The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA (News - Alert)) recently announced that its Access Control Profile and Intrusion Detection Profile is now available for the physical security sector. PSIA will also be providing a tool for testing product compliance with these profiles.

PSIA is a committee of consultants, integrators and end users who work on developing interoperability specifications for devices, services and systems.

In a statement, David Bunzel, executive director, the PSIA, said that, “We’re excited to introduce the first working profiles and test tool to the physical security industry. These profiles will enable a very wide range of vendors to quickly and affordably comply with PSIA specifications and expand plug-and-play compatibility across the security ecosystem.”

Manufacturers using these profiles will now be able to quickly adopt PSIA specifications by ensuring complete compliance with a smaller subset of interoperability specifications. The testing tool will offer integrators and end users the validation that products which comply with the PSIA Profile are interoperable.

Larry Lien, chairman of the PSIA and vice president of product management for Proximex, a Tyco International Company, said that, “The PSIA’s Area Control specification is very deep and encompasses many combinations of security use cases. The profiles enable vendors with narrower use cases to easily comply with our specs and guarantee product interoperability.”

Profiles are commonly used for validation of a specific use case within a robust standard or specification for establishing technology standards. The standard or specification essentially covers all aspects of a subject.

The PSIA Access Control and Intrusion (News - Alert) Detection Profiles are based on data elements from the PSIA’s broader Area Control Specification.

The Profiles Test Tool serves to validate that a particular product or system can fully comply with either or both of the new profiles, thereby establishing its plug-and-play interoperability. Honeywell (News - Alert), Inovonics and Kastle Systems are some of the top leading vendors to have used the Profiles Test Tool for ensuring product compliance with the Area Control and/or Intrusion Detection Profiles.

A number of other vendors are also in various stages of using the test tool, and will soon be establishing their products compliance with these profiles.