As the vendor-neutral technology working group representing the entire audio and intelligent communications ecosystem, our mission is to educate the industry to the importance of audio and communications and aid in growing this technology segment by providing business insights into the importance of audio for safety and security applications. We believe audio will be the central hub and is critical for control and intelligence within safety and security ecosystems.

The Audio and Intelligent Communications Working Group is intended to bring together stakeholders within the audio and communications sectors and is currently seeking volunteers from SIA’s membership. Please contact staff liaison Cameron Walker-Miller at cmiller@securityindustry.org to volunteer.

Goals for the working group include:

• Provide researched information to our audience (SIA members initially) on the role of audio communications within a risk, resilience, and security program and the leverage audio, audio analytics and intelligence communications have in crossing over into the operations of the building, campus, and community.
• Identify the stumbling blocks to overcome the adoption of the integration of audio & intelligent communications more fully into the security landscape. Roadblocks can go from a simple lack of understanding of the intent of the federal and state laws to articulation of the value proposition to decision-makers.
• Identify the stakeholders in the industry ecosystem that can help drive the advancement of audio communications within the industry. Deliver a compelling value proposition and leverage it to seek their interest and involvement. From this, create a guiding coalition that reflects the diversity of the members and the influencers.
• Create a process for understanding the industry potential of audio and intelligent communications. Identify where the industry is today. Provide a reasoned analysis of the constraints or gaps between the promise and the current state. Develop a plan for closing the gaps. This could include the identification of current standards and needed future standards in the deployment of voice and audio within the industry.
• Identify current integration approaches/scenarios, and future expanded integration approaches to integrating audio as a vital part of mission-critical technologies in security and the enterprise.
• Leverage the above information gathered to advocate at the State and Federal government for appropriate updates to legislative changes to capture the value proposition for the constituents  thereby ensuring market adoption.