As prices drop, interest grows for biometrics

Kevin Lazaroe, CEO of product distributor/importer CCTV Imports, said that as prices have dropped, biometrics have piqued the interest of firms that had formerly been specifically focused on CCTV and alarm systems.

Photo courtesy CCTV Imports
According to Lazaroe, dealers have seen strong growth from biometrics-enabled time-and-attendance clocks such as this one, which can check employees in and out with the swipe of a fingerprint.

It's a pretty strong sign that biometrics technology is ripe for adoption when a CCTV products importer and distributor starts adding biometric components to their product line. That's just what has happened this month, with Louisiana-based CCTV Imports initiating its "Cinturon" line of biometric components, including time-and-attendance units and fingerprint recognition devices for physical access control.

According to Kevin Lazaroe, the president and CEO of CCTV Imports, the company was experiencing an increase in requests from its clients for some essential biometrics products, so in the winter of 2008, he met with Asian technology manufacturers and their engineers to find products that would meet a cost-sensitive price point, and which could be tied into systems that security installing dealers already were familiar with.

SecurityInfoWatch.com caught up with Lazaroe this week to talk about how dealers can add biometrics to their skill set, how price-points affect the market and what's driving this technology adoption trend.

SecurityInfoWatch: In which market sectors are you seeing strongest adoption of biometric technologies for security?

Kevin/CCTV Imports: Our biggest biometric customers today are the same customers that have been our biggest CCTV customers for years. What these customers are telling us is that the CCTV market is so competitive in today's world that they needed a more niche product line to compliment the CCTV end.

How are more most of your customers using biometrics when they're installing and integrating security systems?

Most of our customers who integrate our biometric products with their security systems are using the biometrics in conjunction with their alarm systems. For instance, our product L2000, a fingerprint door lock, will trigger the business's alarm system if there is an unauthorized entry. Our time and attendance biometric products can also trigger alarms for programmable parameters set by the user.