PSI June2017

INTERVIEW
The power to succeed
This month we talk to Sharon Ramsay of Elmdene about the world of
powers supplies and the role of the technology in the security sector
n these modern days of networked global
Ibusinesses it is quite easy to overlook the
importance of a power supply. In fact, in years
gone by many exit polls at business continuity
exhibitions placed email, web-connectivity and
employees as the most valuable factors to a
business when without electricity no matter how
good your staff are, they couldn’t get into the
building, switch on their computers or go online.
Electricity supply is often taken for granted. In
the security sector most systems are powered
by electricity so again it is a vital utility.
PSI caught up with Elmdene’s General
Manager, Sharon Ramsay, to find out more
about the power supply and discussed the
factors that installers need to keep in mind
when specifying systems.
How have the last twelve months been
for the company?
It's been a very good period for us but also
challenging because as an ancillary provider we
have to align our product range within third
party components. So whereas the technologies
on the market are changing we have to think
ahead so we can be ready to move with the
trends. Therefore we are reshaping the business
to suit these changes.
Historically we have been very intruder
biased with sirens and contacts, which in the
past were all hard-wired, but now the market is
moving towards wireless systems. We, as an
ancillary provider, don't have the protocols for
wireless systems so our shift has led us to think
outside the box of just intruder leading us into
access control, fire, video and PoE - the key
trend areas of growth.
Today everyone is concerned about
worldwide threats and we're seeing those
trends moving from breach detection (where an
alarm has been activated by somebody entering
a premises) to the perimeter, detecting the
threat at an earlier stage. This presents us with
new opportunities but it does mean that we
can't stay still with this in mind, we need to
make sure our growth areas match that of the
industry. All of this thinking leads to new
products and technologies such as solar and
efficient power management for the perimeter
which is all very exciting for us.
So you are seeing some changes in the
industry?
Yes we are. If you think back to a few years ago
we were told that everything was going to move
from analogue to IP/PoE yet today we are
seeing a big market for analogue HD and that
presents us with a particular challenge. Going
forward we have to compete in both of those
areas; we have to provide the installer with the
relevant products who wants to use existing
analogue systems but we also have to manage
the ancillary products for those that are using
PoE.
We are established for the analogue side
with mains and back-up systems but PoE
presents more of a challenge because people
are just integrating that with the IT
infrastructure with no thought to back-up time
with a UPS. In the event of a failure how long
will the UPS support the critical devices in the
system? We have been talking much more to
installers and challenging them with "what if?"
scenarios and quite often we find that the UPS
The Elmdene manufacturing facility in Portsmouth
Sharon Ramsay
“PoE presents more of
a challenge because
people are just
integrating that with
the IT infrastructure
with no thought to
back-up time with a
UPS”
(continued over)
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