News in brief

• The BSIA has appointed new Technical and Public Relations officers. David Wilkinson is the Association's new Technical Officer, and was formerly quality manager at Kings Security. Kim Carmichael is the new Public Relations officer, and is a graduate of the University of Stirling.

• Texecom's entire product range has made the transition to EN50131 compliance, meaning every product is compliant for use in PD6662 installations. These can be used on domestic installations through to high-end Grade 3 systems.

• Europlex Technologies Ltd has appointed Norbain as its key national UK distributor for the new SigNET range of hybrid alarm panels. The panels can be used for both Grade 2 and Grade 3 applications.

• Door entry and access control supplier Urmet Domus has been highly commended in the Best Business Improvement Through People category at the 2006 Essex Business Awards.

• Assa Abloy is collaborating with Cisco systems to develop compatible technologies "allowing the convergence of physical and logical access". The first of these products combines Assa's Highly Intelligent Operation lock-technology system with Cisco's IP-based converged access technology.

• Vista has released a range of some of its most popular products in a resilient and versatile black finish. The range consists of housings, vandal resistant domes, two types of pendant brackets, and the PowerDome Lite.