Security Odyssey, 2010

01 Mar 2010
by: By John Adams
What can we expect from the year 2010 in terms of new product and new technology? John Adams talks to electronic security suppliers and manufacturers to find how they see the next 12 months in terms of growth and product releases.

IT’S hard to argue with the reasoning that while the security industry did not take a massive blow as a result of the credit crunch, there’s been a slowdown in terms of new product releases over the past 12 months. In 2010 the question is whether or not this will be the year the industry breaks the shackles.

 

As Australia’s largest distributor of electronic security product, Hills Industries through its surveillance operation, Pacific Communications, carries a lot of weight when it comes to predicting our CCTV industry’s future.

 

According to Pacom’s Rob Meachem, the company has a number of new product releases on the way over the next 12 months.

 

“One key product will be our new I-Nex platform which will be the true bridge between DVR’s and IP/megapixel,” Meachem explains. “A major benefit of the system will be the customer’s ability to retain the DVR and analogue investment while taking full advantage of new IP/megapixel technology.

 

“Other areas of major change will be with DVTel features, Intelligent Video software, IP wireless networks, IT hardware ability and big leaps forward in IP/megapixel camera line ups and performance.” 

As far as key shifts in technology, Meachem believes 2010 will see IP push into the middle markets.

 

“From a Pacom perspective, our I-Nex platform and DVTel Solus will drive the use of IP/megapixel camera technology to new highs in 2010 for Pacific Communications and DAS,” he says.

 

According to Meachem, the security market got the wind knocked out of it in 2009 after riding the highs of 2007/2008.

 

“I only see upside in all these areas in 2010 from a total market perspective with the next 12 months being generally flat and patchy and with growth for Pacom driven by new product releases.”

 

It’s an important observation coming from Australia’s biggest CCTV supplier – Meachem says the key challenge of the next 12 months will be the market’s ability to step from volume analogue to volume IP. What does he think the key to success will be?

“Investment in training is a key to retaining and growing the knowledge base of the specialist security industry,” Meachem explains. “Failure to be proficient in the areas of IP will let other industries enter the electronic security space in a big way. It is taking the industry too long to make the transition to IP.

 

“Conversely, we see investing in training our people for new technology as the key opportunity of the next year and we think IP will have another year of quantum growth. Investing in IP knowledge will be the security business owners and security market’s competitive advantage in 2010.”

 

View-DR and Visibility Enhancer

 

Sony’s Tony Lagan says the benchmark manufacturer has plenty of new products it will be bringing to market in 2010.

 

“Sony will be releasing more than 20 new HD IP cameras in the coming 12 months; we have some very clever new features on our cameras that will really benefit the industry as a whole.

 

“There are two features we are really excited about; the first being our new View-DR wide dynamic range algorithm,” Lagan explains. “Where our competitors take two images and combine, the new Sony cameras will take 4 images and combine giving a much greater dynamic range resulting in images of incredible quality in harsh back lit environments.

 

“We’re also releasing Visibility Enhancer which is a post-capture technology which dynamically optimizes brightness by remapping, pixel by pixel, frame by frame. Near blacks are expanded and near whites are compressed to provide better quality low light images and also better performance in harsh backlighting.”

 

Lagan says Sony envisages a push to HD with 16:9 Widescreen or 4:3 Megapixel.

 

“What is clear to us is that with the advance in compression algorithms and the ever decreasing cost of storage, HD is only going to become a more viable option.”

 

From a purely business perspective, Lagan says the market is already showing signs of recovery.

 

“I really believe this recovery will gain speed in the 2nd half of the year when the projects being talked about now enter their installation phases.

 

“In terms of growth for us, with the new products Sony has coming to the market over the next 12 months, I am very confident that we will see growth for us in market share, this coupled with the inevitable return to prosperity with the easing of the GFC creating organic growth in the market as a whole will see us well positioned,” he says.

 

As far as challenges are concerned, Lagan says he thinks the implementation of standards is crucial.


“There are so many cheap products and some fairly lax installation practices out there,” he laments. “Also a common IP camera standard needs to be implemented sooner rather than later. This will open up the market and end the fear that a large number of people have with “proprietary” systems. There are a number of companies with a range of ONVIF cameras on the market and when the ISV’s start their implementation I think this will aid in the shift to IP.”

 

As far as opportunities over the next 12 months, Lagan says the shift to IP is the key, along with the ability to value add – and he says this applies to users, integrators and suppliers.

