Unlike most countries in the world, crime rates in Australia are actually on the decline. In fact, despite the hostage situation at a Lindt Cafe in Sydney at the end of last year, Australia rose to number 9 on the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index, up four spots from the previous year. Low leve
Unlike most countries in the world, crime rates in Australia are actually on the decline. In fact, despite the hostage situation at a Lindt Cafe in Sydney at the end of last year, Australia rose to number 9 on the Institute for Economics and Peace's Global Peace Index, up four spots from the previous year.
Low levels of crime make security less of a crucial investment than in countries where security and surveillance measures are more critical. Yet, this is not the reason that adoption rates of technologies like IP-based surveillance and electronic access control have been slower than in the U.S. and Europe. Factors such as high labor cost and Internet infrastructure are what Adam Storoschenko, GM of O-Lin Security Solutions, says has caused IP adoption to be slow.
“Australia is an expensive country to live in. High labor charges is one result of the cost of living here.” Storoschenko said. “As labor charges are high and by replacing a complete analog system, including your coax cables, etc., it can turn out to be a very expensive option to rewire complete buildings with networking cable.”
Regardless, many security players in Australia say that the security market right now is very strong. According to Peter Grimshaw, National Sales Manager at Central Security Distribution (CSD), “The security industry in Australia is probably the strongest it's been in a long time.” Scott Fraser, GM for Australia and New Zealand at Salto Systems shared a similar belief, saying, “There's a bit of a shift from the reliance on mining into other areas of the market now, but the market is still quite good.”
Australian Know Their Tech
Despite slower adoption of new technologies, it does not mean that Australians are not tech savvy. “I think Australians are fairly progressive in terms of technology,” Fraser said. Specifically speaking on access control, Fraser pointed out that while Australians may not be quite as quick to accept technologies such as biometric fingerprint locks as they are in say Korea, overall, they are still very accepting of new technology.
Marc Chan, Business Development Manager for Security in APAC at FLIR Systems pointed out, “Australia is an important market for us because it's a technologically advanced country. It's receptive to new technologies, for instance thermal technology — they were one of the early adopters for it.” When it comes to buying, Chan added, “Australians make very informed decisions. Customers know a lot about what they're buying; they're not just blindly buying. A lot of them actually know the technology pretty well. Newer technology takes some time for them to absorb, but in general they are pretty informed.”
The Great IP Push
Most security players in Australia will attest that the current network infrastructure, while not nearly as strong as it should be, is plenty good enough for an IP system, despite slow adoption. However, the trend in Australia now is definitely going to IP and the eventual roll out of the National Broadband Network (NBN) will hopefully only further drive IP growth. In fact, some of the largest security distributors in Australia say that in terms of sales between 80 and 90 percent go to IP now.
While new projects are using IP-based solutions, retrofits and upgrades are still likely to hang on to legacy systems. This is where hybrid systems and HD-over-coaxial solutions come into play.
While some believe that HD-over-coaxial solutions could be a good fit for the Australian retrofit market, most believe that with easy plug-and-play IP solutions available, taking the plunge and going IP is still the better option.