol (IP) architecture based on off-theshelf network hardware, video compression, and camera equipment to create Genetec Omnicast 1.0, one of the first IP-based, point-to-multipoint, video management systems (VMS) in the world. Our technological intuition, our entrepreneurial passion and educated guess about IP turned out to be correct.

When world circumstances forced the security industry to build complex security systems, going IP turned out to

be easier to build, and provided more flexibility in the digital networking (point-to-multipoint) realm, than in the analog/telecom (point-to-point) realm. After the events of 9/11, organizations around the world wanted to have multiple control rooms; one for operations, and at least one other as a backup to guard against natural and unnatural disasters. To do this with analog technology was prohibitively expensive or topologically impossible. Digital (IP) technology made addressing these new complex architectures possible, compelling customers to adopt IP digital video technology over analog.

Today, Genetec is in its 20th year as an innovative team, and has grown from creating IP video management systems, to engineering the most scalable, open-architecture, unified IP physical security platforms in the world. We went from offering an initial IP system that could manage 100s of cameras (in 2000) to a system that can scale to manage millions of cameras (in 2007) — all built on the foundation of open architecture, packet switching protocols (IP), and anticipating that the unification semantics would overtake naïve integration semantics. We’ve also grown from 10 employees to 1,000, working in dozens of office locations around the globe.

a&s Adria: How is Genetec planning to maintain this growth in 2018?

Racz: In 2018 — Genetec will continue to pursue its strategy to offer a continuous flow of clever innovations. Some of these will be evolutionary improvements to our technology, and others will be created to automate security processes that were not previously imagined nor easy to automate. We are democratizing technology, which in the past was only accessible and affordable to bigger organizations.

Our desire to engineer reliable and highly available systems had led us to design for system failures that have either accidental or deliberate and malicious root causes. Software today is like an organism with a weak immune system. We do not think we can rid the environment of parasites; we just have to become more resilient to their attacks.

a&s Adria: What industry trends do you see taking shape in 2018?

Racz: Security trends and topics Genetec will address in the security industry will be:

Combining Structured and Unstructured Data

Structured data contains information that enables the easy separation of a complex stream of information into its

constituent component, and enables complex automated decision making. For example, in a long undelimited string of data coming from a retail point of sale system, without structure tags, it is not possible to know if the characters “20” represent the item quantity, the purchase price, the sales tax or the line number. Video is the ultimate unstructured information stream that contains a wealth of information that is hard to get at mechanically. Combining structured and unstructured information opens up new dimensions of insight.

Early in our 20-year history we realized that simply recording video was not enough. We had to index the video with structured information coming from a vast ecosystem of sensors: number plate readers, access control events, sorting machines (baggage and package), point of sales, weather and seismological, etc. We did not know that that sensor ecosystem would be called the Internet of Things (IoT).

Now in 2018, Genetec is offering many new applications and features that will further enable our users to make more sense out of the data gathered from cameras and sensors to create operational insights to help retailers and enterprise customers acquire analytical intelligence from their environments. For example, our users can view heat-map extracts (directly from the video) to better understand people movements and customer flow trends. Combined with cash register sales data, these two pieces of information can generate valuable, insightful analysis of conversion rates from outside store foot traffic, to browsing customers and conversion rate of browsing customers to purchasing customers. Even further, different stores can be compared for different times of the day, days of the week, seasonal trends, unusual events and even how weather affects customer patterns.

Privacy Protection and Compliance

Video surveillance has proven to be an effective tool to shape and displace undesirable and destructive antisocial

behavior. With these technological advancements, also come social considerations, such as privacy concerns. People want to feel safe, but not watched. This is where privacy protection technology plays a role in ensuring that the security professionals have just enough information to be able to do their job. A video with the faces blurred is enough for security professionals to see that a street fight has broken out. Only under such circumstances will it be warranted to unblur the faces to identify the perpetrators.

This technology will be very important for European end users who are preparing to comply with the coming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), starting in May 2018, and who must perform credibly in the public’s eyes in preventing or resolving criminal acts.

Our Privacy Protector software available in Genetec Security Center, was just re-certified for the fourth time with the European Privacy Seal, which is approved as “GDPR-ready.” We see these types of privacy compliance regulations being adopted globally.

Self Service Freedom-of-Information Portals

Along with protecting privacy at the video surveillance level, these solutions will also provide an additional layer of convenience to facilitate requests from the public in accordance to the UK Data Protection Act of 1998, and other

Freedom of Information Acts, mandated by many world governments. All non-redacted video data is only accessible via a court order and consent from the owner.

