PRIVATE SECTOR
The commercial sector saw good movement in the past year. “The global economy trickles down to all spending, whether the government or private sector,” LeBlanc said. “The private sector is driving the spending more so than the government sector.”
Sports and leisure grew, such as athletic venues and stadiums. Dallmeier installed a multimegapixel solution for the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, which can seat more than 74,000 spectators, according to a prepared statement from the company.
In emerging countries such as Brazil, India and China, high growth can be found. “With the World Cup and Olympics to be held in Brazil in the coming years, the country is set to increase its capacity by about 85 percent,” Kozak said. “The number of hotel rooms is also expected to increase by nearly 40 percent, increasing demand for products such as electromagnetic locks. Qatar is also seeing strong growth in sports and leisure as well as other vertical markets, because of the need to secure both established and newly constructed infrastructure.”
Financial institutions witnessed increased demand. “Banking experienced moderate growth in 2011 despite the downturn, because of consolidation and the need for logical- physical access control,” Kozak said.
Retailers are also investing in security. “Retail, certainly supermarkets, are performing quite well, with refurbishment programs for main stores and new developments with new smaller ‘in-town' stores,” said Andrew Pigram, Technical Director at Norbain. “One of the first sectors to react to the downturn was retail in 2008, but we're starting to see a gentle recovery.”
Europe and North America are seeing retail growth. “As it turns out, it has been strong as retailers have an increased need to protect their assets,” said Paul Bodell, Business Development for IQinVision. “In some places, the bad economy or threat of a higher crime rate has accelerated investment.”
Another growth market is the industrial sector, such as energy and petrol. “We've done work in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Columbia and several other countries,” said John Moss, CEO of S2 Security. “The nice thing about servicing a number of markets in Latin America and Asia is you have some protection from difficulties in any single market.”
Integrators focused on ROI for installations, which grew in 2011. “We saw a spike in 2010 and 2011 in power and utilities, particularly remote sites,” said Mark Gally, VP of Marketing for VideoIQ.
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
As more markets have already reached the IP tipping point, standards become crucial to integrating multiple devices. ONVIF is by far the largest of the physical security groups, counting more than 300 members. However, the present version is limited to display. Support for each member's unique PTZ protocols, night vision controls or in-house analytics is still a way off.
Supporting generic functions is already a big step forward, but “standards” still lack a uniform guideline for image quality. “Standards provide a framework for performance criteria to be achieved by the various members,” Gorshkov said. “But ONVIF and PSIA are trade groups, not standards bodies. They are interconnect agreements between vendors.”
Installers and integrators should be more concerned about designing systems that deliver the proper imaging for user needs, rather than just looking at cost. “Integrators need to maintain an appropriate standard of quality, rather than leaving it in the hands of vendors,” Gorshkov said.
Some standards are drawn up by federal bodies, such as Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 mandates for government identification. “The government has extended its influence on physical access initiatives, imposing tightened privacy standards and mandating secure-compound directives,” Siew said.
MANAGEMENT AND ANALYTICS
The migration to IP has yielded benefits for businesses. “The industry as a whole has embraced what technology can do to assist a corporation or entity in protecting their assets,” LeBlanc said. “It's a multiplier that compounds upon itself. There are much easier ways to integrate into a solution.”
The accessibility of smartphones and tablets is expected to drive home automation growth to reach a wider audience, according to Frost & Sullivan.
As IP yields business benefits, it sees strong growth. “We continue to see rapid adoption of IP technology across product categories,” said James Rothstein, Executive VP of Tri-Ed/Northern Video Distribution.
Edge devices did well, as the hardware and software are optimized to work together. Integrators can save time for setup and calibration, while differentiating with analytics. “It offers nice infrastructure savings and operator efficiency for search and presentation capabilities,” Gally said. “The continued adoption of analytics in the mainstream is a critical component in powering an overall system. You can optimize storage and empower people to do faster searches.”
Delivering ROI was a focus for manufacturers. VideoIQ launched its first business continuity rule for 24-hour ATM vestibules to detect sleeping vagrants, which can be a problem in cold climates. “They're concerned about customer safety and whether people can go in the ATM to do business,” Gally said. “We can track objects that go motionless for a long period of time and send an alarm. Banks are actually impacting their bottom line by making sure there's access to ATMs 24/7.”
Other providers are providing more value by offering more functionality, such as unlimited installs for VMS client software and incremental licenses by camera count. “OnSSI has reconfigured how the software platform goes to market,” Piran said. Its scalability provides upgrade opportunities for customers with cameras and severs at multiple sites.