IP Hot Topic On ISC West’s First Day

• By Brent Dirks
• Mar 25, 2010

My first day of ISC West on Wednesday was all about IP technology and how the move of security to the network is affecting the industry.

The day started out with a press breakfast with Axis Communications. And for a little bit of early morning theatre, company officials made the point that the companies IP cameras are easy to install. So easy, in fact, that it could be done on a unicycle and then blindfolded. Point well made.

And getting down to business, Axis highlighted a slate of new products, including two products on opposite ends of the spectrum -- the high-end, 5 megapixel AXIS P1347/E and the sub-$500 AXIS M1114 featuring 720p resolution.

While full-HD 1080p camera technology has been in the market for some time, Fredrik Nilsson with Axis said the company wanted to wait.

“With our focus on quality, we wanted to wait until the lenses were right,” he said. “That time is now.”

Even though security market as a whole struggled, Axis bucked the trend in 2009, earning more than $320 million, a 17 percent increase from 2008. That from a company who has more than 30,000 partners in its channel program worldwide.

Wireless technology provider Firetide announced an expansion of its offerings with a point-to-point outdoor wireless Ethernet bridge. The FWB-100, available next month in 2.4, 5 and 4.9 GHz bands, achieves a real-world 35 MBps throughput in 1 to 2 mile links.

“We really thought this new product was a natural fit for us,” said Firetide marketing manager Ksenia Coffman. “We wanted to bring our mesh expertise to a point-to-point product.”

Coffman also told me that Firetide is planning to release a MIMO-based point-to-point product later this year.

Beyond the new product, the company was showing off video from HD and thermal cameras streamed over mesh networks.

NICE Systems made news in late 2009 with the acquisition of PSIM provider Orsus. And after talking with Jacob Fox and Pat Kiernan, NICE is looking to move beyond the PSIM concept with its NICE Siutator.

Fox said that the product moves from the idea of situational awareness to situation management. Instead of just telling an operator what is occurring, NICE’s system takes it to another level by convey an operational action to the appropriate personnel.

“Situational management automates and standardized standard operational procedure,” Fox said. “That leads to no more variation in response. Our product goes far past PSIM. Without situational management you just don’t get much.”

During a press briefing with IMS Research, the company had some intriguing numbers about IP video and its future. While the analog video market dropped 7 percent in 2009, the network video market was up a strong 25 percent during the same time.

Analysts from the firm said that while megapixel camera growth is strong, high definition video is the emerging format of choice in the market.

But the recession has pushed back the IP camera market for the long term. The firm expects the ‘tipping point’ of IP video, where more than half of market revenue will come from network cameras, to occur in the 2013-2014 timeframe. That’s a year later than previously expected.

And while there were drops in the security market in Europe and North America, the markets in Brazil, Asia and India are showing strong growth according to IMS.

When thinking of iris recognition, I usually think of having to stand still for a certain time in one place to correctly register the biometric information. But products from Global Rainmakers make standing still for iris recognition irrelevant.

The company’s flagship product, the HBOX, offers a throughput of up to 50 people per minute, a pretty impressive figure. And all of the products from the company are IP based and definitely not a bandwidth hog. Steve  Hanna from the company told me that each scan only transfers a miniscule 2 KB across the network.

My second day of ISC West today is just as busy and I’ll report back soon with what I’ve learned after talking with some of the major companies in the industry. As always, feel free to follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BrentDirks for up-to-the-date information and news.