Live from CANASA: A Report from the Canadian Security Association's 2004 Conference

[Editor's note: Peter Harlick, associate publisher for Security Technology & Design (ST&D) and Security Dealer magazines, is in Toronto, Canada, for this dealer-integrator focused security show and conference. He checks in with SecurityInfoWatch.com for a wrap-up report on the show.]

CANASA 2004, held Oct. 20-21, once again proved to be a great place for training and finding new products. Finishing today at the Toronto Congress Centre CANASA held up once again to be a fruitful place to see the best of the best that our neighbors to the north have to offer in security.

According to Tracy Cannata, executive director of CANASA, the Canadian Security Association, there were over 150 exhibitors; 20 more new exhibitors compared with last year. Although the official numbers were still being tallied, by the end of the first day 1,200 attendees had walked the floor.

Sharing Tracy's thoughts about the growth of CANASA was Tab Hauser, marketing and sales guru for TANE Alarm Products. According to Hauser, installers that came to CANASA were there to take a serious look at products, look for ways to save money and to see what new technologies are out there. "CANASA is a well-run, smaller version of ISC for Canada," explains Hauser. "Canasa has always been a good place for Tane to be seen," added Hauser, who noted that the company has attended the show for 12 years.

On the news front, CANASA announced the Dealer Choice Awards. Two notable companies that won their categories for these awards included Paradox Security Systems in the burglar category for their all-in-one wireless security system Magellan, and i3DVR, which won in the specialty category of CCTV for the 13-SRX 32-channel DVR with human recognition software. I had the opportunity to speak with Vy Hoang, vice president of sales for i3DVR and Anna-Claudia Bulletta, marketing manager for Paradox, and both were very honored that their products had been chosen as Dealer Choice recipients.

I spent a good deal of time with some of the folks from DSC speaking with Eric Tasse, product manager and Johnna Allen, marketing manager. According to Allen, DSC had 20 new products on display and timed for launch at the CANASA show. According to Tasse, DSC is very excited about their new VVM110 a visual verification module that has been brought to market through a partnership with OzVision. OzVision is a current leader in the area of visual verification. Two other notable products were the T-Link TL 250, which is a networked based security system with level 5 ULC approval and Concourse Pro, DSC's structural cable system targeted towards integrators.

The security industry isn't slowing down, and it was great to see familiar faces like John Mosbar of Aiphone and Amy Driver of Integral Technologies up here north of the border. The conference schedule doesn't slow down, with the Smart Card Alliance hosting their event right now and ISC East just around the corner. See you at the shows!