Intersec KSA “A small but highly professional and high-quality show”, says Andreas Rex

Security News Desk speaks to Intersec Show Director Andreas Rex and brings you the latest news from the highly successful inaugural Intersec KSA.

With 6,131 Saudi trade buyers, 170 exhibitors and 500 brands in attendance at the inaugural Intersec Saudi Arabia, it’s fair to say that the show, which took place in Jeddah, from 2- 4 May, was a resounding success.

The visitor count nearly doubled the amount anticipated by organisers Messe Frankfurt Middle East and Al-Harithy Company for Exhibitions (ACE Group), and (the almost exclusively) Saudi visitors got to see and sample the latest technologies and product innovations by 170 exhibitors from 24 countries.

Launch partners at the event, opened by the Deputy Governor of Makkah Region for Security Affairs, H Saud Bin Abdullah Bin Jalawi Al Saud, included Hikvision, Dahua, Axis Communications, Nedap, Milestone, Bristol, CP Plus, dormakaba, Draeger, Genetec, Hanwha Techwin, Harco Group, HID, NAFFCO, Pelco by Schneider Electric, Promise Technology, Smiths Detection, BSIA, SAS Systems, Nitin Fire Protection Industries, Al-Alameya Group and ZMR Technology Distribution.

Speaking exclusively to Security News Desk, Intersec Show Director Andreas Rex explained why organisers Messe Frankfurt decided to open the show in Saudi Arabia. “KSA is the biggest market in the Middle East in all sectors, but specifically security. If you look at the market figures, in 2016 32 per cent of the entire security spend has been in KSA. In the fire safety market the numbers are a bit higher, and for homeland security and border control, Saudi Arabia has more than 40%. So it’s the biggest market by far, and we could also see from the Dubai show that the Saudis were by far the largest international visitor number.”

BSIA Chief Executive James Kelly added that in a recent State of the Nation Survey, 77 per cent of its respondents stated that they are looking to increase business levels in the Middle East, with the Middle East being identified as the single most important target market for 54 per cent of respondents.

“As such,” he said, “it was important that the BSIA attended Intersec KSA primarily as observers, in order to explore the possibility of hosting a UK Pavilion at the event in the future. The show generally had a good footfall, with Messe Frankfurt reporting 1800 delegates visiting the event on the first day, the vast majority of which were from Saudi Arabia. At this stage, it is too early to suggest whether or not there is a scope for a UK Pavilion, but we plan to conduct a more detailed analysis and gather feedback from the UK companies who attended the show.”

Milestone Systems were also in attendance at the show. Sales Director, DACH, Middle East & Africa Christian Ringler commented: “Saudi Arabia is an important market to Milestone Systems. With our own office in Jeddah since 2014 we have a strong presence in the market, and have implemented several big projects here.”

Milestone showcased its Community Platform, where the company invited partners to showcase their solutions on its stand. Milestone partnered with NetApp, and had a successful cooperation with many visitors to the joint stand, Ringler said.

The company also showed of its Husky M550 network video recorder, the Husky M20 NVR, the XPRotect Corporate & Monitor Wall advanced presentation application, and its Open Platform Strategy.

Added Ringler: “We received very positive feedback and interest in our offerings. This is definitely an important arena for us to build further relationships.”

Genetec meanwhile, showcased its decision support system, Mission Control—a set of solutions that can provide organisations with new levels of situational intelligence, visualization, and complete incident management and ‘post event’ evaluation capabilities. Mission Control enables security personnel to make strategic decisions when faced with routine tasks or key situations and ensure the continuing and timely flow of information, the company said.

Also on show was Security Center 5.6v – a new version of Security Center which comes with additional cybersecurity measures, a new HTML5-based web client, integration of SimonsVoss electronic locks and the Mercury Security MS Bridge, along with the ability to enrol license plates as access control credentials with the AutoVu™ SharpV camera.

Genetec Regional Director, Middle East, Turkey and Africa, Firas Jadalla commented: “Additionally, Genetec highlighted Genetec Retail Sense, where retailers can use their existing security infrastructure to gather valuable business analytics data to help transform the customer experience, by maximizing time staff spends with shoppers to reduce abandonment; boosting display and promotion effectiveness to drive traffic and tailoring product placement and store layout to shopper preferences. Retail Sense presents a key line of core modules like visitor counting, conversion rates, queue management, heat maps, directional analysis and face capture. Utilizing Retail Sense will allow retailers to unlock the intelligence that allows them to better understand consumers, make real-time informed decisions and increase both consumer engagement and in-store profitability.”

Highlights on the Hikivision stand included its Smart Solution 2.0 – a full solution featuring smart functionality including ANPR, face recognition and people counting, as well as its PanoVu camera range.

Amir Chen, in charge of Hikvision regional sales in Saudi, said: “the show was a great opportunity to meet all the clients and potential partners. The market for Saudi is massive but full of bright perspective. Milestone, Pelco and ZKT all impressed.”

Finally, Axis Communications showcased its new AXIS Q1659 interchangeable-lens network camera which combines Canon imaging and Axis network technologies for high-resolution surveillance, as well as the AXIS Q86 and Q87 Pan-Tilt camera series.

Axis Communications CTO, Johan Paulsson said: “We expect the so-called ‘Internet of Things’ to be much less of a novelty and more of the fabric of our daily lives. However, that means manufacturers of internet-enabled devices should step up and take much more responsibility for the level of default security they ship with. ‘The Internet of Things’ has evolved from buzzword status to mainstream reality, but not without its challenges. While we still think the idea of millions of IP-enabled devices is an exciting prospect for the future, 2016 gave us a sobering reminder of the pitfalls of not properly securing all those internet-connected fridges, DVRs and unfortunately security cameras. Given that most of those devices are just plugged in and switched on by customers, it is down to manufacturers to take responsibility to ensure they are secure out of the box”.

So in conclusion, it was positive all round for the first Intersec Saudi Arabia, and according to Andreas Rex, it is set to be even better next year. He concluded: “We’ve booked the venue again in Jeddah. Talking to the exhibitors there was a clear consensus that the show remain here”.

“We hope we can grow it. There is still space in the hall to expand; we aim to be the largest regional show event in Saudi Arabia. We’re not really targeting anyone from outside the country. It will be a small but highly professional and high-quality show, serving this market. 96 per cent of the attendees were from Saudi Arabia and that was exactly what we wanted.”

[su_button url=”http://www.intersec-ksa.com” target=”blank” background=”#eb8223″ color=”#ffffff” size=”10″ radius=”20″ icon=”icon: arrow-circle-right”]The next Intersec KSA takes place in Jeddah from 24 – 26 April, 2018. For more information, click here [/su_button]