We took a different approach to ASIAL 2025 at ICC Sydney this year: skipped the stand and walked the floor as visitors. Three days of conversations with manufacturers, integrators, and other commercial operators, and a clearer read on where the industry is heading into 2026.

Why we attended without exhibiting

Exhibiting is a different mode. You spend most of the show on your feet at the stand, holding the same conversation in slightly different shapes. Walking the floor as a visitor is the opposite: you get to see what every other vendor is showing, sit through more of the seminar program, and have longer conversations with the suppliers whose kit you actually install.

We'll be back exhibiting at SecTech Roadshow 2026 across five cities in May. ASIAL 2025 was a deliberate year off the stand to refresh how we think about the platforms we recommend.

Three takeaways from the floor

1. Cloud-managed access control has crossed the chasm

A year ago, cloud-managed access control was the interesting option that most commercial operators still wanted to compare against on-premise. At ASIAL 2025 it was clearly the default position for new commercial fit-outs. The major vendors all led with their cloud platforms; the on-premise pitch was a footnote for compliance sectors. The shift from "tell me about cloud" to "convince me why not cloud" has happened in twelve months.

We've written that up in detail over here: cloud-managed vs on-premise access control in 2026.

2. AI-driven CCTV analytics is finally working

For years the AI analytics pitch on commercial CCTV has been overpromised and underdelivered. False positives, edge cases that broke the model, and operator workflows that ended up ignoring the alerts. The 2025 generation of cameras and analytics platforms looks different. Object classification, loitering detection, line-crossing, and people-counting are all running noticeably more reliably than even twelve months ago, and the platforms have got better at presenting the results in a way operators will actually use.

The remaining gap is integration: getting the analytics events into the access control or alarm platform in a way that drives an operator action. That's the conversation for the next 12 to 18 months.

3. ICT and Inner Range are quietly winning the integrated platform space

On the integrated-platform side, ICT (Protege) and Inner Range (Integriti) continue to consolidate their position as the platforms of choice for serious commercial integrators. Both stands had real depth of conversation: how to combine access, intrusion, and CCTV on one operator console without the integration tax that used to come with that ambition. We install both, and the maturity of the products in 2025 makes that decision more about site fit than capability gap.

What this means for sites we're quoting in 2026

For most commercial buyers, the practical implication of all this is that the right starting position for a new install in 2026 looks a bit different than it did even 18 months ago:

  • Cloud-managed access control as the default unless compliance or site conditions push you to on-premise
  • Camera selection that includes the AI feature set you'll actually use, sized to the right retention period, with the integration path back to your access platform documented at design
  • Integrated-platform options on the table for any site with active operator workflow or multi-disciplinary monitoring needs

None of this changes our install standards. It does change which products we're putting in front of buyers as the obvious starting points.

See you next year

Thanks to everyone who stopped for a chat on the floor. We're back exhibiting at the SecTech Roadshow 2026 in May, and we'll likely be back on a stand at ASIAL 2026 in Sydney. If you'd like to talk about what any of this means for a project you're scoping, get in touch.