CCTV Systems

We continue our 2026 predictions series with Brandon Niles, vice president  of 2021 and 2022  SSI  Installer of the Year  Acadian Total Security. We shared Niles’ 2025 reflections on the security industry last month. Brandon Niles 2026 Security Industry Predictions Read on to check out Brandon Niles’ 2026 security industry predictions. We’ll have many more predictions from others among the brightest minds in the security industry throughout the month! Security Sales & Integration: What technology category or solution area do you see as 2026’s ripest, most profitable growth opportunity for security dealers, installers and integrators? Explain your reasoning.  Brandon Niles: I believe the most significant growth opportunity for security dealers and integrators in 2026 lies in the expansion of video surveillance-as-a-service (VSaaS) and advanced artificial intelligence (AI) video analytics, particularly those focused on operational intelligence and regu...

Security Sales & Integration announces the entry period for the 2026 Supplier Stellar Service Awards is now open. This program celebrates those companies that deliver the highest levels of service and support to the installing dealer and integrator community. The deadline to enter is Friday, Feb. 20. “The SSI Supplier Stellar Service Awards are very unique in that they don’t focus on products, technologies and innovation in the traditional sense,” says Dan Ferrisi, group director of content + editorial, industrial + tech, for Emerald. “Instead, they focus on the people who power the industry’s leading manufacturers, distributors and central stations. “This program is about customer service, training programs, technical support, shipping and product availability, integrator-friendly policies and terms, and so much more. The Supplier Stellar Service Awards are our way of empowering installers, dealers and integrators to thank the suppliers that enable them to shine out in the ...

We continue our series of 2026 security industry predictions with Barry Norton, fellow at Milestone Systems. He looks ahead to 2026 and beyond to predict what changes could be afoot. Barry Norton 2026 Security Industry Predictions Read on to check out Barry Norton’s 2026 security industry predictions. We’ll have many more predictions from others among the brightest minds in the security industry throughout the month! Security Sales & Integration: What technology category or solution area do you see as 2026’s ripest, most profitable growth opportunity for security dealers, installers and integrators? Explain your reasoning. Barry Norton: The real opportunity in 2026 lies not in any single technology but in the convergence of intelligent systems working together as a connected ecosystem. Artificial intelligence agents, digital twins and smart cameras and sensors, to name a few, are most powerful when deployed through open platform architectures that allow them to share contex...

We continue our Best Advice Q&A series with Fred Voccola, chairman and chief executive officer at Simpro Group. He offers up the best advice he’s ever gotten, how he elevates security industry newcomers and who inspires him most. Security Sales & Integration: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Fred Voccola: The best advice I ever got wasn’t something someone said to me. It was something I watched —watching the most innovative, intelligent person I’ve ever met: my father. The lesson I learned from him was simple: always innovate. Find a real problem that affects a lot of people or businesses and figure out how to make it better. That’s the core definition of innovation: incremental improvement that creates massive impact. He never used fancy words or frameworks. He just solved big problems and made life easier for millions of people. He did it twice in a major way: Electronic toll collection (what became EZ Pass). He saw people wasting hours in ...

For years, SEO was treated like a box to check. Build a website, add some keywords, maybe publish a blog or two…and move on. That mindset no longer works for AV and security dealers who want to be found online. AI-powered search hasn’t replaced SEO; it’s exposed who was only doing it halfway. Dealers who treated SEO as a one-time task are quietly disappearing from view, while those who’ve built real authority are showing up everywhere buyers look. At One Firefly , we call this shift Search Everywhere Optimization: the art of building a digital presence that earns trust across every discovery channel, including traditional Google search, AI summaries, industry directories, social algorithms, and referral validation. It’s not about chasing algorithms. It’s about being recognized as the expert everywhere your next client might look. Today’s buyers don’t follow a straight path from Google to your website. That’s the fundamental change dealers need to understand: visibility is no long...

Our first Best Advice Q&A of 2026 comes from Veronica Moturi, senior vice president of customer experience at Brinks Home. She shares the best advice she’s ever gotten, how she helps to elevate the next generation of the security industry and the person whose advice carries the most weight. Security Sales & Integration:  What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Veronica Moturi: “The expectation you set for your team should match the one you hold for yourself.” I’ve always taken that to mean: never ask your team to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. Roll up your sleeves, get in the trenches and work alongside them. That shared effort is what builds trust and real success. SSI:  What advice would you give to those looking to achieve success in the security industry? Moturi: You don’t have to come in as a security expert. What matters most is passion; caring about the customer experience and being committed to doing things the right way. Technical ...

