The IQ Panel 2 Plus is a 7″ HD Touchscreen with built-in camera designed by Qolsys Inc, a Silicon Valley based security and smarthome manufacturer. The IQ Panel boasts 7 different wireless radios in a thin, elegant tablet. The intuitive swipe-based user interface feels like your phone, easily providing control for security, life safety, smart lighting, locks, smart thermostats, garage openers, video cameras, video doorbells, and much more. Powerful unique software features like Bluetooth Touchless Disarming let you leave your phone in your pocket and the home greets you automatically as you arrive, unlocking doors, adjusting thermostats, and disarming the security system completely hands free. Disarm photos from the built in 5MP camera are sent directly to your phone so you’ll know when kids or guests arrive. Live Answer video doorbells from the 7″ HD screen to make sure you never miss a package. Amazon Echo, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri Shortcut compatibility provide the homebuyer with their choice of voice control and the mobile app powered by Alarm.com provides a single place to control everything remotely. Tie multiple devices together in “Scenes” for one touch executions and get smart notifications based on Geolocations for the ultimate in smarthome control.

With China’s manufacturing sector recovering from the impact of the coronavirus crisis, the availability of security products has remained mostly normal.

With the coronavirus epidemic in China subsiding, the country’s battered manufacturing centers appear to be on a path to recovery. This has stakeholders across the global technology supply chain breathing a collective sigh of relief. In particular, the electronic security industry has so far escaped relatively unscathed despite fears of a catastrophic impact to the supply chain.

As the United States and other nations confront the escalating coronavirus crisis, security manufacturers, integrators and other industry professionals SSI spoke with for this story remain wary of increasing uncertainty.

Nonetheless, they describe successful strategizing to counteract what supply chain disruptions they have encountered during the first four months of 2020. Security industry veteran Kirk MacDowell, founder and CEO of consultation firm MacGuard Security Advisors, says in his near 40-year career he has witnessed multiple supply chain disruptions, but none that threatened on a global scale.

Qolsys SVP Mike Hackett explains the fortuitous timing of Interlogix’s exit announcement, plus how his company is attracting dealers left in the lurch.

Interlogix’s decision last September to bail on its security business in the United States and Canada may well endure as one of those “Where were you when you first heard?” moments in industry annals.

Pose that question to Mike Hackett, co-founder and senior vice president of sales and marketing at Qolsys, and it’s clear why that consequential announcement will forever remain with him like it hit yesterday.

“I’m very sensitive to the people at Interlogix, so I don’t mean to say this in a disrespectful way,” he says. “The timing couldn’t have been more opportunistic for us.”