IMS Research Has New Figures on Video Surveillance

Simon Harris, research director at IMS Research, called me to discuss the firm’s newest market study on video surveillance.

The reports covers all aspects of surveillance technology, including CCTV, IP cameras, matrix switches, encoders, etc. IMS’s methodology includes conversations with manufacturers and critical inspection of vendor marketing and sales data in order to derive estimates of market sizing and sales trends.  The reports are pricey, but contain useful facts for vendors that want to understand their competition and the general growth of a specific market segment.

For example, the new report  found that the trend of vendors promoting more and more network video surveillance over traditional CCTV is in full swing. Also, IMS reports that the world market for network video surveillance products increased by 41.9% in 2006 and is forecast to continue growing strongly for many years to come. By 2010, the combined market for network cameras, video servers and network video recorders is forecast to exceed $2.6 billion.

If I were a marketing person at Panasonic or Verint, I’d find this useful.  But frankly, even more useful would be data and guidance that indicates how to sell more effectively to end users, or how to solve problems more effectevely for them – what pain points are customers feeling today that are different from yesterday?  Where will budget dollars be allotted tomorrow?  What priorities or problems that may inhibit technology adoption are on the horizon.

This end user or “application” view of security technology is something IMS knows it needs to enhance.  And I expect it will in coming months.

For those of you interested, IMS Research differs from 4A International, the research firm I founded, in significant ways.  IMS is focused on vendor market sizing, while 4A is focused on end user adoption trends.  IMS is largely known in Europe, 4A is strongest in the US. IMS publishes reports frequently for purchase.  4A primarily produces private, custom research.  There is essentially no overlap of services between the two research companies.

I’m looking forward to IMS’s conference on video content analysis they have planned for June.

Comments

[Herb]

Check out the website http://www.EveryStepYouTake.org

Somebody made a documentary on CCTV which is coming out soon, the trailer looks promising I think.

[Steve Surfaro]

Thank you for the study link, Steve, but how do you have vendor market size research without a firm grasp on end user requirements in intelligent video? Does 4A seed that research so it is more accurate or subjective?

Yes, your comment about end user pain points is well taken; that is why I spend just about all of my time dealing with those needs. What I see, however, are end user needs that are different than what vendors currently provide.

Here's a couple of questions: if the polled end user does not understand the technology deployment style to help them manage their physical security program, then how can a projected vendor market plan be constructed? End users need to step back and see what will really help their program. Example: is it the object/person's behaviour recognition or is it the behavioural trend that will most help the Security Director? We seem to be accumulating a great deal of static data with today's object detection/recognition systems, but not doing anything with the data. There is however, another trend that will evolve as a solution to this...