Report: Network Cameras To Account For Nearly 50 Percent Of Video Surveillance By 2013 In North America
Research and Markets has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "North American IT and Telecom Opportunities in the Network Video Surveillance Markets."
The growth trend in the surveillance market away from analog video surveillance toward network based IP video surveillance is well recognized. What might not be as obvious are the dynamics of how the market is evolving and the opportunities that are available for IT-oriented companies.
Many of these opportunities are underexploited and could represent very good markets for IT and telecom vendors, service providers and integrators. This could include the addition of new services, forming mutually beneficial partnerships or even developing new integrated technology solutions.
While analog cameras still dominate the video surveillance market, the advent of IP or network cameras over the last decade represents the highest growth area for the market. The first network camera was launched in 1996. However, this market gained prominence only over the past three years, growing at nearly 40 percent since 2005. Network camera installations were expected to exceed analog camera installations by now.
However, the market failed to meet expectations, mainly due to the absence of infrastructure support, an unwillingness to put videos on the network and the lack of storage capabilities. Going forward, the installation of network cameras is expected to account for nearly 50 percent of all video surveillance cameras in North America by 2013.
However, the large installed base of analog cameras in the North American market remains the biggest challenge for network camera manufacturers. Some network technology has been used with the addition of encoders in the ecosystem to convert analog videos into digital or IP signals.
"Additionally, due to the nascent nature of video content analytics technology, it works well only in very controlled environments, generating a high level of false positives in real world situations," notes the analyst of this research service. "There is a great need to educate the market about the true capabilities of video content analytics and its use as a feature of network cameras."
The physical security industry has grown up in an environment isolated from the IT and integrated network infrastructure orientation that characterizes emerging physical security solutions. Conversely, IT vendors and integrators have not always had the opportunity to develop the broad business relationships with enterprise decision makers for physical security. Consequently, there is a knowledge gap for both types of providers.
The traditional security dealers have to close that gap in order to remain competitive with IT vendors and to retain their installed client base in the face of new network-centric technology. Likewise, IT providers who have the networking and IP expertise in these integrated solutions may not have the understanding of physical security considerations nor have the advantage of the preexisting relationships of an installed client base.
The end-user markets that have been most active in installing complete network video surveillance solutions are government (mostly for public surveillance) and educational institutions. The banking and financial sector, infrastructure, retail and commercial segments, and other markets had low penetration rates in 2006, and are expected to grow rapidly throughout the forecast period.
"Major areas of opportunity for IT providers in this market include storage management, network management and content management," said the analyst. "There are also opportunities in software development and integration and the command and control interfaces that accompany the integrated systems."