 

“What are the benefits of IP? One of the major benefits is HD video, you just can’t do high resolution video on an analogue system, we have all seen the dodgy images from old analogue systems where you struggle to make out details. Compare that to Megapixel or HD images and the message is clear. In 2010 it’s hi-res all the way.”

 

Lagan says his hot product tip in 2010 is Sony’s new cameras being released throughout the year.

 

“I’m looking forward to telling the market about a new camera we are releasing later in the year that is going to change the way people think about IP,” he says.

 

Security Center

 

Over at Genetec, director of product management, Michel Chalouhi, says the company has a major release of Security Center coming up in the second half of 2010.

 

“The next generation of the Security Center unified security management system brings Genetec’s solutions to a new level of unification between video, access control, and license plate recognition,” he says.

 

“We believe that a combination of edge and central storage rather than central storage only will be more present towards the end of 2010 and we see strength in video surveillance and access control and specially the unification of both.”

 

According to Chalouhi, the next 12 months will see a growing market.

“There was a little slowdown last year, but we expect the market to pick up throughout 2010 and it will be mainly new business, probably in the range of 70 per cent for new business and 30 per cent for organic growth.”

 

Chalouhi agrees with Lagan that a major challenge of the next 12 months will be the adaptation of standards around video surveillance.

 

“We believe that 2010 will either solidify the standards position in the market place or we will see it go away.”

 

Hi-O and Aperio integrations

 

ASSA ABLOY’s business manager – electronic access control, Michael Soderberg, says the big manufacturer will use 2010 to kick off a number of new products and solutions

 

“We put a very aggressive innovation program in place some time back which is starting to bear fruit now,” he explains. “New products and solutions based on the Hi-O and Aperio technologies will see first light this year and they will be worth waiting for!

 

“We also have several new conventional electromechanical products and smart home security solutions scheduled for launch this year.”

According to Soderberg, over the next 12 months he thinks the market will shift towards new technologies from ASSA ABLOY that leading access control manufacturers have integrated into their systems. 

 

“The benefits with these technologies are in cost savings, simplicity and increased security,” he explains. “I also expect a wider acceptance of electronic security solutions in the residential market.

 

“The growth of electronic security will come back to historic high levels during the year. Long term, the need for security and specifically electronic security will increase.”

 

In terms of business opportunities, Soderberg says that for ASSA ABLOY the biggest electronic and electromechanical opportunities domestically this year are new product and technology introductions and partnerships.

 

“These partnerships will see ASSA ABLOY and our partners leveraging synergies and there are also opportunities thanks to various government stimulus packages. Overseas, we will see growth due to geographical expansion and increased activities in the markets we currently are exporting to.”

 

Cware flexibility

 

At Controlware Australia, Claude Rizk says that in terms of new product in 2010 this will involve Controlware’s open standards Video Management Software (VMS) platform called Cware.

 

“Flexibility is Cware’s middle name,” says Rizk. “To begin with it’s based on open standards so it supports the leading cameras and codecs from different manufacturers. We have also just released an add-on module that enables Cware to be managed via a Mobile Phone, increasing the management viewing options the platform provides.

 

“This combined with other unique management tools such as 2.5D mapping technology, inbuilt object tracking and the ability to integrate third part Video Analytics software such as Agent VI help make Cware one of the leading video management systems available today,” Rizk says.

 

“A key thing we will be doing in the next 12 months for sure is extending the Cware-supported cameras and codecs program. To date the program supports the usual suspects such as Axis, Bosch, Pelco, etc, but as demand for Cware grows, more manufacturers will be supported.”

 

According to Rizk, in terms of technology 2010 will be the year the market places more emphasis on ways to make CCTV more effective.

 

“A management tool called ICN (Image Content Navigation) is potentially a killer application for tracking an object or person around a site,” he explains. “With ICN you track objects inside the video itself moving from different cameras seamlessly. For the operator this technology not only saves time but simplifies tracking which can become complex across large sites, plus ICN works when tracking targets in recorded as well as live video.”   

 

But Rizk does not see major shifts in technology.

 

“Could this be the year that IP based systems become dominant? To be honest I don’t think DVRs will ever go away, and why should they?” Rizk asks.

 

“There will always be a place for them in certain applications but for high grade systems there is only one technology that can deliver the flexibility, resilience, integration potential and future proofing and that’s IP.

