The flow-on effect from the end of the mining boom has been a factor in lower government revenues that may have led to lower government spending of recent in Australia. However, this is in contrast to the commercial sector, where Milestone has benefited from consistent and ongoing growth over the last few years. As a r
The flow-on effect from the end of the mining boom has been a factor in lower government revenues that may have led to lower government spending of recent in Australia. However, this is in contrast to the commercial sector, where
Milestone has benefited from consistent and ongoing growth over the last few years. As a result, Milestone Australia has enjoyed an annual growth rate above the industry average.
Milestone Systems Australia has been involved in a number of large projects in both the government and commercial sector. “We have some customers exceeding 10,000 camera channels. On a local government level, the Parramatta City council and surrounding precincts will continue to invest in IP surveillance technology from Milestone Systems that will extend conjoined law enforcement, traffic, and parking operations. Recent crime in the region has also fueled the requirement for video surveillance,” said Angelo Salvatore, Country Manager of South Pacific at Milestone Systems.
In Australia, there is definitely a unique IP surveillance landscape in Australia, which stems from a number of reasons. Firstly, the lack of local presence of other vendors in Australia has slowed the exposure of the technology, its benefits and in turn, sales adoption. In contrast, Milestone Systems has had a local presence since 2009 and a structured channel partner program that allows for multiple distributors and resellers to access products and compete on merit in the marketplace.” Milestone drives market demand with its open platform – what I like to call the industry ‘piñata’. Filled with opportunities, Milestone channel partners depend on and benefit from this open platform approach for greater interoperability and innovation. A true win-win,” said Salvatore.
Secondly, the analog market has been lucrative, and although soon becoming obsolete, still returns high margins of return to installers that have limited IT expertise. Analog products have also offered lower barriers to entry when compared to IP. Such installers sell their product at cost, and benefit largely from the installation services of running cables and in many cases, single-use cabling infrastructure (coax), Salvatore explained.
“Thirdly, the cost. The price of IP cameras and storage has reduced over recent years to become comparable to analog solutions. Only a few years ago it would not be uncommon to pay over AUD$1000+ for an IP camera, that cost is now falling to average closer to $500 or less,” he said.
Fourthly, knowledge. Consumers are becoming more educated. They have access to the internet, they read, they can access reviews and testing of all of the available technology in almost real-time. “I noticed this at the trade shows of recent, where the end users and resellers are more educated when approaching the stand to talk with us, often asking pointed questions about a specific topic or technical feature,” Salvatore pointed out.
In the past, Australia did not have high security awareness, which resulted in significantly fewer surveillance cameras compared to other cities or countries with the same density of people. However, due to recent events, Australia has been gearing up security. “I believe there is a wave of change occurring on this topic. From a community perspective, there appears to be a visible shift from a position of protecting privacy at all costs, to a view of how cameras can save lives and solve crimes,” explained Salvatore. One such example was the recent murder of Jill Meagher in Brunswick Melbourne, a true tragedy. This incident highlighted the importance of video in solving crimes. The video evidence from a retail outlet showed Jill being followed by her attacker and the video was played on TV news broadcasts and multiple forms of social media that soon led to the arrest of Adrian Ernest Bayley, a convicted felon. “This high profile murder reiterated the importance of video surveillance in helping to get and keep criminals off the streets, and those once opposed to the idea now support the concept as a tool to assist law enforcement in solving and prosecuting crimes,” he said.