In many world governments, liberal democracies have enacted state Sunshine Laws (referring to the disinfectant power of sunshine) which govern openness and public access to records. As we continue collecting more sensor data to improve the management of public security infrastructures, we’ve also increased the burden of compliance when the public wishes to access these government records. It will be very important to have tools that enable our governments to automatically and reliably redact personally-identifiable information and allow citizens a “self-service” access portal for secure, convenient and expeditious access to information.

Good Stewardship of Sensitive Data

As a side effect of carrying out this growing collection of data (both video and static), organizations are entrusted with personally identifiable information. The benefits of the proper use of this information is easily explained to the public. Less so, are the societal costs when this information is stolen and used for unintended purposes or falls into the hands of individuals with nefarious intentions. In the past two years, well publicized massive data breaches have raised the awareness of what before was just an abstract threat to our way of life — and we are realizing that activities in cyberspace have real and immediate dire consequences in the real world. This realization is creating demands from the citizenry that governments enact laws mandating good fiduciary cyberresponsibility and castigating cyber-irresponsibility and cybernegligence.

As mentioned earlier, the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), coming to the European Union in May 2018, is a good start. Cyber-negligence will be costly with penalties set at 4 percent of global revenue, or 20 million Euros, whichever is greater. Negative financial consequences and board-level liabilities are the only way of getting the attention of executives for whom data-breaches are too abstract and who dedicate an inadequate amount of resources to prevent. GDPR will have a huge effect in Europe, and will influence new compliance measures in other countries. Just like the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which mandated corporate and auditing accountability across all public organizations in the United States, holding CEOs accountable for financial reporting, the GDPR act will mandate executive-level oversight and a level of competence never before enforced. Executives will no longer be able to use “ignorance of cyber-complexity” to excuse reckless and negligent cyber behavior.

a&s Adria: What is your outlook for the global security market?

Racz: I am encouraged by the many positive ways in which our world will transform in the next 10-20 years. I am optimistic that efforts spent to reduce cyber-vulnerabilities will improve the reliability of software and reduce the brittleness of our complex systems. Executives will allocate an appropriate amount of resources to this end. Upcoming executives from the Nintendo-generation will do so because they understand the problem and the paleo-executives, because they understand financial penalties. More reliable systems will let us concentrate our efforts towards improving operational efficiency and making sense of the data that we are increasingly able to harvest.

Interview: Marco Grasselli, Regional Manager South-Eastern Europe, ComNet

a&s Adria: Could you present yourself to our readers?

Grasselli: I am Regional Manager South-Eastern Europe at ComNet. I’m 46. I’m an electronic engineer and my career has grown in sales and sales management. My previous experience was at a security systems integrator where I was in charge of business unit’s management and business development. a&s Adria: Could you present a brief overview of ComNet and its portfolio?

Grasselli: ComNet manufacture transmission and comms equipment across the analogue and digital platforms. This may be in the form of Wired, Wireless or Cellular spectrum – solutions for Infrastructure/ITS, Security and Data Networks. In Brief: Digital IP/Ethernet CCTV, Copper Extenders, Wireless, PoE / Remote-Solar Power Solutions, Analogue Fibre, Industrial and Commercial Ethernet Switches & Media Converters, Hybrid (Analogue / IP mix), 3G/4G Cellular Router. ComNet’s solutions are used globally by many industries across the infrastructure, security and data networks and designed to withstand the toughest environmental conditions and challenges. ComNet’s head office and factory is based in the USA employing in excess of 80 staff across 10 geographic locations including UK, Germany, Italy, Poland, France, Spain, Dubai, India and Singapore supporting customers. A further two R&D sites in New York and California help develop the next generation of innovative solutions.

a&s Adria: What news in ComNet portfolio?

Grasselli: ComNet is a dynamic company that engages many resources in the development of new technologies. ComNet always tries to offer innovative products, aware that competitiveness also depends on the specific architecture of the system and often ComNet offers unique and “peculiar” devices for specific applications. This allows us to construct an economically advantageous solution if it is analysed as a whole.

In these months we are presenting some brand new devices. The new industrial switch Made in the USA with PoE functionality up to real 60W over the extended temperature range, including an 11 Gigabit ports and a 24 ports of which 12 SFP Slots. The “universal” hybrid modular center switches, which can also host modules for “extended” Ethernet transmission on Coaxial cable or UTP cable for distances over 100 meters. Industrial VPN gateways for network backup on the cell line. The new miniaturized Smart Ring Switch models with the “Port Guardian” functionality and much more.

a&s Adria: What do you think about digital convergence in the field of security and CCTV? What are, in your opinion, the main problems, for producers and distributors, on  one hand, for installers and integrators of security systems, on the other?