 

“Therefore I would expect to see IP consolidation. IP will become the de facto technology for professional high grade CCTV systems.”

 

Rizk also makes the interesting observation that in 2010 he sees conditions emerging that will allow alarms, access control and video surveillance to continue merging.

 

“I definitely see potential for these three lines of technologies merging together over the longer term,” he explains. “Integrated Security systems are going to become more important. From the end-users point of view an integrated security systems is a much stronger value proposition than three separate systems. 

 

Rizk sees continuing growth for Controlware over the next 12 months.

 

“Controlware is growing,” he says. “Last year we achieved our best sales figures for a number of years and the projects pipeline looks very promising for 2010 so we will be expanding both sales and support operations this year.

 

“I would say we are looking at a 60:40 split in favour of new business when it comes to growth. They are both tightly linked though existing partnerships are very important because word of mouth and good reputation are such important attributes in our industry, especially in developing new business in the first place.”

 

Rizk is another qualified commentator in the surveillance industry who sees standards as the big thing in 2010.

 

“Standardisation is the word in 2010,” Rizk explains. “It will be interesting to see what bodies such as PSIA and ONVIF will come up with. Certainly at the moment they are covering the basics but as things develop more manufacturers and developers should join.

 

“I think this is a good thing as it will help wider adoption of network video products through worldwide agreement on standard IP configurations, PTZ control, and event handling through to streaming and even viewing CCTV video.”

 

In terms of opportunities in 2010, Rizk rightly points out that thanks to its 30 years experience as a niche networking specialist, Controlware “is a unique value proposition that combines technical IT knowledge and CCTV experience”.

 

“Promoting this lies at the centre of our business opportunities for the coming year, from a Controlware perspective,” he says. “With more than 30 years experience in IT we understand the networking and communications required to deliver advanced IP based systems but at the same time we have over 10 years experience with the operational and technical requirements of CCTV.

 

Not unexpectedly, Rizk’s hot product tip for 2010 is Cware’s ICN (Image Content Navigation).

 

“ICN offers many benefits in terms of object tracking that no other management system has,” Rizk says. “On the wider technology front I think requirements for the inherent flexibility and scalability of IP systems will continue as older analogue systems are replaced.

 

“In combination with the wider IP adoption there will be more demand for megapixel cameras. Since good image quality is the primary requirement of any surveillance system I think we will see an increasing number of megapixel cameras being used for specific image requirements in IP-based systems.

 

Ness Navigator

 

Ness Corporation is an important player in the Australian market because its business is so diverse and includes local manufacturing. A quiet, long term achiever, Ness Corp does the basic things right and enjoys strong loyalty from customers. Interestingly, there are multiple key players in diverse markets who all see Ness as their key competitor. 

 

Managing director Naz Circosta says Ness Corp has just begun the launch of some exciting new alarm panel products that will provide genuine and serious value to installer customers. The focus is on leaving LCD keypads for touch screen units.

 

“The first of these products is our groundbreaking Navigator touch screen, which will be packaged as standard with all of our D series panels,” Circosta explains. “The breakthrough is that this product smashes the price/performance barrier.

 

“Our Navigator touch screen series are priced within 10 per cent of the LCD keypad panels they replace, setting a new benchmark in the panel market as we did the now legendary Ness 5000 Series almost 25 years ago.” 

In terms of new releases in 2010, Circosta is playing his cards close to his chest but he says there are.

 

“While I can’t go into detail on each and every release for 2010, we have kicked off the new year with powerful offerings from Russound and our own home grown Navigator touch screen panels I mentioned earlier.

“There is more to come in almost every market segment of our business as the year progresses,” Circosta says.

 

And Circosta sees growth for Ness Corp.

 

“Yes - I expect stronger growth from our relatively new acquisitions and distributorships,” he says. “But our new product releases will provide a boost to the more traditional areas of our business. Contract manufacturing may also surprise with potentially very strong growth – that’s an important business for us.”

 

Health agent

 

Geutebruck Australia too, plans new releases in 2010.

 

“Locally, we have recently released an HLI with Cardax access control and Pacom’s GMS platform,” says Anthony Brooks.

 

“We are currently working on the HLI to integrate another two popular access control systems that are common in Australia and New Zealand, and we will soon have a general release of our enterprise-grade Health Agent.

