This article discusses what exhibitors thought about the UK/EU market and what technologies they innovated to respond to current trends/user needs.
IFSEC this year was held May 17-19 in London. It was its first physical event in two years since the pandemic. This note discusses what exhibitors thought about the UK/EU market and what technologies they innovated to respond to current trends/user needs.
Economically speaking, UK and
Europe are expected to do well this year. According to IMF, GDP is expected to grow 3.7 percent this year for UK and 2.8 percent for the Euro area. This positive trend is reflected in the region’s security market, which IFSEC participants said is faced with strong demand and good growth prospects.
“EU and UK security markets are working well, and we are expecting that the market situation will even go up higher. Next year we will see further growth of the market,” said JJ Kim, Sales Director at KJ TECH.
“The UK/Europe market remained very strong for AMAG even during the height of the pandemic and we see no change to that. There were also good levels of engagement from the Middle East and Africa at the show,” said Mark Williams, Director of Sales for EMEA at AMAG Technology.
“We feel good about the status of the UK and Europe security market and have seen that investment in security for some industries (logistics and manufacturing for example) were not too affected by the pandemic. As leaders in facial recognition and computer vision we have seen a growing interest in SAFR, particularly for access control and visitor management, which we expect to continue growing,” said Charlie Bennett, VP of UK and Europe at SAFR.
Dominant trends in UK/Europe security
According to exhibitors, there are various security technology trends that are dominant in UK and Europe. That said, vendors have launched new products and solutions to respond to those trends and meet end user needs. These are discussed as follows.
Post-pandemic
In the wake of the
pandemic, contactless and remote/hybrid working solutions have become more popular than ever in UK and Europe.
“As well as WaveKey, we have also recently upgraded the 2N IP Style intercom to read QR codes, and further features in line with technology trends and end user demands are in the process of being added. That was a response to changing trends in consumer behavior and working patterns in the UK and Europe, particularly the acceleration of e-commerce and companies operating hybrid, less centralized working models,” said Michael Nicholson, Business Development Manager for the UK and Ireland at 2N.
GDPR/integration
GDPR compliance and integrated solutions are also trends in UK and Europe that can’t be missed.
“Union Community launched solutions and products that comply with European standards based on the GDPR law, and got a good response during the exhibition,” said Chun Ho Kim, a representative of the Korean company. “As for the solution integration part, it is thought that it has received a positive response in line with the current UK and European trends during the consultation period by preparing for compatibility with major solution companies and OSDP protocols that are actively promoting in the UK and Europe.”
Perimeter defense
Perimeter defense has also gained ground as users protect their premises against intrusion.
“From PID Systems, one division of the SmartWater Group, we showcased the VideoGuard 360, an intrusion detection camera system. As an industry-first security solution for instant deployment across a variety of asset protection assignments, the system is used across construction and civil engineering sites, as well as for retail and vacant property,” said Richard Tracz, Group Marketing Manager at SmartWater. “The camera system has proven to be very successful in the UK and has recently been introduced in Central Europe where were rapidly scaling up the number of available units to keep up with demand.”
Cloud
Cloud has emerged as a major trend in the global security market, and UK/Europe is no exception.
“Despite challenges, the UK and European security market is currently moving at full steam. We’re seeing both security and IT integrators recommending cloud platforms to their customers,” said Rishi Lodhia, VP and MD for EMEA at Eagle Eye Networks. “As the demand for cloud systems increases, the biggest challenge for integrators is the shortage of technicians. Thankfully, the innate characteristics of cloud solutions help our partners scale their businesses and address today’s labor shortage challenges. For example, a cloud VMS is quicker and easier to install compared to an on-premises system.
AI/video analytics
Last but not least, UK/Europe is seeing stronger demand for AI and video analytics, which are increasingly moving towards the edge and have various applications that help address issues/challenges facing end users in different verticals.
“There is strong demand in retail for surveillance solutions. In order to reduce the false alarm of the image detection, the AI detection of the image is also important function for the customers. We have arranged the following key areas in our exhibition to attract customers to visit: Highly accurate VCA on the edge yet easy to set up, easily retrofitting IP cameras with video analytics via AI Box, and 360 AI solution for retail sector,” said Stacey Lien, EMEA regional business head at VIVOTEK.
“The central topic at IFSEC was our Nx 5.0 which we are launching soon to the market. One of the most discussed new features was the ‘Advanced Object Search.’ If the system has AI cameras or is running any of our ecosystem partner’s AI, you can now make good use of it in a much simple way by just searching through key words and surfing through the results. For instance, if you wanted to search for a woman with red clothing, you could do it in a few clicks and Nx Platform will show you all the instances were a woman with red clothing was recorded,” said Oscar Hsieh, VP of International Sales at Network Optix.