Page 36 - Security Today, September 2017

All by Myself
What the rise in DIY means for security and home automation
BWy Steve Connor
hether it’s a solution sold at a retail chain, a system ordered online, or the latest product on Kickstarter, it feels like Do-It-Yourself (DIY) is the new buzz in both security and home auto- mation. This is a change that feels like a threat
security systems using wireless sensors, security dealers are able to in- stall multiple systems in a day, opening up tremendous growth over the past 10 years.
The DIY systems that are emerging today are the next logical step for the growth of the security industry. The key to their success will be making these systems easier to install and easier to use. These will be the two most major success factors for security manufacturers and security dealers alike.
If we look back to computers, software has become much easier to install and use in the past 30 years, through the use of installation wizards and more intuitive and user friendly designs. Security needs to follow this same pattern to achieve success and mass adoption in the DIY market.
Expanding Security System Penetration
Why go to DIY at all? Research over the past 10 to 15 years shows that the penetration of residential security in the U.S. is somewhere between 20 to 25 percent of all homes. Many customers who see security as a desirable product, balk due to the cost of systems, or to being locked into long-term contracts. If you notice, that concern has become the
to many, but is a very common path for most technologies; it just took our industry a little longer than most.
Take computers for example. When computers were first invented, they filled entire rooms and needed complete staffs to operate. As the famous computer pioneer, Gordon Moore, predicted in 1965, in what would become known as Moore’s Law, the number of components placed on a microchip would double every year, which led to smaller and more powerful computers. The computer also became increas- ingly user friendly over time, from desktops to laptops, right up to today, where the phones we hold in our hands have more computing capability than the computers used to send men to the Moon in 1969.
In a similar way, security systems that began protecting only banks and jewelry stores, or the homes of multi-millionaires, have now be- come much smaller, much more powerful and easier to install and use—all the while becoming much less expensive. With self-contained
34
0917 | SECURITY TODAY
DIY SECURITY
SpeedKingz/Shutterstock.com