 

“This allows centralized management and reporting for all aspects of a sophisticated CCTV system,” Brooks explains. “This includes setting user-definable tolerances for the early warning of potential problems, such as system temperature, archive retention or changes to the cameras field-of-view and more.

 

“From Germany our next major new product releases will coincide with the European Security Show held in Essen, October 2010. Here will continue to extend our range of IP products as well as an emphasis on operator interfaces.

Brooks sees the general trend in 2010 as being towards standardisation.

“We see a continued move towards more common IT platforms and standards with less emphasis on proprietary systems in play,” he explains.

 

“Additionally we will see continued development in extending hard-disk size/capacity and reliability. The solid state end of town is similarly getting larger in capacity and the prices are reducing; meanwhile our processors/chips continue to get faster and smaller – all these factors represent exciting new opportunities for ‘Edge’ analysis and management.”

 

And Brooks sees 2010 as a year of growth. 

 

“After quite a successful year despite the general economic downturn we are expecting another positive trend in 2010. Our internal corporate structure covers a variety of regions and also market segments, this diversification will allow us to keep a strong market position,” he says.

 

“New business will come from new regional activities and drivers assisting this growth – albeit Duty of Care, Workplace Safety, Resource Allocation as well as the traditional value proposition where an organisation reserves the right to minimise losses.

 

“Growth is 50/50 new and organic – we are building business with existing GEUTEBRUCK customers and creating new business opportunities.”

In terms of major challenges, Brooks sees the need for an increased skill base and the interoperability of systems as being the biggies.

 

“As we move away from the traditional CCTV (Closed Circuit TV) to network deployed devices that if specified, provide, video on-demand anywhere anytime, this functionality presents new challenges requiring new skill sets in terms of technicians that have networking qualifications. 

 

“Additionally, larger modern systems/deployments have correlating larger databases to manage – into the Petabyte size,” he explains. “This amount of data needs some serious consideration in terms of how we manage it, how we qualify it and how we disseminate it.

 

“Interoperability between different systems such as access control, POS, alarm panels, etc all help to ‘qualify’ the search results and make it quicker to search, find and disseminate the results to decisions makers.”

 

“Over the next year we see a growing importance and market trend for homogeneous and customized user interfaces, and also for a variety of vertical markets,” Brooks explains.

 

“These solutions not only unify control and operation of complex systems but also bear in mind the market-specific requirements and offer additional “add-ons” for those users, which might not be security related necessarily but also support additional customer processes apart from that.

 

“My hot tip for 2010 is the GEUTEBRÜCK VIPCAM with Onboard Cache Recording/Storage, Dynamic Live Streaming (adjusting the live stream based on the viewer size), Variable GOB Rate (adjusting the GOB dynamically based on complexity and movement of image), Edge Analytics and a massive Dynamic Range to die for!” 

 

T24 coming to your hemisphere

 

Mobotix’s Graham Wheeler says the company will release the T24 door station using Hemispheric technology in 2010, as well as a new range of product going targeting mobile surveillance applications, home automation, and access control.

 

“We will be building on our decentralized platform which incorporates a powerful CPU – it’s a model that allows us to build many products around a core.”

 

Wheeler sees 2010 as a year in which the surveillance market will continue its push to megapixel cameras and decentralized architecture.

 

“This is the only way to build cost effective, large scale networked security solutions,” he says. “Moving forward I also see merging of alarms, access control and surveillance as all these combined are the way forward.

 

“They give useful information not just alarm signals or just video the operators - police want to see incidents not just loads of data.”

Wheeler says that Mobotix sees the next 12 months as being very positive.

 

“Comparing this financial year to last we are up by more than 70 per cent in Australia and New Zealand, and with new product lines being released we see the future as very good.

 

“And our growth is coming through building our partner channels, enabling us to go into new market segments, such as remote monitoring and the electrical industry with new products, such as the Mx2Wire.”

For Wheeler, the big challenge of 2010 is education for resellers, consultants and end customers.

 

“The industry platform has changed to TCP/IP and we all need to get better educated,” he explains.

 

“As for my hot tip for product or technology in 2010, I would say it’s the MOBOTIX Q24 hemispheric camera, the winner of the 2009 ASIAL Best New Product of the Year Award.” 

 

Your SMPTE the best

 

For Wai King Wong at Axis Communications Australia, the year ahead sees an ongoing focus on HDTV cameras that meet standard with SMPTE compliance and provide real time recording and true color fidelity.

