Trade shows give those interested in the industry clear indicators of where we are headed, even more so when you visit multiple ones in different regions over a short period of time. Differences in what’s on show reflect the requirements in the respective markets, as well as the strengths of the local manufacturing scene, especially at shows with strong regional backing.
At Secutech, which was held in Taipei from April 22 - 24, 2026, access control was markedly less strongly represented than at other shows, with Taiwan somewhat bucking the trend in security to integrate access control data with the wider credentials landscape in organizations. Or at least it is less outspoken about it.
In terms of VMS and VSaaS, however, it is at the forefront.
This was evident at the booths of local manufacturers, such as Vivotech, but also at international brands who brought their latest advances in AI to the show floor. Smaller brands also showcased innovative analytics.
Elevating VMS to the cloud: Vivotek
Several “cloud-native” companies have entered the international scene in recent years—Verkada, Brivo, Rhombus, to name a few—offering VSaaS solutions that promise they would no longer follow the logic of traditionally on-prem VMS. Established brands tend to follow a different path as they seek to give long-term customers who are used to their VMS solutions additional options through cloud integration, enhancing their workflows without upending them.
In an exclusive interview at the Vivotek booth, Jackie Wu, Department Manager, APAC Sales Department, Vivotek, highlighted that it all comes down to flexibility.
Asked about the company’s philosophy in this regard, he told asmag: “We always seek to meet the demands of our customers. That is at the core of our philosophy. Aside from our own VMS, we also work with tier-one VMS partners such as Genetec or Milestone. We offer full integration with their systems.”
Central to Vivotek’s showcase at Secutech was “One Platform,” meaning that on the operator side, it no longer matters whether their VMS runs on-prem or in the cloud.
“‘One Platform’ means we can transform on-prem systems into hybrid systems by building a bridge to the cloud. 'One Platform' means on-prem and cloud systems become one from the perspective of the user," Wu explained. "Meanwhile, we can also connect cameras to the cloud directly, without any additional on-prem infrastructure.”
Secutech comes at a time when Vivotek is introducing more and more AI features to its solutions. In terms of the brain power of its AI, it has also taken decisive leaps forward, most recently with the integration of Gen AI.
“We remain dedicated to integrating new technology to our platform," Wu said. "Last year we introduced natural language-based Think Search to our AI Hub within Vortex, and this year we have added Think Alert for proactive risk detection and real-time notifications."
With Gen AI-powered Think Alert, operators can use natural language to define alert rules without complex configurations. When predefined conditions or keywords are detected, the system automatically triggers alerts, significantly reducing response time and enabling earlier intervention.
AI and privacy looming large: Hanwha
International brands also showcased their latest innovations “beyond hardware.”
As a top-10 brand in the
Security 50, Korea-based Hanwha has one of the most comprehensive VMS and VSaaS portfolios in the market, unlocking advanced AI capabilities running on the edge (backed by its proprietary Wisenet SoCs), on on-prem servers and in the cloud.
“Trust” and “privacy” are central terms to its AI offering and guiding principles in development.
In a demo at the Hanwha booth, the company showcased what it means when it promises to ensure privacy in surveillance situations. Depending on the system’s settings, the Hanwha backend can pixelate whole persons or just their faces. Users with admin credentials can define how granular the pixelation is, or they can determine that persons must be blocked out completely.
The system on show worked remarkably well, for example when a person appears from behind an object. Depending on the setting, their whole body or face is being pixelated or blocked out at anytime, immediately when they appear. Other moving objects, remain clearly visible at all times, regardless of occlusion.
Biometrics such as facial detection can run in the background, with the system only generating metadata that doesn’t allow for the reconstruction of facial features recognizable to humans.
Full AI flexibility: Network Optix
Innovation opens up opportunities, but it may also cause headaches for operators who see their systems incapable of keeping up with what’s required.
US-based VMS provider Network Optix therefore made AI Manager a centerpiece of their Secutech booth, showcasing how users can add an AI inference layer to their existing Nx Witness Enterprise system. With AI Manager, they can now run computer vision models directly on their on-prem servers or AI-capable edge devices — without having to rebuild technologically limited legacy system.
“The goal is to enable users to deploy AI wherever it suits their system—on the edge, in other on-prem devices, or in the cloud,” a company representative told asmag during an exclusive demo at the Network Optix booth.
“Many operators have video security systems that were designed primarily to record and stream, while security teams do the ‘smart analytics,’” she said. “Today, AI can do even smarter analytics, enabling security teams to focus on verification. Many systems in place are not set up for that, though.”
AI Manager works as a plugin within Nx Media Server. In many deployment scenarios, existing cameras can be fully retained — only the server or host device running the inference workload needs to meet the platform's requirement.”
“This means with AI Manager, users can deploy AI where their VMS is already running,” the representative explained. “It also provides flexibility going forward. Users can deploy new AI models easily to the whole system, or add multiple AI models and agents to individual edge devices. They can also add AI-based post processing and much more.”
AI capabilities are a large part of the story of video security in 2026. The flip side, however, are increasing power and bandwidth demands that might hamper organizations’ forays into AI—especially if the AI is not deployed smartly to complement systems perfectly. This is part of the quest for Network Optix.
“All our software is designed to be as lightweight as possible, enabling users to run them economically on their servers, AI boxes or edge devices,” the representative explained. “We ensure that all elements slot in seamlessly into the same software ecosystem.”
“Especially bigger organizations develop their own AI agents,” she said. “And we enable them. Network Optix is not just open to third-party systems, but we also support our users through SDK APIs and documentation in their quest to integrate their own AI.”
Final thoughts
With AI capabilities becoming ever more abundant across devices, the big quest is to orchestrate workloads and ensure users are not overwhelmed by multiplying options. AI is supposed to make all our lives easier after all.
VMS innovations at Secutech showed that VMS is central to this challenge going forward, with many companies updating their offering to unlock the full potential of innovation within the VMS and beyond.