Grasselli: The so-called “digital convergence” is a race towards a compulsory future. The migration to IP standards is a steady process in the video surveillance and access control markets, but all communications in our trade will be gradually involved, and the future is transmitting more and more signals related to security through Ethernet. Some specific regulations for security but above all for safety, are still a limit, but we are sure that manufacturers will push the entire sector to this direction in the near future.

Nowadays, the CCTV market, restricted to some security specialists until a decade ago, has become an interesting market for players with different backgrounds, who see in it new opportunities to increase their business. All this will bring new skills, a rapid technological innovation and the migration of all information to digital networks, TCP/IP protocol and structured cabling. In this scenario, now the major competitors in the video surveillance market are the “traditional” security specialists and also the companies that have always worked in the information technology market, without forgetting the companies of the more “generalist” electric world.

The problems are often concerning the specific knowledge about technical issues. Security specialists, technologically accustomed to plug&play structures and therefore less accustomed to active infrastructures, pay little attention to network devices. Paradoxically, even IT specialists, who are very familiar with network infrastructures, underestimate the need for a dedicated choice of active equipment and follow the system standards they know better. CCTV networks, however, have  huge application differences as compared to any traditional computer network, both because the features of a digital video signal are different from the ones of a generic IT network, and because the devices are often installed in unprotected environments and not inside buildings or in datacenters.

The result is that the general quality of a video surveillance system is often heavily impaired by an inappropriate design of the network infrastructure, often due to the need to reach fictitious financial savings. In general, in my opinion, the biggest challenge in the market will be to maintain a high level of know-how while trying to match the peculiar needs of Security with those of the IT networks, and making the most of both aspects.

a&s Adria: Market estimates show that 80% of European companies are hit by cyber attacks. How do you tackle the need for cyber security in Comnet?

Grasselli: Cyber Security must become a cornerstone in the design of Security systems to avoid the paradox that the critical point of failure in corporate cyber security is a company’s physical security system.

When introducing network devices in security systems, it is necessary to provide appropriate protection against external cyber attacks. Once again, the characteristics of the security systems go beyond those of the IT networks. By way of example, their network devices (cameras, switches, readers and so on) are often installed outdoors, in physically unprotected locations and above all, they cannot be directly monitored easily.

ComNet has always paid great attention to these aspects. On the one hand, trying to take regular care of the HW and SW development of its field devices with increasingly 100% Made in the USA engineering and manufacturing. On the other hand, equipping the items with cyber security features as complete as possible according to the specific needs. For example, the Reliance range is dedicated to the vertical market of critical infrastructures and so switches and routers are equipped with high level attack prevention systems, authentication processes, encryption and dedicated firewalls.

The latest innovation for field devices is the ComNet exclusive “Port Guardian” feature. This function locks out “Spoofing” accesses by physically disconnecting a port if unauthorized access is detected. The value in Port Guardian comes in situations where network access is attempted by disconnecting an IP addressable device on the edge to connect to the network. When Port Guardian senses this disconnection, a SNMP notification is sent to the head end and the affected port is physically locked out, so that access is prevented. The network administrator can reopen the port again when the threat is eliminated.

a&s Adria: In addition to Cybersecurity, what are the other challenges that the security sector has to face?

Grasselli: Another technical aspect that will involve all the players in the market will be the ever-increasing system integration, also pushed by digital convergence. As in all other sectors, we will see an increasing amount of data to be managed. On the one hand, from the human point of view, the need will be to simplify interfaces, automatic events correlations and “artificial analysis” of the growing quantity of information. On the other hand, from the point of view of the network, the need will be to increase the specialization of equipment, systems and therefore of specialists, whether they are installers or integrators.

Closer to the problems of classical Security, the growing demand of remote systems will require the development of new and more efficient solutions that ensure connectivity but also power supply where there is no reliable electricity network or continuity of service.

a&s Adria: In this scenario, what is the competitive edge for the companies who choose to rely on ComNet?

Grasselli: ComNet is a dynamic company, but with a several-decades-long technological background in the field of signal transmission. The strong attention to market demands allows us to be ready to meet new needs with high capacity for innovation, including the development of tailor-made devices for specific projects. At the same time, the high know-how guarantees highest levels of quality and reliability.

ComNet offers a strong specialization in communication, remaining focused on its skills and trying to offer technologically effective and efficient products and to provide a high level of service. From a technical point of view, some operational advantages of our products are the wide range availability, product longevity, high performance, very low heat emissions, etc. Finally, all products are certified by TÜV and each item is tested in our laboratory in Leeds before being packaged and shipped. Certainly the reliability of our products is summarized in our exclusive industry leading “LifeTime Warranty” on the whole industrial range.

