In its fourth annual video surveillance trends for the year ahead white paper, a market research company makes predictions for 2013 and beyond. They are:
1. New Battle Ground in Image Quality
2. Mobile Video Streaming – The Next Gear of Mobile Video Surveillance.
3. India to Remain a High Growth Market
4. Keeping it Simple in 2013
5. Intelligent Video Surveillance
6. Private Cloud – the future for enterprise video surveillance systems?
7. Remote Video Applications
8. Chinese Companies Looking West
9. Video Surveillance Goes Vertical
10. Video Content Analysis and Video Meta-data as “Big Data”.
1. Image Quality
The increased popularity of HD and megapixel resolution security cameras has been a topic in the CCTV industry over recent years. And quite rightly so, says IMS Research, as world shipments of megapixel resolution network security cameras are predicted to out-sell standard resolution network security cameras in 2012 for the first time.
However, the researchers do not expect higher megapixel resolutions to be a mass-market trend. Instead, you can expect to see new technology developments and camera features that improve image quality become the key battleground as manufacturers try to establish their own USPs.
2. Mobile Video Streaming – The Next Gear of Mobile Video Surveillance
Traditionally, in the mobile video surveillance market, recorded video on an on-board device is downloaded wirelessly when the vehicle returns to the station or depot. Recently, there has been increased buzz around the capability to wirelessly stream video from a mobile video surveillance camera back to a control centre.
For a control room operative this brings a number of advantages. For the police, the ability for a control room to view an incident live allows for an instantaneous assessment of the situation and more effective guidance for officers on the ground. It could also provide assistance for lone workers on buses and trains. In the coming year, IMS Research predicts that there will be renewed emphasis on this type of solution.
3. India to Remain a High Growth Market
Economic growth in India has slowed. The market research firm expects that GDP in Asia’s third-largest economy will grow by just 5.1 percent in 2012, down from 6.9 percent in 2011 and 9.6 percent in 2010. However, despite this background, spending on video surveillance equipment has remained resilient with the Indian market forecast to enjoy healthy double-digit growth in 2012. The unique characteristics of the Indian market make it an exciting place to do business. What is more, compared to other high growth markets, barriers to entry for foreign-owned suppliers are much lower.
4. Keeping it Simple in 2013
Many suppliers of network video surveillance are now targeting smaller installations to grow their businesses. IMS Research therefore predicts 2013 to be the year where suppliers focus on developing products that are easy to install, easy to operate, and easy to maintain.
Network video surveillance can be an overly complex topic, particularly for those responsible for smaller installations. 2013 will be all about manufacturers making it more straightforward.
5. Intelligent Video Surveillance
Forums discussing this concept are not new. In 2011, IMS Conferences ran an intelligent video conference in Los Angeles and the Embedded Vision Alliance
6. Private Cloud – the future for enterprise video surveillance systems?
The market forecasters say that private cloud being used for the infrastructure of enterprise video surveillance systems will become a trend over the coming years. Private cloud offers the same advantages as public cloud, which includes: remote access to data providing there is an internet connection, and shared use of data processing and storage resources.
Video surveillance service providers have used aspects of cloud computing in their solutions for more than ten years. However, the prevalence of enterprise video surveillance systems using private cloud is starting to gain some traction as IT managers increasingly take responsibility for the management of video surveillance systems.
7. Remote Video Applications
“Remote” has been a bit of a buzz word for CCTV surveillance in 2012, according to the company. Video surveillance as a service (VSaaS), and its ability to provide remote access, has been keenly debated with opinion divided on whether it will be successful. Additionally, remote video monitoring has become an increasingly important recurring monthly revenue (RMR) generator for many alarm receiving centres.
Both of these examples relate to physical security; however, there are a number of applications that can leverage “remote” video surveillance in non-security applications. The market researchers predict a number of new applications will enter the market in 2013.
8. Chinese Companies Looking West
It has been well documented that China is one of the largest and fastest growing markets for video surveillance equipment. To date, much of the narrative on this topic has centred on estimating the market opportunity, identifying the leading local vendors and discussing how western companies can take advantage of this high growth opportunity. There has been little debate on the potential for Chinese video surveillance vendors to take advantage of the growth opportunities in other regional markets. However, this is beginning to change with the emergence of key Chinese vendors on the world stage.
9. Video Surveillance Goes Vertical
Systems integrators and installers have been specialising in specific end-user industries for decades, with installation, design, service and maintenance offerings targeted to the unique requirements of customers in that industry. The research firm predicts that 2013 will be the year that video surveillance vendors and PSIM platform providers follow suit.
10. Video Content Analysis and Video Meta-data as “Big Data”
“Big Data” has been a hot topic for businesses in 2012. While Big Data is not going to be a mainstream concept for video surveillance in 2013, IMS Research predicts that the use and aggregation of analytics and video feed meta-data as Big Data will continue to grow, and that businesses looking to utilise Big Data will increasingly look at the potential to incorporate video feed meta-data streams into their data sets.
