President’s Message

It’s a Wrap!

A look back at the year 2022...and a glimpse into the year 2023

As we wrap-up 2022 and start looking towards 2023, I thought it would be a good idea to re-cap just a few of the highlights of what took place in 2022 and share some of the plans for 2023.

Last year was a very busy year for standards work in our industry. We fi nalized the Work-from- Home initiatives. After two years, AVS-01 was completed and submitted to ANSI for fi nal approval. UL 827-A work was furthered as well as a half dozen other minor projects. Additionally, new ones for 2023 were initiated. All-in-all, an immense amount of energy and volunteer hours went into these. Dozens of individuals committed thousands of volunteer hours across several industries, including public service. Their immeasurable contributions made this one of TMA’s most successful years ever.

TMA was also happy to host its fi rst inperson annual meeting in two years and it was a little like a big family reunion. It was a lot like riding a bike. Overall, the scores were very high, and we received a lot of good ideas for 2023. Speaking of this year’s annual meeting, it will take place in Maui. Everyone is looking forward to going to Hawaii for this one.

The Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC), which is a subcommittee of TMA, also underwent some changes. We welcomed two new committee co-chairs – Tiffany Galarza, ADT, and Sascha Kylau, OneTel. The Committee met twice face-to-face in Washington, DC, the fi rst in person meeting in a few years. I’m excited about the work the Committee is undertaking and look forward to a lot more coming out of this group in the months ahead. We survived the 3G sunsets that forced everyone to transition off all the other legacy networks onto LTE. This effort was the largest to date with millions of radios having had to be replaced. Just about the time we forget about that one, the transition from 4G to 5G or maybe 6G by then, will take place. But for now, it is time to start planning for it, even though it’s a while down the road.

ISC East and West went off as inperson events in 2022. Both experienced very good attendance along with a fair number of new and interesting products and services being showcased. I think this was a good sign that our industry is doing well despite all the COVID obstacles that were put in our way. Other events like the Parks and Associates Connections; GSX; and ESX also had solid in-person attendance all things considered. I think this year will be a tipping point and will bring us back to normal, whatever normal is these days.

I believe the monitoring industry is at its own tipping point. Not much has changed the way we process intrusion alarms in the last ten years. Yes, we have introduced things like SMS and ECV which have dramatically reduced the calls for service, but we are at a different place than ever before.

With new technology that has been introduced over the last fi ve years, we now have much better insight into what’s really occurring at a facility that has an active alarm. We are now positioned to ingest additional data and information to aid in key decisionmaking, which ultimately provides for better informed decisions. To accomplish this, it’s going to be a signifi cant lift for all the automation vendors; better understanding from the installing and servicing organizations; and a new understanding from public service. This is all going to come together in 2023.

There will be a lot more on all this new technology coming out shortly. TMA will be sponsoring a summit for the automation vendors to attend so they can all understand the needs of our industry, as this will be the biggest change they have ever seen so far. Based on our initial outreach, all the vendors have made commitments to step up to get this done.

Additional training modules and information will be made available for public service staff in the fi rst half of 2023, along with several presentations to the industry to make certain all stakeholders are on the same page.

As you can imagine, there has been a lot accomplished, but there remains a lot more to be done. If you are interested in being a part of this explosion and would like to contribute your time and expertise, please let any TMA staff member know. We’ll get you plugged-in to help and be part of what’s coming.

Happy New Year!

Morgan Hertel, TMA President