From a commercial point of view, a simple, linear and “orderly” policy with maximum assistance and support to those who choose our products for their projects through a fluid comparison on each need. Moreover, free online training courses, local support, large stocks in USA, UK and locally with very short delivery times.

a&s Adria: How do you evaluate the growth of the security and CCTV market? How does Comnet offer fit in this context?

Grasselli: Surely the security market will continue to have high technological developments with an unavoidable migration of all systems to networks and structured cabling with an increasing integration of systems. I believe that, in order to optimize the efficiency of the networks, there will be a shift of part of the system “intelligences” towards the edge with consequent need for reliable products both from the physical and from the Cyber attacks protection point of view.

The search for cost optimization will continue to be a crucial aspect, as it should be. From the technological and operational point of view, of course, the hope is that the goal is reached as wide as possible as a cost-benefit ratio and also through a truly complete analysis, which also includes the costs for the maintenance of the system during the whole time of its life.

From a commercial point of view, the Balkans are very fragmented market, where the necessary technological know-how is “moving” within the value chain seeking its rightful place between distributors, installers and integrators. We hope that we find a definite road without losing any of the necessary skills. In all this context ComNet tries to do its part by offering product quality, technological innovation, efficiency and security ensured by extended warranties, high level of service and a serious and correct commercial policy with its partners, in the broadest sense of the term.

a&s Adria: Tell us about some important projects you’ve been working on lately?

Grasselli: Among others, we have been working on: Active devices for the net for the technological upgrade of CCTV systems of all the sites of a National Electricity provider, Active devices for the net for the technological upgrade of Security systems of all the sites of a National Oil&Gas company, Active devices for the net for the CCTV systems for some industrial plants, Active devices for the net for the CCTV systems in Railway stations, Active devices for the net for the Security systems in Oil&Gas Plants, etc.

Interview: Dean Jones, Channel Director, EMEA, Mojo Networks

Dear Mr. Jones, I’m glad you joined us at Adria Security Summit. For a start, a couple of words about yourself, your position at Mojo Networks, what are you in charge with, your professional experience? 

My name is Dean Jones and I’ve been with Mojo Networks for around 11 months. Prior to that I worked for Ucopia, probably regarded as the premier provider of guest access management solutions in Europe. Before that I worked with Enterasys Networks as the regional vice-president for UK in Ireland, which is now recognized as Extreme networks. At Mojo Networks, I am the Channel Director for EMEA. I am responsible for the development and management of channel across EMEA and I work very closely with our heads of sales in each specific region.

Present us Mojo Networks, its core technologies and products?

Mojo Networks has been in existence, as Mojo, for a few years. Prior to that, we were Airtight Networks. Mojo Networks provides secure, cloud-based Wi-Fi. We believe that there is considerable market opportunity within cloud-based Wi-Fi. Over a period of time, there was always a requirement for considerable security and support to what was becoming a more mobile community. On average, each user has at least 3 to 5 Wi-Fi devices. So the density and the requirement to be able to deliver that kind of service is becoming more important. We are able to manage that and to provide strong and secure Wi-Fi.

We have a full suite of access points. Really interesting ones for us are our three radio access points. The reason is that through them we are able to deliver more support for users by using the third radio in various ways. It’s worthwhile to mention 3 radio designs we have, which makes us unique: indoor access points, smaller one, 2 by 2, C-100; bigger one, top class, 4 by 4, C-130, and the third one we call multipurpose radio. We are able to provide an enhanced level of security by ensuring that there is a complete background scanning available at any time. That is the difference between us and our competition, we can scan WiFi channels, detect other clients and access points, emulate client connections and enforce security rules. We able to do that because of our cloud platform and specifically Mojo Aware.

Mojo Aware is the Cognitive WiFi that harnesses the power of cloud, big data analytics, machine learning, software-defined networking, and cognitive computing. How does it combines all of these technologies?

Mojo Aware is a recent tool powered by the cloud. We are collecting all the data and logs from the access points, sending them to the cloud and showing to network administrators where exactly is the issue. Instead of minutes or hours, the network administrators need seconds to troubleshoot what’s wrong with the network. Graphical interface is very clean and understandable for most of the network administrators and with a few clicks you see the root of the issue, which is making us really different. Beside this, troubleshooting is also very nice tool for monitoring, because you see the really important information. And with all the data on the cloud, you have the visibility what was wrong or good in your network up to one week back, which also makes us different. We are working to extend this period up to one year. Having gathered that information we are able to troubleshoot the problem extremely quickly. One of the biggest problems in Wi-Fi for support teams and providers is to be able to replicate the problem. Now if within Mojo Aware and our cloud-based solution we are able to minimize that.