DALLAS — The Foundation for Advancing Security Talent  ( FAST ) has named eight new members to its board of directors , a group drawn from the membership of the Security Industry Association (SIA), the Electronic Security Association (ESA) and PSA, according to a joint announcement. The FAST board of directors “defines and refines FAST’s strategic plan as well as the foundation’s annual goals,” the announcement says. The newly appointed FAST board members, named by SIA, ESA and PSA, are: Matt Barnette  has been president and CEO of PSA since 2021 and is a seasoned veteran in the physical security industry with more than 30 years of experience in management and executive roles, including previously serving as president of Mercury Security and of AMAG Technology. Taylor Carr  is president of Allied Universal Technology Services, one of the largest security systems integrators in the United States, and has more than 25 years of executive leadership and operational exper...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —  National commercial security solutions provider Security 101, a portfolio  company  of Gemspring Capital, today announces the  acquisition of Pleasanton, Calif.-based True Security – East Bay. The acquisition includes locations serving San Francisco, San Jose, San Mateo, Gilroy and Sacramento, Calif., according to the joint announcement. Northern California “represents one of the most dynamic and demanding security markets in the United States, driven by dense commercial development, critical infrastructure and a concentration of global technology headquarters,” according to the joint announcement. “The region’s combination of scale, innovation and operational complexity makes it a strategically important market for organizations with evolving security needs.” Why is Security 101 Acquiring True Security – East Bay? “Northern California is a market where security expectations are shaped by scale, innovation, and constant change,” says Gre...

As the calendar flipped from 2025 to 2026, we’ve shifted from 2025 security industry reflections to 2026 predictions for the sector. Today, we hear from Eric Yunag, executive vice president, products and services, for Convergint. We’ll have many more predictions from some of the brightest minds in the security industry throughout the month! Security Sales & Integration: What’s the single most pressing challenge that professionals in the security industry must tackle right now? And how would you suggest tackling it? Eric Yunag: The single most pressing challenge security professionals must tackle right now is overcoming the lack of true collaboration across the ecosystem. For years, practitioners have operated within a linear, product-driven model that moves hardware from manufacturers to distributors to integrators to end users. That model created efficiency, but not effectiveness, and it was never designed to deliver the outcomes that today’s converged, cloud-enabled, artif...

The future of the smart home is here. And it’s built with Gemini, Google’s most capable AI. 1  With one subscription, Google Home Premium with Gemini unlocks cutting-edge security features on the new Nest Cams and Nest Doorbell, a more helpful voice assistant on Nest speakers and displays, and easier home automations. 2,3 This all adds up to an intuitive and user-friendly experience that makes the smart home smarter and accessible to even more customers – and helps you open new revenue streams for your business. Smarter alerts with all the details. With Gemini on the new Nest Cams and Nest Doorbell, customers can know even more about what’s happening around their home – they’ll get more descriptive notifications like “Rabbits eating garden plants” or “Dog jumps out of playpen.” 1 Searchable video history. Customers can also search their video history with help from Gemini. They can ask something like “What happened to the vase in the living room?” to get an event su...

As the calendar turns from 2025 to 206, we shift from 2025 security industry reflections to 2026 predictions for the sector. Starting things off is Vinny Peone,  president and co-founder of Ignite Strategic Partners and director of marketing for Eastern Security Services and Intelli-Tec Security Services. Security Sales & Integration: What technology category or solution area do you see as 2026’s ripest, most profitable growth opportunity for security dealers, installers and integrators? Explain your reasoning. Vinny Peone: I stand by my 2025 prediction: video monitoring solutions will again be the most profitable growth opportunity for integrators in 2026. I’m saying that as someone who markets for dealers nationwide and sees the data: end-users are asking for monitored video more than almost anything else. Not every integrator offers it yet and that gap is exactly why the upside is so high. The ones who figure out how to deliver proactive video monitoring are going to ...

As we turn the page on 2025 and head into 2026, it’s as good a time as any to take one final look back at some of the biggest happenings across the security industry and on our website in 2025. Let’s take a look back at the 10 biggest stories of 2025. 10. Tariffs and Their Effect: Everything Integrators Need to Know Adobe Stock image by Rainister Tariffs were the talk of the town and the security industry earlier this year. Here’s all you need to know. Click here to read the full story! 9. Security Leaders Share Best Advice They’ve Ever Gotten and Given Adobe Stock image by Looker_Studio Since we kicked off our Best Advice Q&A series in June, we’ve heard from more than 50 security industry leaders about the best advice they’ve heard, how they inspire others in the industry and the person whose words stops them in their tracks. This link gathers all of the Q&As in one place in case you missed one or want to read them all again! Click here to read the full...