In March, Iveda, which specializes in cloud-based video surveillance, announced a partnership deal with a Taiwan smart TV manufacturer to have its solution bundled with the manufacturer's TV sets. The partnership may very well become a new business model allowing users to operate video surveillance with more ease and convenience.
The smart TV manufacturer is unnamed but billed as a major player with the third largest market share in Taiwan, generating annual sales of 180,000 units. According to Iveda, its partner was looking for ways to generate more revenue and expand smart TV's functionality. Targeting security as a means to achieve those objectives, the partner became the first in the industry to include security features in smart TV sets. Under the deal, the TV manufacturer bundles into its products Iveda's plug-andplay security cameras and its software-asa- service cloud video hosting platform that comes with proprietary video streaming and storage compression technologies, allowing users to handle surveillance as a service for a monthly fee. Recurring incomes for security services represent a new and attractive proposition for TV manufacturers.
Smart TVs are next-generation television sets that are hooked directly to the Internet and in many ways transform the user experience. They enable users to do much more than just watch delivered contents; users can also download apps, stream music and videos, play interactive games, and enjoy other features that they normally would not be able to on their traditional TV sets.
“TV is no longer a passive appliance in people's homes. Cloud-based video surveillance is another application that makes smart TVs even smarter,” said David Ly, Chairman and CEO of Iveda. “It is a viable business model because TV manufacturers will continue to seek innovative products and services with true value to their customers, not just for entertainment, but other functionalities such as security.”
In Ly's words, managed video surveillance through smart TVs “will not only become a trend, it will become an end-user expectation” as people gain awareness that such capabilities exist today. “The deal validates that video security does not need to be as complicated as traditional methods make it seem,” he said. With the partnership, Iveda hopes to widen its reach to more users that it couldn't through traditional means. “The value for offering this type of solution is mass adoption of Iveda's cloud video surveillance services,” Ly noted. “The opportunity to reach more potential customers who normally would not call a security company for anything … is what Iveda has accomplished here with our partner. So yes, we certainly expect growth and traction.” As for deploying the service in other regions, Ly gave an emphatic yes, saying Iveda is looking for new partnerships in new markets.
Iveda Takes Video Surveillance to the Cloud
Iveda, founded in 2003 and headquartered in Mesa, U.S., specializes in cloud-based video surveillance, which represents another way of securing homes or other premises through video. With cloud-based video surveillance, also known as managed video as a service (MVaaS) or video surveillance as a service (VSaaS), the video is centrally hosted at a data center and can be accessed via a Web browser. Components that are needed in a traditional installation, such as DVRs, NVRs, and the related software, are no longer needed by users, who just need to log in and start to manage and control their videos via the PC or other Internet-connected devices. Iveda sees most of its customers in North America, although it has a subsidiary in Taiwan who has built ties with local clients in both public and private sectors.