You can also use Mojo Aware to identify problems that are related to other components of network which are not Wi-Fi. This is additional benefit for network administrators to have it all in one package. There are two type network engineers. One is taking care of Wi-Fi, and the other is taking care of infrastructure, internet connectivity and rest of the network. If something is not working, someone has to prove where’s the issue. With Mojo Aware, we are able to highlight the latencies associated with all stages, allowing the network engineers to see precisely where the real issue is.

Thanks to the layer 7 inspection, we can also measure the latency of application traffic, which would boost Mojo Aware to different level of troubleshooting tool. Mojo Aware will exactly tell you: ”You have problems with your Skype, Netflix is working properly.” You can again aim your time and effort to a specific problem, you will not hunt ghosts anymore.

Mojo Networks CEO Rick Wilmer said that the company is „commited to making WiFi simple, affordable and easy for everybody“. What exactly is that related to?

Because of the power of Mojo Aware, we’re able to collect a lot of information, analyse them and deliver appropriate information for people to be able to resolve the problem, or at least to highlight where the problem may be at very large scale in a very small amount of time. As far as affordability is concerned, we have an extremely costly effective solution. There are savings that are made immediately if you move to the Cloud and you move in a secure fashion. Our APs are cost-effective and the Cloud licence itself is very straightforward. The customer effectively decides upon the AP that is appropriate for their business, the length of the Cloud licence they wish to purchase.

Graphical troubleshooting is one area where Mojo Networks has been innovating a lot?

The screen shows data in real time, how many clients are connected, which clients have issues. If they are connected, how many of them have issues to authenticate, how many of them have some network issues, which kind of issues. Every issue is recorded and written. We call it Client Journey, because you can see it up to one week back, which is perfect for network administrators.

You use a cloud-managed WiFi solution which is based on a vision for creating networks that reach new heights in security. Tell us more about the relation between a higher data security and cloud?

We have a very secure Cloud. We have a number of security certifications that ensure that not only are we able to deliver a physically secure Cloud solution, but all data and management that takes place within cloud is of an extremely high standard. We are expecting to receive FedRAMP certification relatively soon, which will definitely prove that we’re able to deliver a very secure Cloud-based solution.

We are able to ensure that wireless security is absolutely as it should be. To ensure that air is constantly being scanned, the concept of the third radio is very important. This idea of constant background scanning is very important for the security element. It’s also important to note that not only our Cloud, but we as a company and we as employees own many certificates, we have to go through trainings and security certification.

What is unique about the devices at Mojo Networks to prevent security breaches?

The heritage of Mojo Networks is Airtight and we were regarded as the premier Wi-Fi security provider. From the time of Airtight, Mojo ows more than 24 patents regarding the security detections, wireless intrusion preventions, packet marking technology and combination of everything, making the system so unique, that nobody else, including Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus, has the same features, security speaking. Thanks to the patents and our sensors and access points we can deliver outstanding security and really enforce any security policy which the customer is looking for, for instance in terms of enforcing application visibility, for example, Snapchat will not be not accessible in the company environment. Going through peer to peer traffic, we can prevent the client misassociations very easily and we will just disturb the client which is trying to connect to not allowed networks. The prevention is done in a bit different way, because we are not disturbing the other access points, which makes us really different comparing to competition, because their security is based on disturbing the other access points and disconnecting all clients.

The second thing which is unique is the Mojo Cloud management is the whole structure in the Cloud and the Mojo Aware, and the third are added value features and services, like hotspot, active portal, third party integration. The most important patent to prevent the security breaches is the packet marking technology. We can really detect, with 100% accuracy, evil twin access points, honeypot access points, any rogue access points, which is faking the standard network and trying to catch up the innocent devices and get some data, infect them with some malware, etc. Packet marking technology is giving us zero false alarms.

Pravin Bhagwat, CTO & Co-Founder of Mojo Networks, recently said that „our (Mojo’s) vision is that Wi-Fi is not limited to providing Internet access, and we can do much more with it in the field of data accumulation and transmission“. Can you explain what did Mr Bhagwat had in mind when it comes to using WiFi other than its basic function?

For a very long time, Wi-Fi manufacturers have been providing Wi-Fi access, but what we’re doing now is starting to harness the big data in ways in which people can analyse and enhance the level of service that they’re providing to their users, whether that is to reduce the time it takes to troubleshoot something, to highlight a particular part within the Client’s Journey to ensure they get the right level of service, to provide info to the organization on how network is being used, etc. We ensure that the amount of data is delivered in the simple, graphical form and it is something that can be analysed an interrogated more by the customer.

Which verticals are your targeting? 

