Leading the IP Revolution

I'd like to take this opportunity to speak with you about some new and very exciting technology. While Honeywell has been selling IP-CCTV products for several years, we've fallen into the same trap as most of our IP competitors. That trap is a natural tendency to believe that technology will drive our customers' and end users' decisions.

We've been hearing about convergence, or the merging of IT and security for many, many years. Yet, here we stand with most of the revenues in our industry being driven by analog product sales. We have to ask ourselves why. I believe it comes down to a few simple factors.

One, price - analog products are simply less expensive than IP products. Two, ease of use - installation and use of analog products is very, very simple. Three, applications - there are a large variety of analog systems that meet specific applications, such as low light or wide dynamic range scenes. These three things and a few others add up to value.

Our customers have been able to sell more, install more, and be more profitable with analog systems, because they see and feel the value every single day. Flying in the face of this is that according to security sales, 11% of security directors are not engaged with their IT directors. This means that 89% of security directors worked closely with their IT directors.

Furthermore, IP is a rapidly growing piece of the industry being driven, I believe, by early adopters and specific applications, where the network backbone is where the value is. Additionally, there is clear encroachment in the security space from IT integrators that own the relationship with IT departments more so than most security companies.

The security industry is under attack from the IT world. IT integrators are aggressively promoting themselves and their relationship with IT professionals, and the press in our industry is filled with articles with titles like "The End of the Security Integrator." So what do we do? Honeywell will lead the revolution and innovation in technology is critical to success, but only if it is technology that drives real measurable value for the security dealer and the end user.

This is where Honeywell has focused our R&D efforts, on developing IP products that are easy to install, easy to use, and fit a broad range of applications, that provide a real alternative to analog systems on everyday projects, and can compete on performance with anything in the marketplace. Honeywell now stands squarely in the middle of this surveillance revolution.

As a trusted part of the security industry for more than eight decades, Honeywell is uniquely positioned to help you respond, our voice at customer efforts indicate traditional IP solutions face several challenges. Historically, the image created was only a slight improvement over analog, but the price significantly higher.

Performance in low light continues to be challenging. High-definition IP cameras have a large impact on bandwidth that requires additional cost for both network infrastructure and storage. Video management systems are mostly focused on large scale systems, and don't scale down well. They are difficult to set up and use. These are the key areas where Honeywell has focused our effort.

Beginning now and continuing throughout 2010, Honeywell will be launching the most exciting products in our history, an entire family of network cameras and network video recorders that fit in applications of all sizes, and yet are based on one single platform. More importantly, it's not technology for technology's sake. It's technology that drives value.

Honeywell's MAXPRO video management system is a command and control software that's been available since 2008, and has met tremendous success. But the command and control software is only a part of the solution. Even more exciting in our software package is our new family of high-definition cameras.

Using Honeywell technology, we focused directly on our customer feedback, and developed a family of HI-DEF cameras, whether indoor, outdoor, fixed body, or bullet, our HD camera line will offer significant benefits that drive value, a high-definition image that truly begins to challenge the price of analog or other VGA-style IP cameras.

Low light performance that will create high-quality video images in very low light applications, and using our unique camera software, our HI-DEF family uses minimal bandwidth that will not require additional network infrastructure, and can actually reduce consumption, as lighting conditions decrease, and of course since bandwidth consumption is minimal versus other IP cameras, the storage requirements are also minimal.

In other words, Honeywell's family of HD products delivers on the promise of IP, by providing high-quality images at a total cost of ownership that can compete in the analog space. Analog products will exist for a very long time, but the transition to IP has begun. Compare our products and test our performance. Challenge your assumptions and focus on the value that high-definition cameras can drive for your clients.

Our people are trained in all aspects of CCTV, and ready to support you. Our technology drives real value. Our commitment is unquestioned, with more than 80 years serving the industry. Honeywell, your trusted partner is the IP solution for the security industry. If you engage our people, leverage our technology, and share our commitment you could unlock the potential of IP and the power of Honeywell.

We will look back on these times and say, "This is when convergence truly took hold, when technologies unlocked value, and when the revolution began, and when Honeywell took the lead." Open your world. Get in the fight and let's win together.