Updated: March 10, 08:52 The global video management systems VMS market is undergoing structural change. After years of consolidation around a relatively small group of dominant vendors, competitive differentiation is increasingly defined by openness, ecosystem breadth, cloud readiness and analytics integration. In this evolving landscape, long standing leaders are being reassessed as procurement priorities shift. Genetec built its reputation on unified security management. B

During the recent holidays, we traveled to visit my wife’s family in Romania, with a layover at Frankfurt Airport. While a transatlantic flight with a four-year-old can be challenging, for a security professional it was a fascinating journey. The amount of technology embedded in airports over the past few years is striking. Here are a few examples of how AI is being integrated into the most fundamental airport security tasks – watchlist alerting, sterile areas, baggage screen

Governments in the United States and Europe continue to push forward large procurement programs aimed at modernizing physical security infrastructure - from access control systems and surveillance networks to integrated alarm monitoring platforms. A review of current public procurement notices shows that many of these projects focus on replacing aging systems installed more than a decade ago. Others reflect heightened attention to protecting critical infrastructure such as en

As small, low-slow drones become cheaper, quieter, and more autonomous, the counter-UAS conversation has shifted from theory to operational reality. Critical infrastructure sites, defense facilities, and public venues are no longer asking whether they need layered airspace protection, but how to deploy it in cluttered, regulation-constrained environments without overwhelming operators with false alarms. The competitive counter-UAS landscape includes leading players such as An

Security directors are under more pressure than at any point in recent memory. Violence in healthcare settings is accelerating. Schools are operating under new legislative mandates with real enforcement mechanisms. Cultural institutions and public venues are contending with threat environments that would have seemed extreme a decade ago. The investment in physical security is following that pressure upward, and yet a significant number of facilities are still deploying techno

As enterprise security teams expand camera coverage across corporate campuses, healthcare facilities, schools, and critical infrastructure sites, the operational challenge is no longer raw detection. Motion flags, object recognition, and rule-based tripwires have been available for years. The constraint is signal quality. Excessive false positives, ambiguous alerts, and fragmented system handoffs continue to burden control rooms, inflate response costs, and erode operator tru

As enterprises migrate physical security systems to the cloud, large-scale deployments are revealing the operational tradeoffs of hybrid infrastructure, third-party integrations, and multi-site performance management. While cloud-native platforms promise simplified management and AI-driven insights, execution at scale depends on how effectively vendors balance edge processing, bandwidth constraints, and real-time orchestration. In distributed enterprise environments, reliabil

The IoT Security Gap at the Edge, and Why Physical Tamper Evidence Matters In critical infrastructure, logistics yards, and distributed supply chains, the most dangerous IoT security weakness is often not a cloud breach. It is a blind spot at the edge, where an asset, gate, cabinet, cage, or container is opened, moved, or tampered with before anyone can verify what happened. That risk point is clear: delayed detection of unauthorized physical access. Many operators still rely

Juvare has put forward BedSync, a new tool meant to streamline hospital bed-capacity reporting to the CDC, framed as a timely aid for disaster readiness—but in practice, it raises important questions for preparedness professionals. Juvare, a global provider of emergency preparedness and response technology, unveiled this software on July 1, 2025. BedSync automates real-time, API-driven reporting from its EMResource platform directly to the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Net

The new school year in the United States has opened with grim numbers: 47 shootings on K–12 grounds so far in 2025. That reality is driving districts to look for security measures that move faster than traditional checkpoints but avoid turning campuses into fortress-like spaces. Toronto-based Xtract One is one of the firms stepping into that demand. Its screening systems are designed to let students walk through carrying laptops and backpacks while software sorts routine item

Violence in healthcare facilities is on the rise. The Bureau of Labor Statistics identifies hospitals as having the highest rate of workplace violence, and the American Hospital Association estimates the annual cost of related incidents exceeds $18 billion. With California now requiring hospitals to install weapons detection systems by 2027, regulatory pressure is accelerating adoption. Athena Security is positioning itself as a beneficiary of that trend. Co-founder and CTO C

Canadian Pacific Kansas City’s announcement with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to deploy advanced scanning equipment at the Laredo Rail Port of Entry is being framed as a breakthrough for secure trade. The company is providing a Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System Integrated Rail 6500 and a radiation portal monitor, technology meant to penetrate even dense shielding in railcars. CBP officials describe it as a way to facilitate lawful trade and travel, but the move raises

Physical security has always been about deterrence, not convenience. But walk through any busy mall, stadium, or transit hub today, and you’ll see what happens when the industry drags its feet: overwhelmed guards, half-functional cameras, and a public that knows the system won’t catch much more than petty theft. The pressure is obvious. Guns are showing up in places they shouldn’t, knives slip past bag checks, and security leaders are stuck explaining to boards why the “layer

As law enforcement agencies expand body-worn camera deployments, operational realities are shifting from simple video capture to resilient data management, interoperability, and post-incident automation. With high-volume footage, variable connectivity, and rising public transparency demands, system architecture increasingly determines whether evidence workflows remain reliable under stress. Modern deployments assume that connectivity will fail at critical moments. In distribu

According to a report published by CTech on February 20, 2026, Palmer Luckey, founder and CEO of Anduril Industries, held a series of meetings in Israel this week with representatives of approximately ten local defense technology startups. The meetings were reportedly coordinated with Israel’s Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense Research and Development. Among the companies cited in the report were Smart Shooter, Kela, Skana Robotics, Regulus, Magnus Metal, eyesAtop an

We've all seen the slick demos—hovering drones, predictive analytics, AI dashboards. But until you've watched one of those drones skip traffic jams and land a suspect in under two minutes, it’s all theory. I’ve seen two recent real-world deployments that remind security pros why relevance trumps hype. 1. The Drone That Lights the Way—Laredo, Texas In Laredo, I rode along as the local PD dispatched a BRINC drone before officers even draped on their jackets. Within 30–60 second

Schools in the United States face the same challenge year after year: how to keep campuses safe without turning them into fortresses. From physical access controls to behavioral threat assessments, districts are juggling budget gaps, political scrutiny, and community pushback over the right mix of measures. Into this landscape, ASIS International has released a new ANSI-approved school security standard, billed as the first comprehensive framework for K-12 in the U.S. The sta

In a follow-on contract, Xtract One Technologies said it will expand its SmartGateway deployment at a major international entertainment venue, putting knife-detection accuracy and crowd throughput under a microscope for security teams running high-volume ingress. The trigger matters because this isn’t a demo; it’s a live test at scale where miss risk and nuisance alerts translate directly into liability and crowd control. What the company says “Working together for two years

Following a multi-unit order at a U.S. international airport to meet TSA’s employee screening mandate, Liberty Defense’s HEXWAVE is headed into a test that matters to the people who buy and operate weapon detection systems: can it hold knife sensitivity at speed without swamping secondary screening or payroll. What changed and why now TSA’s rule requires 100% physical screening of secure-side employees, with U.S. airports expected to deploy appropriate screening technology by

Suffolk Constabulary has doubled down on live facial recognition (LFR) deployments, testing the surveillance technology in both Ipswich and Lowestoft this year. The trials, supported by equipment borrowed from Essex Police, led to eight arrests across the two towns but also sparked ongoing debate about privacy, compliance, and public accountability. In Ipswich, cameras set up at the Cornhill scanned roughly 47,000 faces in six hours, identifying suspects wanted for shop theft