Join the revolution: access control and CCTV.

The Internet revolution is transforming the security industry.

Security directors in every sort of facility are dumping the old technologies that have been in use for decades. They are replacing them with new Internet Protocol (IP) systems that combine formerly separate features and abolish many of the limitations from years past.

The curious thing about this revolution is that it looks a lot like one we've seen before, in television. Only 30 years ago, TV reception in the concrete canyons of New York was so bad that some people booked rooms at motels, with their 30-foot antennas, to watch important sports events.

In another early forerunner of cable TV, other entrepreneurs erected their own antennas in isolated towns, capturing distant signals for local residents.

Before long, however, communication satellites began broadcasting from their circling orbits to offer television viewers unprecedented coverage.

As the industry advanced technologically, so did consumer demand for its services. Large companies began to see cable television as profitable. As they entered into the marketplace, smaller companies got absorbed.

Today, the Internet Protocol revolution has brought us to a similar juncture in the security industry. Large blue chip technology companies (such as GE, IBM and CISCO) are for the first time looking for ways to cash in on the field. Much of the shift today is being driven by Homeland Security dollars.

The merging of access control with closed circuit television (CCTV) is the prodigal child of the marriage between Internet Protocol and the security. To help you understand its implications, let me tell you how it works.

One paradox of the pre-IP technology is that we had to install two systems, both CCTV and access control, to manage a single door or entryway. Today, we can use a single, joint system with both capabilities to wrap facilities in a tighter blanket of security.

Security directors store their access control data on the network's dedicated personal computer. With a few taps of their fingertips, they can pull up records of who enters and exits the facility, through which door, and when, and delete old tenants and add new ones.

When this data isn't enough, one can pull up CCTV video on the same computer. If a card has been stolen, today's security can view on video every occasion when it is used, and thus identify the perpetrator.

When a security director wants to call in the law enforcement authorities, they can email close-up images and video footage right to the police, or burn that footage to a DVD

Integrated access control and CCTV also let security directors cut costs and build flexibility into their security systems. Open architecture systems break the chains that bind you to any specific manufacturer or service provider.

That kind of freedom lets you expand or shrink the system at any time, at relatively little cost. Need cameras to cover a particular stairwell? Need to install access controllers on a certain garage door? Just buy the equipment and install it.

And, buy the cheapest one you can find that offers the capabilities you want--you don't have to worry about whether it was made by the company that installed your original system.

Integrating access control and CCTV is as much a management system as a security system. That's because it reduces the complex management of a multitude of building functions to a single, simpler system.

The entire system can largely be managed and serviced from any remote location--anywhere--with Internet capability, The network's dedicated computer has a large capacity for storing information.

This means that, in addition to integrating access control and CCTV technology, the facility's maintenance functions can also be tied into the network. You then have a single, intuitive, integrated console you can use to protect and manage your entire building.

The new capabilities that integrated access control and CCTV make possible are exciting and powerful. Each new step towards open architecture and still-more integrated systems will put more pressure on the many companies in the field to reconsider their business model,

Such technological advances are easy to foresee. What is less easy to predict is which firms will survive to install and manage these systems of the future.