Security integrators and manufacturers reflect on strong 2019 sales and positive expectations for 2020 in the video marketplace as the segment continues to mature and evolve.
The video surveillance market is ripe with opportunity, according to sources. Many security integrators and manufacturers realized strong revenues for 2019 and are even more optimistic for 2020.
A number of factors, including easier deployment, maturing technology and open, customized systems are making it easier for integrators to meet demand from technically savvy end users wanting to upgrade legacy systems or use surveillance to meet their security and operational needs.
Though products and technology are maturing and allowing for broader deployment, the evolution is a security integrator’s biggest challenge, making it difficult to stay knowledgeable, trained and focused on changing solutions.
For this edition of State of the Market, SDM looks at performance and expectations across the video segment, along with the biggest influencers and verticals for 2020.
Open Systems
Several industry sources say that open standards and non-proprietary platforms are seeing increased interest and deployment across all verticals. Paul Fisher, vice president, key and national accounts – global at Salient Systems, Austin, Texas, says that last year the company began hiring specific vertical market industry experts to speak the same language of the targeted verticals, such as healthcare, banking, corrections, etc.
“These systems are becoming more and more complex and to play in this true IT space, we have to be the experts to our customers and talk intelligently about what it is we do,” he says.
“We have seen a trend of a lot of companies trying to do it all — access control, cameras, and other network devices — but I think the reality is you can’t be the best in everything. And I think we are seeing that it doesn’t make sense to reinvent the wheel in a lot of cases. An open platform allows you to take the best in breed in each device,” Fisher explains.
Adds Daniel Gundlach, general manager and vice president of security at FLIR Systems, Wilsonville, Ore., “I think that integrated solutions and open standards don’t have to be a contradiction. ONVIF has done a lot and continues to do so, and open platforms are very valuable to the industry as a whole. We will see that continue to drive overall growth.”
Read the full article on SDM’s website!
