If that’s not enough, our industry sprawls into local and remote comms – wireless and wired – as well as pressing up against building management and fire control. An electronic security integrator of quality is as likely to be installing a powered gate as a biometric access control device, an external infrared illuminator as a major residential intercom system.

Now networking has been thrown onto this heap and like any good ogre, it’s a beast with many layers. As we all know, there have been elements of networking in our industry for decades, tucked away among the dark arts of access control. But now there’s more networking, much more. So much more it’s impossible to cram the nature of the new networking into a single definition.

Is a remote IP camera accessed via a web browser the only true networked system? Or is networking a globally networked solution of door controllers with backdoor NICs accessed by a central controlling workstation? Is it a proprietary DVR with an RJ-45 port supporting remote monitoring after hours by a property manager? Or is networking megapixel cameras recorded in a data centre and accessed via a mysterious network cloud with utterly impossible bandwidth?

Any thoughtful industry commentator is going to come to the same conclusion here. Networking it not a digital Holy Grail comprised of off-the-shelf IT hardware with not a breath of analog in sight. Networking is layers of substrates upon which electronic security technologies of all kinds can be transmitted, monitored and managed. Networking is all these examples and hundreds more. Networking is whatever phantasm your application bends it to be. 

Anyone with any doubts about the hybrid era should consider the fact that while IP camera volumes are growing, analog camera sales volumes are growing, too. The point of parity between the 2 is predicted to be as far off as 10-15 years. That’s an enormous distance in technological terms. Consider that 15 years ago those old enough to be working were booting up their computers with magnetic disks the size of place mats.

Is any of this a problem you ask? Not at all. But what it does mean is that the electronic security industry, already a challenging environment for our young techs, is going to get more complex than ever before. It’s a mistake not to recognize the fact that today’s security electronics people have been shaped by a unique period impossible to replicate with a single training course. Our success or failure in passing on this sprawling pool of knowledge to our young people will ultimately decide our industry’s future.