ISC Nearly Triples Number of Surveillance NPS Awards

Despite struggling to identify truly innovative products over the last few years, ISC West is nearly tripling the number of video surveillance awards offered for their upcoming 2011 show.

Last year, SIA granted 3 surveillance awards for analytics, video storage and video devices. While the first two are being kept, the last one, video devices is being expanded into 6 different awards: (1) advanced imaging technologies, (2) HD cameras, (3) IP cameras, (4) SD cameras, (5) hardware and (6) monitors (see the online application for a full listing [link no longer available]). This makes a total now of 8 (up from 3 last year when the less than awe inspiring winners were a BRS Labs minor release, a long range lens and Intransa's NVRs).

This is excellent news for manufacturers as many more will be able to claim they are the year's best. While this is only open to products that exhibit and pay an additional ~$3,000 USD, the validation from using their logo for the next year is likely worth the $10,000+ payment.

On the other hand, for integrators and end users, this further devalues and muddies an already questionable awards programs. The judging is based almost entirely on manufacturer written submissions and a short presentation (with no testing). Plus, the awards announcements never clearly explain why one products wins over another, making it impossible for users to truly understand the merits of the awarded.

The video below shows a preview of the ISC awards ceremony as manufacturers await the announcement: