The adoption of HD-SDI and IP-based products vary in different countries worldwide based on their preferences of the technologies, regulations or promotions from their governments, and the network infrastructure of their particular countries.
Based on the opinions of visitors from various countries, network surveillance is undoubtedly the future. However, HD-SDI is often compared with IP and regarded as a formidable competition since buyers fail to reach a unanimous agreement about its use. “IP is most definitely the future. HD-SDI has nothing more to offer than resolution,” said Yossi Yaron, IP Department Manager at Smart IP Solutions. Others have a different perspective for the two types of surveillance. “I'd like to think that analog will die, and HD-SDI and IP will not be a competing but a complimentary solution. Because in the end, you want a HD solution. For example, in Australia, to provide manpower is extremely expensive. If you reduce that, you're actually reducing the overall cost by a significant amount. So if the cable already exists, then HD-SDI might be a good solution. The cabling is not always coax because a lot of the installers have been using CAT5 with baluns or an analog solution. So this is all about the things that we take into consideration,” said Neil Morgan, National Product Engineer at Ness, an Australian manufacturer and supplier.
Since the use of analog has been prevalent in the industry for decades, traditional installers are unaccustomed to installing and configuring network products and solutions. The varying rates of IP progression in different countries contribute to reasons that might encourage and warrant the demands of HD-SDI. Presently, HD-SDI is still quite expensive, and prices most likely won't be decreasing anytime soon. “IP products, on the other hand, are decreasing in price and improving in technology. More and more people are beginning to acknowledge it and making it main stream,” said Yaron.
Israel
Security is very important to the Israeli market, as seen by its military intelligence, government, and police force. Security in this aspect correlates with the country's political situation; however, verticals such as retail, education, and home and city surveillance are largely unaffected. All new projects in the country are employing network surveillance and solutions, increasing sales of network products by up to 400 percent over the last year, with installations in verticals ranging from government, industrial, education, and healthcare. Despite the government's promotion of IP-based products, it remains difficult to sell network products and solutions because most installers have little knowledge of networking. “They know how to connect cables, but to modify cameras, they need the knowledge but they don't know how to start, and that's when basic IT knowledge is important,” said Yossi Yaron, IP Department Manager at Smart IP Solutions. Installers also do not feel compelled to make the switch since analog products are cheaper and more accessible due to the maturity of the technology.
As for users who are aware of IP-based products, suppliers often have great difficulty working with them, as they demand a lot of customizations for their installations. According to Yaron, the Israeli mindset demands for various customizations from their manufacturers. Though the requests may be difficult to deal with, manufacturers can actually benefit from them in the long run.
Tunisia
Though Tunisia is a small country located in North Africa, it is highly technology-centric and technologically advanced. Tunisia has a free trade agreement with the European Union as the country's economy depends strongly on its import. The government is working very hard to promote IP and all IP-based products are exempt from tax regardless of the country they are from. The people are also highly accepting of network surveillance, as long as they are user friendly. The only problem, as with so many other countries, is the installers' lack of IP proficiency. In Tunisia, end users are requesting for network installations, but integrators or installers are trying to convince them otherwise since they are not properly equipped to install high-level or large-scale network solutions, according to Karim Elleuch, CEO of Waycon.
Prior to the country's revolution, Tunisia enjoyed a low crime rate as its dictator ruled with a strict and powerful police force. Surveillance cameras were unnecessary until after the revolution when police had less authority over the people. The increased crime rate led to a higher demand for security products. As such, most end users are getting installations for the first time, leading to quite a particular situation. “Most large projects for sensitive sites are done from zero (without anything installed before) and done directly using IP technologies (no need to invest on other decreasing technologies). On the other side, small installations are done with very low-end analog products since customers don't have any experience or knowledge on how to choose, nor do they have any brand awareness. There is no way today for high-end analog brands to sell, while IP brands have increasing brand recognition,” Elleuch explained.
Australia
The Australian government has also begun to promote network products in their new projects and installations. The adoption of network and cloud solutions, however, has been slow to take off due to the country's poor internet infrastructure. The government is currently in the process of upgrading the internet infrastructure to fiber optic cables, which will vastly increase the speed of the internet once completed.
In the security industry of Australia, not only do companies have to compete with each other, they also face competitors such as hardware or office supply stores, sites such as Taobao and Amazon, on top of the overwhelming competition from China. If distributors are able to buy video surveillance products for a low price, it is likely their customers will be able to do the same. The more the companies try to compete in the analog market, the more they have to lower their price. Unfortunately, analog is still a large part of the Australian market, leaving distributors with no choice. “At the moment, there is very little movement towards updating their systems even though far better image quality is available. Generally they are still using analog, but of course once the installers and security managers finally migrate wholly to a HD solution rather than band-aid fixing what they have, I think most organizations that take their security seriously will update,” said Morgan.
Brazil
The Brazilian market is still predominantly employing analog products, while continuing its slow migration to IP. The distribution channels and higher volume markets for major network products did not start to increase until 2011 or 2012. However, the market is still looking at a less than 10 percent increase of network products for 2013, according to a major Brazilian manufacturer. Despite the general slow growth of network surveillance in the country, the government and public infrastructures are seeing more accelerated growth in IP-based surveillance due to events such as the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2014 and Olympics 2016. The substandard internet infrastructure is one of the main setbacks for the migration to network cameras. For that very same reason, VSaaS and cloud solution will not be able to take off in the Brazilian market for some duration of time as well. Neither ideas are popular in the Brazilian market for the obvious reason of slow internet, but cloud solution is still seen as a risky decision. Brazil is also not seeing a large uptake of HD-SDI solutions, though similar to analog products, due to its high cost. The market volume and its scalability are too small to see the price decrease. However, some believe that in a few years, a new technology will replace HD-SDI or something will happen to at least cut down its price.
Brazilian installers and distributors continue to be very analog-oriented and remain closed to the idea of adopting IP-based products due to the high price gap and the IT market. These traditional installers have grown an appreciation for it [analog] over the years, the traditional installers are also more accustomed to the “physical” aspects of installation. The older installers are unable to appreciate the “IT aspects” of installing IP products.
South Africa
South Africa has a much higher rate of serious crimes such as assault and murder compared to most countries, largely caused by the high rate of unemployment, poverty, and inequality of its people. The high corruption rate permeating throughout the country further increases the frequency and normalization of such crimes. In order to secure assets, manned guarding is usually entailed to provide security as an extra layer of protection.
Callguard, a manned guarding security services provider, uses technology including visitor/vehicle management systems, off-site monitoring, wireless sensor-based people and asset tracking, and real time patrol monitoring. Combined with a thorough risk assessment, the strategy enables a headcount reduction, and with it, a monthly saving while now achieving a tracked and audited service. “Currently (as we are at the beginnings of this new approach), the ratio is still very high with security guarding being 85 percent and technology being 15 percent. Going ahead, we intend to reduce that over the next two years to 70/30 and in five years time to 50/50. Guarding in South Africa is very different to say, guarding in Germany, where entire buildings are operated remotely without any security officers. The industry is certainly moving in that direction, but doubt we will be able to zero it out due to constraints associated with our tactical crime trends, reaction team response times, available skilled resources and bandwidth,” stated David Walstra, CEO of Callguard.