Secured Cloud Wi-Fi solution is absolutely appropriate to all customers. However, our focus is on education, enterprise, we are doing considerable amount of business with service providers. We also have a vast number of retail and hospitality customers and we will continue to service them. It is fair to say that if you have travelled the world and you have enjoyed any form of fast food for instance, you probably used a Mojo network, if you used their Wi-Fi.

Can you name some of your recent projects?

Mojo Networks has had the opportunity to work with a myriad of organizations to ensure Wi-Fi access and connectivity is at its highest possible performance. Recently, the company was nominated for an award, recognizing its innovative work for Jio Reliance, a large network provider located in India. The provider was in the process of rolling out one of the largest networks, essentially offloading LTE traffic to Wi-Fi. They faced the need to deploy millions of access points with billions of users accessing the network at any given time. Mojo Networks was able to develop a solution that leveraged cloud management within the company’s data center, without the need for multiple controllers, which took away the impracticality and prohibitive cost of the project. Since that time, the network has run brilliantly, and the scalability realized by the provider has proved to be an impressive outcome.

How has Mojo Networks contributed in strengthening the government security systems?

As for public sector is general, we are able to provide a level of security certification with some of the more recent certification we have. We have to deliver OS and application security, to provide hosting network security, access control to application and customer data. How do we prove we’re able to do that? By having appropriate SOC compliance, ISO compliance, etc. All of these data centre certificates are important for many government projects. Right now the focus in the US is to get the FedRAMP certification. It will be the next level of access to the government projects, our clients include top levels of US government.

The WiFi market is growing at 14% year over year. Where do you see an opportunity for achieving higher growth? 

The interesting thing is that, yes it’s 14% year over year, but if you analyse that market data a little more, you start to realize that the cloud-managed wireless enterprise revenues are expected to grow nearly 120% by 2020. We believe that when the time is right, we have strong, stable, secure solution. We believe that the market is ready for this and that we can drive the innovation by delivering the Cloud to the market. We’re absolutely focused on developing in that particular area and continuing to deliver innovative solutions.

What will be the major global trends at the WiFi market in the years that come? Is visualization one of those trends?

Yes, absolutely we do see visualization as being a very important development part and we’ve shown you through Mojo Aware how we believe this particular market will develop. Being able to understand how users are using the Wi-Fi, to troubleshoot problems and to deliver back meaningful information to an organization is very important. If you have access to all of this information, but you’re not necessarily delivering it in the right form, it becomes meaningless and problematic for people to be able to analyse and make decisions on that information, so we think we’re contributing to that quite considerably.

Your oppinion on Adriatic region market, has it evolved, are you pleased with your position in this part of Europe? Where can one buy your products, who are you major regional partners?

We as Mojo are very pleased to be launching our relationship with AdriNet, who is our distributor in the Adriatic region. We’re new to this particular region and we believe we have the very strong and powerful message and an exceptional solution. This market is highly developing in terms of Wi-Fi and applications that require Wi-Fi. Requirements are growing slowly, but constantly. What is good about this region is that people are very educated on a technical side and very interested to deploy latest technologies. That is a good opportunity and AdriNet has a network of very good partners, system integrators across the whole Adriatic region and we’re introducing the Mojo concept to them. Hope to see Mojo Clouds around Adriatics very soon. AdriNet as Mojo’s partner for the region is capable of providing full concept of value added distribution in terms of providing our partners’ resellers whole scale of professional services that are required.

Have you found Adria Security Summit worthwhile to open up a Croatian market and why?

We found it to be a very important and worthwhile event to attend. We’ve particularly enjoyed the opportunity to meet with a number of regional partner, again through the relationship we have with AdriNet. It was very impressive to see the number of people attending. The professionalism which the Summit has provided is great. It is more reassuring to see that every detail has been dealt with.

Interview: Laurence Kenny, marketing manager, Pyronix

a&s Adria: Mr Laurence Kenny, thank for your time. Let’s start with you. Tell us something about yourself, your educational and professional background, your position in Pyronix?

Kenny: I am marketing manager at Pyronix. I mastered in the area of business administration at Sheffield Business School. I worked within Pyronix and the security industry for 5 years, largely in marketing capacity.

a&s Adria: Could you, please, give us an overview of the company history?

Kenny: Pyronix was founded in 1986 by Julie Kenny CBE DL. The company started with what was then, the smallest PIR in the world, identifying a niche and exploiting that niche to get a foothold in what was a young market in the electronic security industry. Over the years, Pyronix has grown through organic growth and acquisition, now providing a wide range of electronic security equipment for the intruder alarm market. What started with one detector, the business now has a significant product range catering for the majority of small and large scale intruder alarm installations on the market. Pyronix was acquired by Hikvision in May 2016. This acquisition really marked a turning point in the company’s history, showing convergence in practice by bringing together different components of security.

a&s Adria: You mentioned joining Hikvision Group, which was one of the last year’s most important acquisitions. How are things going for Pyronix after that, have you managed to furfill your goals, sustain the predicted growth rate? What are key benefits for both companies?

