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Prakash Prabhu
Country Manager
Axis Communications India
Year 2008 was an eventful one. While it started on a buoyant note for the Indian economy, the recession has managed to shake up established trends across most industry sectors.
The other turning point of 2008 was the heightened security climate in India. In the wake of the terror attacks, the demand for integrated surveillance and security solutions has increased from both the public and private sectors. Concepts like analytics for intelligent surveillance came into play in 2008.
Over the last decade, India has been experiencing rapid economic growth in sectors where security is a matter of growing concern just like infrastructure, transportation and retail. These sectors have played a vital role in driving the growth of the surveillance industry here.
Shift to IP surveillance
For the past few years a huge technology change has been taking place in the network video surveillance industry. The analog, closed-circuit systems of the past are giving way to IP-based (digital), open and fully-integrated systems. Globally, 2008 saw an echo of this trend—the continued shift from analog to digital IP surveillance.
The Indian market comprises primarily of analog installations. But IP-based surveillance is gaining ground, and is expected to be more than 20 percent of the total surveillance installations in the country, with the IP-based surveillance market here valued at around $50-60 million.
Stand-alone and disaggregated surveillance, access control, fire alarm and other security systems could seldom provide a holistic solution that could both deter and prevent possible threats. The legacy that analog surveillance systems do not allow is the seamless integration of various security components.
Today we have the digital (IP) technology and open standard products which allow for converged applications across various components. We can now integrate fire alarm systems, intelligent building management systems and access control systems over a common IP-based platform managed by a single application. Not only are these integrated systems more effective, they also help in faster recovery of the initial cost of the installations and lower the total cost of ownership.
Robust demand curve
The current security climate will force both the government and private sector to rethink their existing security infrastructure. There will be an increase in their spend on well-integrated security systems. According to reports, the Rs 2,000-crore security equipment industry is expected to see demand go up by 10-15 percent. City surveillance systems will be a focus area. Government institutions are likely to invest in network video solutions (IP-based video surveillance) as both overt and covert surveillance help in deterrence and crisis mitigation.
Network video surveillance gives remote access to the responders in crisis situations, and that could be the key in reacting to such events and preventing heavy collateral damage. Video surveillance can also be used to detect terrorist activities by having computers analyze the video data.
Watching all videos in real-time is not feasible for any large facility, but video analytics can eliminate this problem. Intelligent cameras can detect suspicious activities, send out alerts, and enable 24x7 monitoring, thus complementing the role of security personnel. Moreover, during emergency situations, access to these videos can help the security agencies identify areas to activate their resources immediately.
Having said this, one factor that will dampen the growth of the surveillance sector is the current economic slump and the depreciating value of the rupee. Just like other industry sectors, the surveillance industry is also likely to be impacted by the slowdown in spending.
As such, 2009 will see organizations do a balancing act between the cautious approach toward technical spending and a business imperative like security.
What lies ahead
Traditionally, surveillance has been used to detect human threats, but we can now also react to environmental threats, fire hazards and chemical contamination with the right blend of technology.
The advent of digital video is opening up market opportunities for surveillance well beyond the traditional security applications. Digital technology offers the opportunity to provide customized surveillance solutions which can easily be integrated with, for example, footfall counters at retail stores.
In a highly technical segment like surveillance, education of the channels and end-users to drive adoption of new technology will be a focus area for 2009. There is also some inertia in the systems integrator segment which is key to the security industry. Companies will need to concentrate resources in order to break this inertia and hasten adoption of IP-based surveillance solutions.
Our initiatives
In 2009, Axis will be launching new products to address specific needs in different sectors such as infrastructure, banking, retail and transportation. The SMB segment will also be a focus area. On the technology front, we plan to launch more products based on the H.264 platform. H.264 is an open, licensed, video compression standard which is becoming the norm in network cameras, video encoders and video management software. It facilitates reduced network bandwidth and storage space consumption by a video file.
We also plan to strengthen our domestic presence with our partnership programs, and aim to reach tier-1 and tier-2 cities across India through this network.
Our Axis Communications Academy Program is a comprehensive training program designed to update partners on the latest emerging network video technologies.
Bottomline
Overall, 2009 holds much promise for the adoption of intelligent and holistic security systems, which in turn would pave the way for a safer year ahead. But it is essential to note that technology alone is not the solution to deter security threats—the seriousness of intent is what matters most.
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