This document summarizes observations from IFSEC 2015 about emerging trends in the home automation industry towards easier to use, install, and maintain systems. Key trends included security systems that can be controlled remotely through smartphone apps, wireless doorbells with apps to view visitors away from home, and efforts to simplify previously complex multi-apartment video doorphone systems. The document also discusses challenges for consumers and integrators in selecting new integrated systems and the need for long-term support, highlighting Silvan's solutions that aim to meet these needs through approaches like their SECURE security system and emphasis on the HA 2.0 philosophy of simplicity.

1. A White Paper on Capturing Industry Trends from IFSEC
2015
Introduction
The buzzword IoT has been around for quite some time now. However, most of the popular use-
cases are around industrial IoT. This IFSEC demonstrated a big step towards rise of IoT in the home
automation segment. IFSEC covers security & fire industries; but this paper focuses mainly on home
automation domain. It lists some key market trends home automation domain from IFSEC 2015. The
paper also explains Silvan’s stand on the ongoing and upcoming changes in the industry.
About IFSEC
IFSEC is one of the pioneer events on the global security & fire industry. Its relationship and
collaboration with leading industry associations, government bodies, research partners, training
providers and education specialists allows UBM to create a series of events and an online
community that caters for the entire security and fire buying chain. By bringing together product and
solution providers with both channel partners and senior decision makers from government and
private sectors, the IFSEC events and community provide the perfect platform for our clients to meet
their objectives through thought leadership, product & solution showcases and year round
networking. More details about it can be found at (http://www.ubmindia.in/ifsec_india/ifsec-global)
IFSEC was organized between 10-12 December, 2015 in Pragati Maidan, Delhi
HA 2.0 perspective
Silvan advocates ease of use, installation and maintenance in home automation system. The
philosophy is defined as HA 2.0.
Our products and services are designed to meet these criteria. We have been observing some of
these criteria were failing in traditional systems. This IFSEC, however, showcased a positive step

2. towards making systems easy to use, install & maintain. The following sub-sections highlight these
observations.
Security System
One can find several wired security systems which are built around localized security panels and
alarms connected to them. The only connection to the external world is mostly restricted via PSTN
line. Only in case of alarm, the security panel dials a pre-configured phone number with a pre-
recorded message. There was no way for the end user to access the status of the sensors without a
security breach. Arming & disarming the system from remote location has also been almost
impossible. This kind of system provides a good localized solution, but can’t be considered as easy to
use systems.
There have been several reasons for a security system to remain this way all these years. However
IFSEC of this year observed couple of big security brands coming up with new-age connected security
panels which can be controlled from remote location. These panels can be accessed by Apps
installed on your smart phones. This is a big step towards upgrading these systems on the lines of HA
2.0 philosophy.
Silvan’s SECURE is designed to adhere to this philosophy. SECURE is not just a modern age security
panel, it also addresses the need of smart communities. IPSM (Integrated Property Manager System)
integrates residential smart home systems to make smart communities. It also makes the physical
security service providers more accountable towards any security breach/alert.
VDP System
Another big change was in entrance management. In case of a typical stand-alone video door bell
system (analog), an outdoor camera unit is connected with an indoor panel via wired solution. The
system provides localized control, i.e. whenever the door bell is pressed; a video call is established
between indoor panel and the outdoor camera. The system remains localized as there is no
indication of the visitor to the home-owner if he is away from the house. This was a big draw-back in
the analog VDP system. The IP VDP system addressed this problem, but has not been very popular
due to higher pricing and requirement of a separate SIP server in most of the cases.
Surprisingly, this IFSEC observed several products aiming at solving this problem. There are several
wireless door bells with a dedicated App on smart-phone to view the visitor from anywhere in the
world. Couple of traditional analog VDP vendors have added either a way to connect the system to
the telephone line or an internal encoder video streaming to an App. These are welcoming changes
for residential VDP systems.
There are several wireless door-bells in the market now, but almost no product takes care of the
power connection in a retrofit manner. All these products require 12V DC to be provided at the main
door. Pulling a new set of cables for the same is almost impossible. Silvan solves this problem in
CBell by providing a power-supply along with the mounting plate.
Multi Apartment VDP System
On the contrary, MAVDP system hasn’t observed any such innovative change. A typical MAVDP
system requires lots of wiring and doesn’t solve the visitor management problem when the owner is

3. not at the home. Almost all the vendors were show-casing the legacy MAVDP systems without any
improvement in the basic architecture.
What is Next?
These welcoming changes are good sign from the technological perspective, but at the same time
are going to make decision making slightly tougher for end users, system integrators and
distributors. Here are some key challenges and suggested steps to tackle them.
 First of all, the market is going to be crowded by similar looking products with different price
tags. While selecting a system for your house or project, you should focus on the
completeness of the product. For example, there are several wireless door-bells in the
market now, but almost no product takes care of the power connection in a retrofit manner.
As explained above Silvan CBell addresses the issue by providing a custom designed fascia
plate.
 These products are supposed to work in perfect conditions for years. You should select a
vendor who can provide you committed service and support for the selected products.
 You should also look at the integrated approach while selecting a product. A security system
with App access is a good IoT system, but is it capable of taking some immediate actions in
case of an alert? Just getting notifications are not enough, a good system should be
integrated with the physical security guard monitoring systems to ensure that the timely
action is taken at the user’s house when a breach/alert is noticed in his/her absence. Silvan’s
SECURE & IPSM fills this gap and provides holistic solution.
To summarize, it is clearly evident from IFSEC 2015 that the industry is getting ready towards
simplifying products and services in the home automation sector. It is a good time to witness
innovation in products design and overall solution design. The cloud is becoming acceptable in the
society. The user access approach is going towards integration of features and App connectivity.
Silvan has been a thought leader in the segment with its carefully designed solutions. The
observations in this IFSEC are clearly pointing towards the future trend of simplicity being the
highest form of smartness. The more and more systems are converging towards HA 2.0 philosophy.
Contact Silvan (info@silvanlabs.com) to simplify your project requirements and design a future
ready solution.