Kenny: The mood for Pyronix and Hikvision is very positive. We are currently investing in areas of the business to deliver on our vision of becomming the Number One intruder manufacturer in the world, and sustaining our growth into new markets whilst looking to get deeper market penetration into our existing markets.

a&s Adria: Give us a brief presentation of your product line? What product would you single out as the best-selling on the market and why?

Kenny: Our product lines consist of complete intruder alarm systems, both wireless and hybrid, with a wide range of detectors and sensors both at EN50131 grade 2 and grade 3. Our Enforcer two-way wireless system has won 4 awards since it’s launch for innovation and popularity with installers. The system utilised a number of features which make the two-way wireless installation secure and easy to install. The system is truly like a wired system when armed, with zero sleep time of peripherals which are fully supervised, anti-jamming capability, and dual antennas for omni-directional data transfer.

a&s Adria: You use several patented technologies in order to increase the value of your products. Tell us more about Tri-Signal Detection Logic, Independent Floating Thresholds, Tri Anti-Masking Technology, etc?

Kenny: Tri-signal detection logic is a technology used within the External Detector range of product, used to enhance the detectors susceptibility to false alarms due to the harsh nature of the outdoor environment. All three technologies (two PIR’s and one Microwave sensor) need to be activated together to cause an alarm. This makes the detector more stable. Independent floating thresholds enhances the detectors immunity to electrical interference by ensuring that the alarm trip thresholds are able to move and adapt to changing electrical conditions and interference. The detector will digitally adjust the alarm thresholds to maintain intruder catch performance even when there is interference which could cause a false alarm.

a&s Adria: Was launching PyronixCloud and HomeControl+ App a way to do that? What are theirs key benefits to customers?

Kenny: There is a clear trend towards IP and cloud connectivity. It enhances the user and installer experience and provides a number of benefits and features which were never able to be realized before. We are committed to this trend by developing new Cloud infrastructure and apps to ensure that the user and installer have an experience which is unrivalled in the industry. The key benefit of the PyronixCloud and HomeControl+ App is real-time system management, along-side camera integration, to give users unparalleled access to their property from anywhere in the world. Intruder systems are no-longer stand alone systems – they are lifestyle systems which can provide users peace of mind, and gives installers upsell and additional retention advantages.

a&s Adria: Tell us a bit more about the successfull projects/case studies you have had during the last year or so? Do you have some feedback from the investors? What verticals do you generally focus on?

Kenny: Our primary focus is on the residential market globally, which makes up a large percentage of the global market for intruder alarms. But it is also true that the retail, institution, and finance sectors are also growing verticals that we are focussing on. Given that our product range is compliant to grade 2 and 3 gives us a big advantage when it comes to projects. There have been a number of projects, including within the banking sector, that we have been working on recently with our customers.

a&s Adria: What is your opinion on the Pyronix’s position in Adriatic region: sales results, growth, partner companies, marketing? Where do you see a possible improvement?

Kenny: Our position in the Adriatic region is growing – much as in the rest of EMEA. Our products fit well into the market, and we have a number of opportunities which will support our sales strategy going forward. From our research, it seems like the Adriatic region is growing, with more emphasis placed on increased integration with other systems.

a&s Adria: Related to the above, in September a high-ranking member of your staff/you will be lecturing at Adria Security Summit, the largest Adriatic region conference and exhibition, which is from this year powered by Intersec. Do you find it a good opportunity to listen to the audience, discuss about market trends, meet new customers?

Kenny: We always relish the opportunity to speak to customers, existing and new, about our product and innovations. The Pyronix brand is one synonymous with technology and innovation, and we are constantly listening to the market to ensure that our development roadmap reflects the needs of our customers and partners across the globe. The Adria Security Summit will provide us this platform to speak to customers and gain this vital feedback as we look to assert our position on the global market.

a&s Adria: Pyronix’ plans for years ahead in the intruder alarm marker?

Kenny: The intruder alarm market is growing, and Pyronix is at the forefront of that growth. It is also true to say that the wider security market is one which is converging with the likes of video, intercom and access control. In the years ahead, integrated solutions will be the driver for the industry, and our product lines reflect this shift. Our goals are to grow the Pyronix brand and drive the intruder market on through a deep understanding of our market and our customers, innovation, and supporting this growth with our partners throughout the globe.

