Commercial Integrator May 2021 - 21

COVER PROFILE

tech industry.
" What I wanted was the growth that CEC
could provide for me, which was really
focusing on technology, " Anderson says.
" That's what excited me - it wasn't the
higher ed space. "

Staying on the cutting edge
Technology is constantly evolving and
changing, and that is evident by the accelerated digital transformation the world
witnessed as a result of pandemic-induced
remote work.
Companies prioritized cloud-based
communication, videoconferencing,
unified communications, collaboration,
and the like to make that shift feasible, and
the chances of the world completely going
back to the way things were before is slim
to none.
CEC understands that, COVID-19
notwithstanding. The company operates
a technology steering committee and
an innovation lab dubbed a very science
fiction-sounding " Lab 46 " (named after the
year the company was founded).
" We want to try to stay ahead of technology trends, or at the very least keep up with
them, " Anderson says, when asked about
how to keep its wide range of technology
installations secure.
The company's goal, he says, is to stand
out from the crowd and not just deliver
" cookie-cutter " systems.
" We want to go out and identify what we
think makes a secure installation from the
get go, " Anderson says.
In that lab, the company is currently
testing new technologies like augmented
reality, new Wi-Fi technologies, hyper
converged IT opportunities that can reduce
the cost of licensing and security cameras
armed with artificial intelligence that can
detect the presence of a weapon or somebody vaping.
The committee essentially takes subject
matter experts from within the organization
and meets once a month to take a hard look
at where its technology partners are headed and how the company can stay nimble
to adapt with them.
The company uses the committee to
forecast out two years to identify emerging
technologies, but what really gets Moncommercialintegrator.com  	

CM2105 pp18-21 CEC Profile.indd 21

telius, the vice president of technology,
excited is Lab 46.
Speaking with an undeniable passion
for the subject matter at hand, Montelius
calls the lab the company's " home base " of
innovation.
The lab includes five equipment racks for
the various disciplines the company covers.
There, the company's development team
attempts to integrate the various systems it
provides its customers.
One example provided by Montelius is

an intercom and emergency button for an
incident like an active shooter that could
trigger the access control system to lock all
doors, send messages to video displays,
initiate an announcement over the intercom and trigger a two-way radio message
to first responders.
" As a bunch of technologists, when we
can tie these things together and make
them do things like that - that's where it
gets really interesting for us, " he says. CI

Jim Anderson (top), general manager of network, infrastructure and audio visual, Tyler
Ebnet (bottom left), vice president of sales and marketing, and Randy Montelius (bottom
right), vice president of technology at CEC.
MAY 2021 	 Commercial Integrator 	

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Commercial Integrator May 2021

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