Having had the privilege of working in the security market for over 35 years I have seen many changes within the industry, writes Tony Wheat, pictured. He’s now Business Development Manager for Wifigear, which offers wireless video surveillance products and peripherals; and wifi access points.
Let’s face the facts; when I started we were still putting pennies into the telephone box to call back to our offices, having had a pager go off with a bleep – for those of you who had this technology it was an innovation that secured our contact on the road, the days of telex and dot matrix printers.
Our industry has provided me with continuous employment spanning engineering, ownership of an NSI company and for a number of years in distribution within the industry. My whole career has been influenced by so many co-workers, engineers and customers together with so many who have worked alongside me as a supplier to me or indeed me to them. Our industry has always been a network and a very large team – we all in sales enjoy the hunt – but overall we are a good natured bunch.
To those I have worked with and will continue to do so – I acknowledge that without their own skills I would never have achieved a great deal and I will remain grateful for the encouragement and long service of so many others.
Nothing in our industry has stood still for very long, technology continues to outstrip my brain – back in the days a simple VCR would be the chosen solution with a 30 day tape dispenser on the wall – SVHS, Hard drives and Raids and now central servers and the cloud; all these solutions were just a pipe dream.
Cameras were monochrome and even then cost a fortune, with a selection of lenses costing in excess of £1000 – those were the days of design and innovation which paved the way to where we sit today – high specification and low price to meet every application possible. So our industry has adapted to the modern world, driven by the need to keep us all safe and secure – for me the industry is so much more than a revenue stream – it’s an industry of passion in truly making available the safe environment most would envy.
It’s not just been about CCTV; intruder alarms, access control, fire alarms and other associated products have all crossed my path – a wealth of products and services. Now as I approach the winter months of my career working for a wireless distributor dealing in wireless backhaul solutions specifically trailered for security products including high-def CCTV – providing distribution with greener technology to streamline for the future, I marvel at so many who continue the passion to move forward, building upon so many that have gone before.
Time and knowledge of market product has always been important, but with the new breed of technically savvy engineers and designers the industry is in great shape for a positive future. Covid has provided an opportunity to look and consider what we are doing now, today to build a sustainable future and look after the planet.
I am confident that the security industry will play its part in adapting to the challenge of providing sustainable products and solutions which will provide a safe and secure planet for us all.
We live on a world where ‘everything is connected’, forever bringing down the cost to consumer and in turn the available profit margins on hardware to service providers. Over the years our industry has made sensible margins – this has become more challenging due to the prices of technology dropping whilst specification and performance has significantly improved – we need to continue to innovate and look to excellence in service and most of all put the customer first.