Interview with WM for a&s Adria

Mr Marzin, could you please introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Wolfgang Marzin and I have been President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Messe Frankfurt since 2010. I have worked in the fair and exhibition business for over 25 years, gathering experience at German exhibition centres in Munich and Leipzig, as well as in the USA at Messe Düsseldorf North America.

A big thing for Adriatic region security market happened last month – Adria Security Summit signed an agreement with Messe Frankfurt. It will from now on be powered by Intersec, one of the most visited security exhibitions in the world. Why did you choose Adria Security Summit to be a part of your security events portfolio? 

I am really pleased about the agreement with the organisers of Adria Security Summit, Global Security d.o.o., and am looking forward to our collaboration with great confidence. We are now the partner of a high-grade and well established event, which was, of course, very important for us. It is an attractive networking platform, at which players from the entire distribution chain for safety and security technology can meet and exchange ideas and information. Moreover, we were not represented by our events for the safety and security sector in Southeast Europe and, by taking this step, aim to reinforce our commitment for the sector in this region. In this connection, working with a professional and reliable partner in the region, such as ‘Global Security’, is the key to success.

What is your opinion on the Summit, what qualities does it have and how do you see its position, growth and regional character in Western Balkans?

The Summit concept is first class. Combined with a trade exhibition showing innovative products and solutions, the conference with top speakers offers participants a comprehensive overview of the latest trends in the sector. Executives from the sector’s key players are taking part, from, for example, Honeywell, Bosch and Sony, to mention but a few. Moreover, the event is a very good opportunity for networking. In my opinion, personally cultivating contacts and making new ones is becoming increasingly important in our digitalised world. Additionally, the fact that the Summit is held at different venues from year to year means that it covers several countries in the Western Balkans with the emphasis on the focus country of the year. This clear, regional focus is, I believe, a great advantage that perfectly supplements our generally internationally-oriented events.

What does this agreement include and how will it benefit both Adria Security Summit and Messe Frankfurt?

For the first time, we are supporting this September’s edition of the ‘Adria Security Summit’ in Sibenik, which will be known as the ‘Adria Security Summit powered by Intersec’ from then on. Accordingly, the Summit will be integrated into our worldwide safety, security & fire brand-communication activities, which will strengthen the level of awareness for this event. We will provide conceptual support and mutually advertise our events, so that both sides benefit. Specifically, we will have an information stand at the Summit and present our eleven safety and security technology events. Furthermore, we will hold a lecture at the conference.

For those who don’t know much about your company, tell us more about Messe Frankfurt, especially its business in security, accomplishments with Intersec, a&s Group, etc.?

Messe Frankfurt is the world’s biggest fair, congress and event organiser with its own fair and exhibition centre. The Security, Safety & Fire Business Unit plays a vital role in our company and is developing very rapidly. At present, we have a portfolio of eleven safety and security technology events with the well-known Intersec and Secutech trade-fair brands. We are represented around the world by our trade fairs and conferences: in Asia, in the Near and Middle East, in South America and in Europe. Intersec is the portfolio’s leading event. It has been held annually in Dubai since 1999 and has developed into the world’s leading trade show for security, safety, and fire protection. We also expanded our activities in the fair and publishing business for the safety and security sector with the purchase of Taiwan’s A&S fair and exhibition company in 2009 and the founding of Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media. Naturally, our focus is always on growth markets and, together with our partners in the sector, we constantly evaluate the implementation of more new events – and the Adria Security Summit powered by Intersec is the latest example of this.

How do you see Adria Security Summit’s future, now being powered by Intersec?

I foresee a high-grade event with a firm regional base that has become indispensable for the sector. As important players on a regional and international plane, we and our partners hold events that benefit retailers, systems integrators, manufacturers and consumers in the safety and security industry. We want to reinforce the Summit’s position and further develop in the interests of the sector and our customers.

Anything you want to add, some message to our readers?

I am delighted that we are working with Global Security and very much hope to welcome readers of a&s Adria to Croatia in September. Or at one of our other events for the safety and security sector, for example, at Intersec in Dubai, which will be held from 21 to 23 January 2018. If you would like an overview of all our events for the safety and security sector, please take a look at our website: www.safety-security.messefrankfurt.com

ISSUES

Global Security d.o.o.

Hasiba Brankovića c, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosna i Hercegovina
Tel: +387 (0)33/788-985
Fax: +387 (0)33/788-986
Web site: www.asadria.com
Marketing: marketing@asadria.com
Subscription: pretplata@asadria.com
VAT no: 201142740001
ID no: 4201142740001
ISSN 1986-5

a&s Adria – professional security magazine for providing total security solutions is a monthly circulating publication and a licenced representative of Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media for Adriatic region, which consists of following countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia.