Dahua Technology is now the world’s second largest video surveillance solution provider, 15 years after its establishment. The company leads the global video security industry with top-notch technology, and creates its own industrial standard.
Dahua Technology is now the world’s second largest video surveillance solution provider, 15 years after its establishment. The company leads the global video security industry with top-notch technology, and creates its own industrial standard.
Dahua is the first and only Chinese corporate in the security industry that established a global technology standard called HDCVI. Besides the explosive growth in sales and unprecedented achievements in technology development, the company’s innovations are honored by prestigious global awards, such as Red Dot Design and iF Design awards as well a&s Security 50 for eight consecutive years. In the professional security industry, Dahua’s brand stands for the quality product, and the company represents a trustworthy and forward-looking manufacturing partner.
Well-known for its high caliber design, engineering and manufacturing services, its global footprint spans more than 180 countries and areas. More than 1/3 of its sales revenues are generate from the overseas market, and the figure has been accelerating. In the next decade, Dahua sees a bright future from its fast expansion in the overseas market and new product lines in the residential market.
Established in 2001, Dahua Technology saw an exponential growth in sales performance from US$133.3 million in 2009 to US$1.2 billion in 2014. In 2015, the company predicts continued success with over 30 percent annual growth. As an outperformer in the video surveillance industry, its global presence spans over 180 countries and areas with tight relationships with over 1,000 global partners. According to IHS report 2015, Dahua Technology is the second largest provider of video surveillance solutions worldwide. Besides, Dahua’s global market shares in terms of DVR and network security cameras are ranked as runner-up and 4th place respectively.
The Internet of Things and cloud service drive the demand of smart home security and automation. Seeing the growing opportunity, Dahua leverages its rich manufacturing experiences and know-how to cater to the emerging market. At smart home, Dahua positions itself as a total solution provider and robust manufacturer partner. Tim Shen, Marketing Director for Overseas Business Center at Dahua Technology said, “Besides our strong manufacturing and R&D capabilities, we offer a complete product lineup of home security systems for both system integrators and DIY users.” Dahua see the smart home products as the future stars, and believes it’s the best timing to venture into the industry.
Total solution provider
The company entered the smart home from the professional installation market, and offers surveillance kits to its branded customers with aftersales services in the United States. The residential market currently accounts for around 10 percent of the company’s export sales. The sales revenue is predicted to reach over US$15 million in 2015. Shen said, “Before 2014, Dahua had focused on the video surveillance business. After we achieved the sales target at US$1 billion, we plan to extend our product categories and business scopes. We offer home security and automation products as the line extension of our commercial surveillance business for entering the smart home. Dahua has strong integration capability and complete product lineup as well as good reputation among our customers, which are our competitiveness to work with system integrators.” Based on video surveillance, access control and intrusion alarm, the company extends its product scope to the home automation and entertainment applications.
Dahua’s smart home system integrates video intercom and surveillance, wireless alarm, home automation control, emergency call and home entertainment. The indoor station, used as the control panel, is available in 7-inch and 10-inch panel sizes. Its indoor station, also called the video intercom, functions as the home gateway and control center for home security and automation systems. The control panel supports TCP/IP protocol to connect to the outdoor station, and to the Internet via P2P technology. The system will inform the security center when the alarm is triggered or an emergency call is made.
Flexible and interoperable
When considering communication protocols, wide acceptance and easy integration are two major concerns for the company. Allan Liu, product manager at Dahua Technology, indicated, “For system integrators, flexibility and integration capability are vital. That’s why we adopt Wi-Fi, Z-Wave and TCP/IP to enable easy installation whether for installers or DIYers. The protocols are compatible with most existing smart home systems currently. Furthermore, Wi-Fi and Z-Wave are the most popular and acceptable wireless home automation standards in North America. We make sure that our systems stay connected and are easy to integrate with other smart products.” To well and quickly serve the local customers, the company has a subsidiary in the United States with a small-scale assembly line. Shen said,“North America is the world’s largest smart home market in high demand of DIY products. Our US subsidiary aims to strengthen the cooperation with our OEM customers, and expands our business to the residential market. Also, we are planning to launch DIY products to cater to the market.” Dahua plans to launch a DIY kit that contains an IP cameras, alarm systems, and video intercoms, including indoor and outdoor stations for the consumer market. The DIY kit is scheduled to be released in October 2015.
Software is regarded as an important element for Dahua’s smart home systems. Its smart home system adopts Android O/S that is easy to connect to smartphones. With its exclusive mobile app, users can remotely control home appliances, open doors, and watch surveillance videos. With the mobile app, users can set up different scenes based on locations or scenarios with just one click. Liu explained, “We make our systems easy to use without hassle. A wellfunctioning smart home system should be able to integrate smart home devices and make them interoperable. Besides, user experience is also important in the market.
We care about the user experience and customer services.” With the accumulative user experiences in the professional surveillance industry, Dahua believes it can provide a solid foundation in the user-centric smart home market. To differentiate itself from other competitors in the world, the company has set up an independent R&D team for software development.
Cornerstones for success
Based on previous successful experiences on OEM and ODM business for the branded customers, Dahua has become a well-known leading global brand in the video surveillance industry. The company’s monthly production capacity of IP cameras alone reaches more than 700,000 units. Mass production capability, cost leadership and fast market responsiveness are cornerstones of its success. Also, the company remains competitive with everlasting innovations and strenuous efforts on product quality.
Dahua is a R&D-oriented company that over 50 percent of its employees focus on R&D engineering. At present, the company has 3,000 R&D professionals, and invests more than 10 percent of sales income on R&D development every year. Nowadays, the company owns a total of 556 patents with 27 owned invention patents. As a customer-centric company, Dahua conducts Collaborative Product Development (CPD) Procedure, including five stages—concept, plan, develop and test, verify and release, and product life-cycle management stages. The five stages help the company and its clients to set quality points, define input and output clearly, and ensure 100 percent customer requirement fulfillment, and deliver new products in time.
Besides advanced design capabilities and strong investment in hardware and software development, the company persists on stringent quality assurance system by taking strict control of every production process. The company owns a world-class testing center measuring 4,000 square meters. Regarding the manufacturing system, its factory is certified with ISO 9001 quality management systems, and implements lean manufacturing to ensure efficient production and quality assurance. Moreover, Dahua conducts Total Quality Management (TQM) and six sigma quality management systems to continuously improve its ability to deliver high-quality products and services to customers. The company pays much attention on details related to quality control, from product design, production to distribution. Specifically, the company adopts full in-house inspection and equipment testing. Its inspection processes include incoming material, routing and sampling inspections, function test, and GMP audits. To ensure the quality of finished products, the company furnishes testing equipment, such as mechanical aging, thermal shock, insertion force, salt spray, dust, waterproof tests, and so on. Constant pursuit of quality and continuous upgrading of quality shows the company’s endeavor on customers’ satisfaction.
Shen commented, “The home automation market is controlled by system integrators. With more and more device makers and retail brands entering the market, the market will face a drastic transition. We keep flexible manufacturing and stable product quality to survive in the competitive market. Applying our successful experience to the overseas market, we are sure to provide products that enhance consumers' comfort, security, convenience with compelling user experiences.” There are different routes to smart homes. Dahua will lead the way to success with our global partners, bringing innovative solutions to benefit every smart home user.