What do you expect to be the "big news" coming out of ISC West this year?

We’ll see cloud solutions with managed services for video and access control as mainstream at the ISC West show this year. These solutions will be different from past applications as they will offer end users the ability to pay only for what they need. Additional services and features can be enabled without necessarily adding additional hardware or paying for a site visit. These offerings will be available for enterprise and small commercial applications. The physical equipment installed onsite will be configured and managed via the Internet using mobile applications and browsers. Integrators will be able to monitor systems, manage user access, and troubleshoot problems without being onsite, thus reducing costly truck rolls. Integrators who deploy these solutions will be able to leverage a new RMR model for access control and video that has not been available to them in the past.

One of the big themes we’re expecting is growing consolidation in the industry (including cameras, VMS, access control) based on the need for end-to-end solutions. It’s likely there will be increasing use of mobile devices in video surveillance and access control platforms, and we also expect to see many new and existing companies offering cloud services as the demand continues to grow.

I don't think that there will be any "big news" at the ISC West Show. However, I do expect to see much "little news" about improvements in all sorts of security solutions. The lack of "big news" should not [discourage] anyone from attending. For some, that "little news" might be the just answer that they have been looking for. And, with so many exhibitors, the 2015 edition of ISC West gives attendees the opportunity to visit new companies that they wanted to in 2014 but couldn't because of time constraints. That's why we would highly suggest that attendees study all who are exhibiting and make a point to visit with companies previously missed to learn about these suppliers’ "little news."

Attendees and exhibitors at this year's ISC West in Las Vegas can expect to see a wide variety of new and emerging technology as they peruse the show floor. As far as camera offerings go, you can expect to see a lot of new 4K cameras, higher megapixel offerings and multi-sensor cameras, such as those that utilise distributed imaging technology or non-fish-eye technology, from a wide range of companies. Additionally, we might see price reductions from the "me too" camera companies that can really only compete against the pioneers in the industry [based on] price.

At this year's ISC West, we can expect to see more and more companies talking about IT convergence and the evolution of PSIM to expand beyond information management to the state of situational awareness, centred on actionable intelligence. This is a shift from simply being aware of the situation, but actually providing next best steps in a process to engage and take action. Additionally, we will see situational awareness offerings evolve to include the following: data capture, or the wide range of sensor event information from transactional, security, cyber, building, life safety and environmental systems; data processing, the conversion of this unstructured data into structured data; data analysis, or the filtering of the data that is processed; and data visualisation, or the way the data is shared in real time with executive, operational and security officials through dashboards, reports, and notifications.

Just how deeply rooted has IP become in the video camera and related equipment market? Other than that, it will be IP's maturation as usual.

Over the last few years, the big news has been bigger and more of everything – higher resolutions and more manufacturers. I think we likely will see that trend continue, and there will be an increased number of high-resolution cameras. I think we will also see more offerings around cloud computing. Use of cloud computing in the industry won’t change overnight, but we will see more cloud systems. This trend will continue as networks become more and more dependable.

We expect to see quite a few announcements around mergers and acquisition, as well as new technologies being released. We expect more vendors to begin emphasising the importance of making a strong business case for each customer — both for justification of capital investment as well as operational expense.