Motorola Solutions invited myself and Cary Gulsby to the Motorola Specifier Summit 2024. This was a momentous event, from the opening reception to closing on Saturday night, and it was a privilege to attend and learn more about new and innovative technologies such as video, access control, voice, and data technology. Motorola Solutions (not to be confused with the Motorola cell phone company) has come a long way in a few short years with several major acquisitions, to position themselves to be a key player in providing a unified solution for “Solving for Safer” as their motto dictates. From the refresh of the Pelco brand to improving the capabilities of the Halo sensor.
The event opened with an introduction to Motorola Solutions, brand positioning, and a product line overview. Motorola Solutions will have three main parts with Motorola Solutions focusing on radios and communications, camera line and smart sensors from Pelco and Halo respectively, and a video and access control solution from Avigilon. Along with these product offerings, a new ecosystem called Orchestrate was introduced. Similar to Genetec’s Mission Control, Orchestrate gives control center operators a way to deal with incoming information and establishing a workflow to resolve the alarms.
The Pelco that you knew before is no more, with almost 80% of the old product line being completely refreshed and several new product offerings, they have a camera for every vertical market we currently operate in or will operate in the future. Also, they have a suite of tools available for Blue Beam and AutoCAD including updated icons and field of view cones.
Faith Group is currently testing the Halo sensor in our Innovation Lab, which is getting refreshed with updated capabilities along with the ability to use wireless sensors that communicate via Bluetooth back to the Halo sensor. This expands the capabilities of this device by allowing for more sensors without adding extra infrastructure. I was able to, in one of the breakout meetings, explain some of the challenges around this sensor compared to some equivalent products that do not require a physical connection back to an IDF.
Avigilon is going to great lengths to ensure that the A&E community has everything they need to assist their clients. Updated tools include a completely new A&E portal that will be launching, a training and certification track for designers and engineers, and a new documentation website docs.avigilon.com that has everything related to Avigilon Unity, Avigilon Alta, and even links to the Pelco and Motorola Solutions product portfolios.
Overall, it was a magnificent event, I spent a lot of time drinking from the firehose of information but looking forward to working more with the Avigilon and Motorola Solutions teams.
Marcus Anderson