Secutech Expo 2010 Gathered Record-High Chinese Exhibitor

Secutech Expo is the most international security tradeshow in Asia. It was created to connect Asian manufacturers with international buyers. This year, the 13th event has hit a new record in visitor numbers, with 7.6 percent growth in booths compared to last year. Secutech Expo 2010 gathered record-high 52 Chinese exhibitors and A&S China Best Buys explores Chinese manufacturers' products and capabilities.


The scale of this year's show has reached new heights, with participants from more than 17 countries — 800 suppliers and international brands from all over the world — with almost 100 seminars scheduled to promote new strategies for business planning and security. Composec and Fire & Safety Expo are among this year's highlights.


Within the show, CompoSec is the world's first platform to display products and solutions related to components, parts, sub-systems and software in security industry. Four themes were showcased — imaging sensors; ICs and semiconductor chips; embedded software; and parts and accessories. Solution partners for advanced security components and parts, including CPUs, operating systems, mixed-signal ICs, DSPs, ASICs, FPGAs, SoCs, codecs, video cards, storage, transmission, embedded software, image sensors, access cards, and controllers and RFID, were easily found at the showground.


The core of this year's exhibition was to represent the energy of the global security industry, starting with Asia's manufacturing powerbase all gathered under one roof. This year attracted more than 22,690 visitors, including 2,416 from overseas. Despite the volcano ash disrupting air travel across Europe, the number of buyers from nearby regions increased significantly, particularly from the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Japan.


Major Chinese Suppliers Presence
Hikvision showcased its latest DVR, which has 16 channels with D1 streaming. "Today, we do not see technology advancing in DVRs," said Derek Yang, Asia Region Sales Manager at Hikvision. "However, NVRs are increasingly becoming the trend on the market. New developments for NVRs show impressive breakthroughs."


Additionally, Hikvision offers 2-megapixel and 5-megapixel network cameras. Yang pointed out that more than 10,000 2-megapixel network cameras are used in the Shanghai Expo. "Our image encoding and decoding can record and playback at the same image quality," Yang added.


Dahua introduced the first DVR in the industry that supports 16 channel recording, at D1 resolution, with 16 channel simultaneous playback. "This 32-channel high-performance standalone DVR will be the main product for Dahua in 2010," said James Wang, Overseas Product Manager at Dahua Technology. "Furthermore, within the 32 channels, four channels are capable of D1 playback, real-time viewing and zoom-in."


Wang pointed out that this product displays 32 channels, and four of them will be streamed in D1 resolution. Alongside, this product can connect through HDMI and BNC connectors. "In the future, we will make four channels connect to network cameras, and make this a hybrid DVR," said Wang.


Dali Technology, professional DVR manufacturer in Eastern China, showcased its latest DVR with all 16 channels streaming at D1 resolution. In order to enable this, Dali's system uses CPU with better procession power.


"Additionally, we offer an embedded NVR with 32 HD channels that can connect to 2-megapixel cameras with real-time recording," said Li Qiao, Market Planning Specialist at Dali Technology. "Speaking of IP-based products, we also have 1.3-megapixel cameras developed on CCD sensors and 2-megapixel cameras developed on CMOS sensors as well. Both are capable of HDMI streaming."


TVT has introduced a full series of H.264 DVRs with exciting new features, such as a new platform and software for better user experience. New platform refers to the chipset and related development. Better features include HDMI1080P, full channel real-time playback, and real-time network stream and network playback. Better experience refers to more user-friendly software.


"We developed a new software platform to make our product do what the user wants," said Joe Qiu, Assistant to General Manager at TVT Digital Technology. "It can operate similar to a PC, enable seamless access and control via the Internet and mobile phone, and be flexible when balancing performance and cost."


TVT offers selections for different target markets. For the high-end professional market, its hybrid DVRs support megapixel cameras. For the mid-end market, project contractors, integrators or installers may choose a series that supports real-time CIF and D1 recording, where user can get real-time D1 resolution. Generally, users can assign all resources for recording and playback. At the entry-level front, the real-time D1 recording and playback DVR, or the real-time CIF DVR are the best options.


Buyer's Feedback
Secutech attracted not only European and American visitors. This year, there was a large number of visitors from emerging markets such as Turkey, India and Southeast Asia. In these regions, Chinese products are highly regarded and China's market share expects to grow in the upcoming years.


"We source cameras from Taiwan and China," said Sergio Mendes, CEO of Sektronix. "As for alarms and sensors, we buy from China, as these technologies are more mature. I am also looking for biometrics products from China. In general, Chinese suppliers are learning fast and I'm impressed with their products."


Egypt, with no manufacturing base, imports security products from overseas. "Egypt is a highly price sensitive market," said Aly Elzeiny, MD at BVC Egypt.
"Ninety percent of products are sourced from China. China overrides other Asian countries in terms of analog cameras and provides a great selection of undercover cameras."


"Roughly 60 to 70 percent of our products are sourced from Asia," said Luis Coury, Director at GloboSec Security Solutions. "Among them, mostly are from China, while some are from Taiwan. We are not looking for the most innovative and sophisticated technologies; we are looking for basic products that can protect and deter crime. Therefore, Chinese products provide stable quality at a very competitive price."


Chinese products are not only strengthening in reputation in video surveillance, but also in access control. Stephen Hoe, Product Manager at XID Technologies from Singapore, pointed out that Chinese access control solutions are sensibly priced and mature in terms of quality. Additionally, Jean Bury, Director at IZYX Systems from France, also mentioned that he sourced access control products and locks from China as well.