Technological advancement: Waiting for the next big innovation

From a technological perspective, the surveillance industry benefited from growing capabilities in computing power, recording, and storage allowing manufacturers to roll out continuously improving models with better image quality, capturing more and more details such as facial features and license plate numbers.

The major innovation of the last few years was the introduction of the HD megapixel camera by Avigilon and IQinVision (which merged with Vicon Industries in 2014), followed by other manufacturers. Megapixel adoption is now wide scale with offerings even in the low-end market with cheap versions being sold in big-box retailers and online. The industry kept offering higher pixel counts and also higher resolutions over the years with 4K cameras being first introduced in ISC West in 2014 by Axis, Arecont Vision, Bosch, Sony and others.

“The past eight years have seen many technological breakthroughs for security, including the transition from SD to HD, HD to Full HD, and now to 4K. It is not only about the resolution, but also other innovations in imaging such as wider dynamic range, and greater sensitivity from sensors,” said Riki Nishimura, GM for Visual Security Solutions for Professional Solutions Company in APAC at Sony Electronics.

Another technology that became more prominent in recent years is mobile security management, which gained popularity together with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets. The ability to monitor video footage from a mobile phone or tablet is in demand and many manufacturers have added this capability to their offering. “The desire for constant connectivity and the demand to push video and data anywhere in the world at real-time speeds necessitated the build-out of the entire supporting infrastructure,” explained Charlie Erickson, VP of Product Management at 3xLOGIC.

HD-over-Coax Technologies
Several years ago, price was the main obstacle in switching from analog to IP systems. However since then the price of IP systems has gone down, their quality improved, and the adoption rates of IP video went up. Nonetheless, analog systems are still here and improving their quality.

HD-over-coax solutions are a serious contender for IP video and have made a big impact on the market in the past years, allowing users to get HD quality images and at the same time take advantage of lower pricing, easier installation (HD-over-coax does not require any network configuration), and reusing of existing coaxial cabling.

The various HD-over-coax solutions which include HDCVI, TVI and AHD, hail from Asia and are spearheaded by companies such as Dahua Technology, Hikvision Digital Technology, and other adopters of AHD. The competition among the various HD-over-coax products started from Dahua’s HDCVI, which was introduced to the market in 2012. Then, in the next few years, other solutions joined in. HDCVI and TVI have become influential in the lower end of the market, where their price and easy installation make them very attractive. However, other solutions, such as HD-SDI and ccHDtv, remain available in the niche markets and applications.

Video Analytics: Winner Takes it All?
The early strides of video analytics in the security industry have not been successful. Video analytics were prone to false alarms and problematic detection rates. In addition, over the past eight years, legal disputes have also set back the pace of its development. In 2011 ObjectVideo (OV) filed a series of lawsuits against Bosch, Samsung, and Sony and also sued Pelco later on. In March of 2012, OV issued an “IP amnesty program” which many viewed as an attempt to try and intimidate manufacturers to pay a licensing fee or be sued by OV. The reason for the law suits, as put forth by OV’s CEO, was to get return on the investment put into the company’s intellectual property. Some companies such as Sony and Tyco agreed to pay OV, whereas Samsung went to court and won. These legal disputes held back the development of video analytics as companies didn’t want to take the risk of getting sued.

In December 2014, Avigilon bought OV’s patent portfolio as well as its licensing agreement, surprising the security industry. This move is of big significance since Avigilon now controls the major patents its competitors must use if they wish to use video analytics in their cameras. This is not the only IP related deal involving Avigilon. It was preceded by Avigilon acquiring VideoIQ in 2013. In addition, following the OV acquisition, Avigilon further acquired video analytic patents from BRS Labs, FaceDouble, ITS7, and Video Mining in January 2015.

Avigilon is not the first company to get control of analytic-related IP. In 2010 DVTel acquired video analytics company ioimage with the intention of integrating its IP and delivering a unified end-to-end solution.

Video Analytics Delivering Beyond Security
As video analytics continued to mature and stabilize, they have become more common over the course of the years. “The advances in supporting technologies such as proliferation of IP cameras and establishment of video streaming standards were key catalysts for the adoption of video analytics to enhance security,” said Dr. Sadiye Guler, CEO of Intuvision.

A noteworthy development in the field of video analytics is their use beyond security. “Video analytics have made it possible to review large amounts of video rapidly, get timely alerts on possible threats, and use video infrastructure for business intelligence,” said Jumbi Edulbehram, Regional President of Americas for Oncam Grandeye. Video analytics are now used for business intelligence and improving operations in many sectors from retail to oil and gas, performing people counting, heat mapping, queue monitoring, etc.

“The rise of video analytics has been revolutionary to the video surveillance industry. This has facilitated the development of more sophisticated, versatile platforms which allows end users to gather data on and analyze a breadth of factors beyond security and within their business,” said Julian Rutland, European NVS Marketing Director of Canon Europe.

The added value of having greater knowledge of customer trends and demographics is immensely important for marketing and there are now many offers that allow retailers to gain more insight regarding their floor operations.

“In the early days, cameras with video motion detection could simply detect if an intruder was there or not, however the latest systems can provide much more information about customer behavior from counting numbers, to analyzing what path they take and which goods they take an interest in. The latest analytics systems are much better at dealing with crowded conditions and users can find out reliably how long people are standing in a queue and, maybe more importantly, how many get fed up and walk off before being served,” explained Geoff Thiel, CEO for VCA Technology.

No “Next Big Thing”
Following the introduction of megapixel technology, the surveillance industry hasn’t experienced any successful major innovations in the past few years. Instead, there has been a series of ongoing technological improvements.

Commoditization and the growing influence of Chinese manufacturers have driven prices down. Furthermore, differentiation between manufacturers is lacking. As a result, each year the surveillance industry looks as “more of the same” without new technologies or products. Innovation in the security industry is problematic; the market in general is conservative and doesn’t quickly adopt new technologies. For systems integrators and installers, integration issues with existing legacy systems, and with other subsystems such as access control, alarms and others are still difficult. In addition, external bottle necks from end users, such as tight budgets, also hinder adoption of new technologies.

The lack of innovation is also evident in the mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the surveillance market. Many of the M&As that took place in the past few years were between well established companies, another indication that the industry is mature and lacking in innovation. In an innovative industry there would have been more acquisitions of start-up companies by larger companies.

One exception is the video analytics industry. Successful integration and implementation of video analytics, as well as the introduction of more business-intelligence driven analytics, can be the differentiator that will give manufacturers a competitive edge in a time where equipment prices are dropping and manufacturers deliver similar products. Which manufacturer will be successful in doing this is yet to be seen.