The courses, which are available in Dutch, German, French and English, have been designed to expand the knowledge of industry professionals to help them better differentiate themselves, and strengthen and build their businesses.

"Industry and product knowledge is vital for our customers to stay competitive and grow their business," said Vineet Nargolwala, managing director of Honeywell Systems Group EMEA. "The training courses at the Purmerend TCoE have been designed to boost the know-how of security professionals and in doing so enhance their efficiency, reputation and bottom line. Our industry is evolving rapidly, with new technology, solutions and applications emerging every day. Installers must stay in touch with developments that will affect their customers."

The opening of the Purmerend training centre follows the successful launch last year of the Honeywell TCoE located in Runcorn, UK. Other regional training facilities can also be found at Burgess Hill, UK; Paris, France and Schönaich, Germany. Courses are offered to professionals interested in learning more about security issues and trends and enriching their product knowledge and installation skills. A wide range of training is offered - from beginner's level to advanced - and the number of participants is limited in order to provide the highest quality training. In addition to spotlighting Honeywell products and technology, the sessions cover the fundamentals of security systems incorporating CCTV, IP security, access control and video analytics, and include the following - Foundation in CCTV, Understanding Resolution in Analogue and IP CCTV Systems, IP CCTV, and Foundation in Access.

"The overall training on access and intruder integration was very good and clear," said Seyhan Abaci and Brett Spikker at Holland Systemen. "All our questions were answered. We don't always experience this when attending product training. The great advantage was that we had the possibility to actually work with all the equipment."

Based conveniently near Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, the Purmerend TCoE is a comfortable environment equipped with cutting-edge technology, providing participants with a hands-on, interactive experience. The centre incorporates a demonstration area in which typical design and technical challenges are resolved through live simulations. Meanwhile, a dark room shows the effect of lighting on camera and lens selection for applications such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and external camera selection.

"The trainer had extensive product knowlegde on ActiveAlert and did a very good job in explaining everything," commented Peter Stuart, project manager at Imtech Amsterdam. The course was well organised which makes it easy to actually work with the product in real-life. The biggest plus was that we had the opportunity to actually work with the equipment. Compared to other suppliers this is a great advantage."