Clearing the final hurdle

08 Aug 07

After much discussion over many years, the adoption of IP video technology is growing rapidly across the UK – to the extent that it’s perhaps surprising even those who had championed IP CCTV’s introduction.

Many solutions providers thought the shift would be more gradual, with IP developing as an alternative transmission technology existing alongside analogue systems. It was felt their customers would want to see alternative quotes – one for analogue, one for IP – for every job, with the appropriate cost comparisons and Return on Investment (ROI) analyses conducted before they decided upon which route to take.

In reality, this hasn’t happened. Customers, in fact, have been driving the compelling logic of hanging CCTV onto existing infrastructures, untroubled by any technical barriers that might potentially be in the way. Rather than a slow, staged introduction as expected, IP has arrived with something of a ‘big bang’ and, to this extent, some within the industry have been caught unawares. Customers know what they want. They are definite about that. Now, the industry must rise to the challenge of meeting demand.

The power of IT

Of course, many professionals operating within the major corporate concerns have witnessed at first hand the increased power of IT Departments for some time now. Over the last ten to 15 years, in particular, their influence over a company’s day-to-day operations has increased significantly, and their ‘empires’ expanded commensurately.

That said, with much of the mystique surrounding IT now disappearing, it’s not surprising that IT directors are turning their attention to other parts of the business over which they can exert control – most notably security. They are increasingly becoming key decision-makers in any new security contract.

There is a harsh reality here: those with an IT/networking background have been quick to realise the opportunities presented to them, and are not frightened by their lack of security expertise. However, to many ‘traditional’ security installers the language and technology of the networking and IT worlds is unfamiliar and rather more threatening.

One of the many implications of this is a broadening of the training requirements. Bosch, for example, has a wide range of training courses but they are product-specific. These need to be adapted to meet the varied needs of the market place, with networking and IT professionals requiring detailed instruction on CCTV fundamentals and risk management, and traditional CCTV installers needing information on networking principles.

Predictions are hard to make at the best of times, but we do know that the landscape – particularly in relation to installers and distributors – is changing. The big installers from the analogue world are having to rapidly attain an IP competence.

For their part, smaller installers, perhaps without the same resources available to them, are looking to partner with businesses that have. There is a mad scramble to gain not just IP competence, but also credibility... and a proven ability to deliver.

System management developers

Other factions are beginning to enter the market. What might be termed ‘system management developers’ are emerging, sitting between the traditional security installer and the manufacturer. Networking companies – names that are as yet largely unfamiliar within the security industry – are also stepping forward to claim their share of the market, or partner businesses with a somewhat more clearly defined vision of the future.

‘Traditional’ analogue installers should be extremely worried about being left behind. Those perhaps facing the biggest challenge, however, are the SME installers for whom recruiting the appropriate resources may be just that little bit beyond their reach.

Training and support on IP-based projects can be expensive if the installer does not have the right level of expertise. Installers shouldn’t expect this to be free. Manufacturers and distributors are keen to help the installer through this transitionary phase, but they cannot be expected to bear the cost – in particular the disproportionate cost – of, for example, training and support on IP and networking for what will turn out to be a single camera sale!

Installers will need to realise that if they don’t have the expertise in-house they will have to pay to attain it in some way or another, either via training or buying that knowledge in. A company that needs legal advice thinks nothing of paying a solicitor for that advice. If that company grows to such a size that it is constantly in need of support, it hires somebody on a permanent basis. Why is the same logic, then, not applied to networking support?

SME installers, who make up a large part of our market today, will be faced with stark choices – either ‘buy’ the expertise or expect to pay manufacturers or distributors for pre- and post-sales support. Alternatively, they can sit and watch the amount of business they’re able to bid for reducing as they become more and more excluded from the IP world.

Driving the adoption of IP perhaps more than any innovation in recent times is video content analytics. Indeed, even cynics towards IP ‘get it’ when they see the capabilities that analytics can offer in the future.

As a business, Bosch invests a huge amount of capital in research and development. More than any other manufacturer in the security industry, in truth, with an increasing percentage of that investment now allocated to IP. The fall-out of the move to IP is that certain areas such as recording or storage are no longer a ‘security’ purchase, thus manufacturers need to look at other ways of generating income. One of them is in the ‘value add’ offered by such technologies as video content analytics.

Analytics: at the edge

The more that analytics can be ‘at the edge’, as an integral part of the camera technology, the more robust and reliable that technology will prove. Smarter software algorithms are being produced, and the chips are becoming more economical. The strength inherent in the larger manufacturers is that software being developed for use, say, in the automotive industry can readily be adapted for use in security.

Indeed, the issue of proving that video content analytics perform as they should do in an automotive environment are considerably more complex. Economies of scale are such that we can deliver a robust product at an affordable price.

What video content analytics illustrate are the operational benefits offered by IP that go beyond security (into areas such as Health and Safety, with slip and fall detection). End customers have been quick to realise the benefits, and the ‘payback’ that extends beyond an initial installation cost of a security system.

Fragmentation breeds complication

The security industry is changing. What was once a simple market to understand is now becoming increasingly fragmented and complicated.

If you looked at our Top 20 customers, for example, there would be several names in there that you wouldn’t recognise. Names from the world of IT. This change is exciting, and brings with it innovation. However, it will present challenges to many existing and respected security installers. It will also bring several challenges to the established distributors that serve the market.

Installers will require not just ‘security’ product, but also the switches, routers and cabling associated with computer networks. Clients will be looking for a ‘one stop shop’ to meet all their needs. In the same way that IT solutions developers and networking companies have entered the security market, so too have IT distributors. If those distributors begin selling security kit, then traditional security distributors will also have to adapt.

There are real tangible benefits to IP-based video surveillance. It is not a fad, neither is it a gadget. The new generation of solutions providers are professional, fleet-of-foot and talented. They are demonstrating real and genuine ‘value add’.

Emotional and cultural barriers

The further adoption of IP will be restricted by one thing, and one thing alone: fear.

The technology issues are being overcome, the cost of storage is coming down and the availability of bandwidth being addressed. If we are honest, it is only the emotional and cultural barriers that need to be overcome.

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