 

“The increased popularity of HDTVs in the region has led customers to ask for higher image quality standards in their surveillance solutions,” Wong says.  

 

“Having a megapixel camera today is just not good enough as it does not guarantee real time and color fidelity compare to HDTV standard. Therefore, HDTV cameras with SMPTE compliance should be the defacto of high resolution video surveillance requirements.”

 

Wong sees ongoing growth in the surveillance market.

 

“We see continuous growth in the IP video surveillance market as customers begin to transit from analog surveillance to fully digital, fully networked surveillance,” explains Wong.

“We see growth in both existing and new businesses. Axis will be rolling out a lot of new products in the coming months that will cater to all security requirements - from fixed, PTZ, dome and even thermal cameras. Axis will continue to develop new products for niche market such as the thermal camera which we have just released.”

 

And Wong sees challenges relating to scale when it comes to IP solutions.

“IP video surveillance may sometimes seem easy on a small network/setup but it may get complicated as per norm for any large scale projects,” he says.

 

“As a result it’s critical to evaluate the type of network, hardware usage, components that make up the entire system which is a crucial part of the IP video surveillance.

 

“The camera itself can perform real time in HD quality but will be restricted to the slowest hardware in the network if it is not designed properly. Axis is working to address some of these issues via our AXIS Communications Academy 3- days training.”

 

The next year will see a major opportunity in upgrades that Wong says will be one of the key requirements for most industries.

 

“The migration from analogue to IP video surveillance will be one of the key uptakes in coming months and the market should look out for HDTV SMPTE compliance cameras, and also P-Iris technology that enables true image quality without distortion compared to megapixel technology,” he says. 

 

Xprotect and to serve

 

Meanwhile, at Milestone, Angelo Salvatore predicts the release of new products with features that improve ease of maintenance and operation in year ahead.

 

“We have just released XProtect Enterprise 7.0 and XProtect Corporate 3.1 with the new Smart Client 5.0 that has important enhanced graphical user interface for personalizing the operation of the system for operators of all skill levels to improve efficiency and speed of response,” he says.

 

Technological change will come from areas like developments in compression standards for network cameras, he says.

 

“This will improving performance-cost ratios, and we see the standards work from ONVIF and PSIA further driving IP technology benefits in the market. More integrated solutions with open standard software platforms also create better security and long-term return on investments.”

 

Salvatore sees strength in the alarms, access control and video surveillance markets over the next year.

 

“I think that a combination/convergence of some or all of these can provide better security levels and or response times for personnel in 2010,” he says.

 

“This might be via centralised control rooms, handheld PDA devices or two way communications. The key is integrating them on the right Open Platform VMS that keeps the customer out of “proprietary jail” and provides them freedom to choose the best of breed hardware and add on software today and as it evolves in the future.”

 

And Salvatore sees a growing market.

 

“According to IMS Research, Milestone has retained top position and increased the market share from 19.5 per cent to 25.8 per cent in the category of software-only VMS vendors over the past 12 months,” he says. 

 

“There will be challenges in 2010, however, from the perspective of surveillance we are concerned with the partner channel in the midst of convergence to IP-based systems and we recognise the relatively low number of channel partners who have been trained and certified in advanced IP technology.

 

“This means there’s still a lot of work to do to get these people ready.  That’s exactly why Milestone puts such a high focus on our training programs and partner support.

 

“Technology-wise, 2010 is going to be the year where low-end appliances carrying IP VMS already installed will become competitive with the low-end DVRs, thus making a large dent into the DVR (and analogue) market that previously has not been accessible due to price and form factors,”

 

Salvatore says. “This is also the high volume end of the market that can turn the tide - bringing IP convergence to the tipping point.” 

Salvatore’s hot tip of 2010 is edge-based analytics.

 

“I am excited by the fact that we already have “deep” integration to IP cameras from leading manufacturers that support onboard or edge-based analytics. Up until recently the cost and processing power of analytics has been prohibitive to install in a large number of channels,” he explains.

 

“This will change in 2010 with prices or edge based analytics becoming more affordable on a larger scale and may be sold as an add-on to VMD, especially for outdoor environments,” Salvatore says.

 

“Milestone already supports the many analytic technology leaders including IBM, Agent Vi, Cernium, OPAX, Via-Sys amongst many others via our Open Platform Analytic Framework. This means users and integrators have the freedom to choose preferred analytic partner(s) and combine them on the one system.”