In Focus : Eying Security Solutions

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DQC News Bureau
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One of the primary outcomes of the global slowdown, backed by security woes,
has been the evolution of the surveillance industry. Although banks and IT
offices have been using video surveillance for a long time now, government
organizations have preferred to use the technology at select locations.

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However, 26x11 changed the entire national scenario on a large scale.
Suddenly, the need was felt to monitor activities and trace movements in
installation bases, marketplaces, corporate firms and other locations. “The
Mumbai attacks was a game-changer for the video surveillance industry. Across
the nation, people felt insecure and the need for surveillance rose,” said
Santosh Pillai, Chief Technology Officer, Zicom Electronic Security Systems.

The surveillance market in the Indian subcontinent has matured over the
years. Primarily, the retail stores and manufacturing facilities accounted for
the major consumer vertical in the surveillance space, but now there is an
unparalleled increase in demand for video surveillance equipment across
industries.

The Technology and Trends

One of the fastest growing industries in India, video signal processor chips
supporting video capture, encoding and processing with network interface
functions are considered as the most lucrative semiconductor opportunities in
the video surveillance market. “In the present market scenario, video analytics
with the adoption of megapixel cameras are fast evolving. It is further boosted
with the automatic behavioral alarm systems,” said Prakash Prabhu, Country
Manager-India, Axis Communications.

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Closed Circuit TV (CCTV) is one of the major terms in the video surveillance
industry. Primarily developed for the banking, airport and town center
establishments to monitor the movement, CCTV has evolved into a cost effective
means of video surveillance in general and for SOHO use. The CCTV is primarily
connected together by cables or wireless transmitters that cannot be received by
standard television aerials or equipment. The transmissions of the video signals
are solely intended to be reachable by the equipment on its committed closed
circuit setup. However, the latest buzzword in the surveillance market is IP
surveillance.

with technology enhancements and lowered cost of
equipments, surveillance solutions are now also being deployed across a wide
mix of verticals like education and transportation

Anoop Jarial,

GM-Product Management, D-Link India

In the present market scenario, video analytics with the
adoption of megapixel cameras are fast evolving. It is further boosted with
automatic behavioral alarm systems

Prakash Prabhu

Country Manager-India, Axis Communications

“Axis has been continuously driving the technology shift ever since it
launched the first IP camera in 1996. Our endeavor has always been to adopt the
best technologies in our product. Since Axis invests a lot in research and
development and builds its products around its own engineered ASIC we deliver
better quality and reliability in all our products,” added Prabhu.

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Over the ages, the video surveillance industry, which was mainly focusing on
the BFSI sector, has finally forayed into the govern­ment space as well. This
trend is now acting as a major booster for the industry.

“We provided CCTV surveillance solutions to the Bengaluru Traffic Police in
2007. After the police department analyzed the benefits of the solution, the law
enforcement department carried out an expansion of the project in both scale and
scope,” commented Ravikant Malhan, VP-Special Projects Group), Zicom. In the
project, Zicom executed the deployment in two phases. In phase-1 the company
deployed 80 surveillance cameras and enlarged it further by another 80 cameras
in phase-2.

“Traditionally surveillance solutions are deployed by large enterprises,
government establishments and both these sectors continue to invest. But now
with technology enhancements and lowered cost of equipments and TCO,
surveillance solutions are now also being deployed across a wide mix of
verticals like education, retail, finance, infrastructure and transportation,”
said Anoop Jarial, GM-Product Management, D-Link India.

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On a regional basis, the IP video surveillance market is seeing particularly
strong growth in Asia Pacific and the Americas with semi-conductor technologies
enabling dramatic new features in IP video surveillance cameras and servers with
the continuous innovation chain in technology.

As far as the consumer vertical is considered, the government sector now
accounts for the majority share holder followed by the mid-sector players in the
enterprise, IT and ITES segment including the traditional BFSI sector. The last
slot comprises the SMB and SOHO segment which is opting for low-end solutions.

“Primarily surveillance is still the domain of law enforcement agencies.
However, other government departments are slowly realizing the utility in
monitoring remote places from a central control room. Corporate have largely
used video surveillance to protect their assets inside offices and factories.
However, they are soon realizing that even the large open assets like pipelines,
telecommuni­cation towers and utility assets like ATMs also need constant
monitoring,” said RamKrishna G, Technical Head, Sanvei Overseas, taking about
the trends in the surveillance scenario.

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The Slowdown Impact

When major clients in the private segment were limiting their budget and
postponing plans for surveillance installa­tions, the government entered the
scenario with numerous proposals, mainly in the PSU and law enforcement
segments.

“Government investment in physical security for safeguar­ding new as well
existing public infrastructure will lead to an increased demand for video
surveillance solutions. In addition to this, the private sector investment in
physical security will also increase with the ever rising threat perception,”
said Suprabhat Chatterjee, VP-Infrastructure and Physical Safety and Security,
Cisco, India and SAARC.

Talking about the overall impact of the slowdown, Prabhu said, “We have seen
an increase in demand for IP enabled solutions in times of the slowdown. Certain
segments have delayed decisions on investments in new infrastruc­ture which has
affected closures on a few projects.”

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The Road Ahead

Industry veterans in the video solutions space have been observing the
market trend over the last two years and they seem optimist about its future.
“For the last two years, the industry has been growing at a rate of 45 percent
on a YoY basis and is expected to grow at the same rate for the coming two
years. We are still not sure whether the growth will take place in the IP-based
surveillance systems or the VRS segment,” Pillai concluded. Voicing the same
opinion, Prabhu said, “Rising infrastructure investments and the shift from
analogue to IP surveillance will see its rise in demand. Educating system
integration partners will also help them in promoting the true benefits of IP
surveillance to their clients.”

Frost & Sullivan pegs the market for security and surveillance equipment in
India at Rs 1,800 crore and the video surveillance market at Rs 866 crore, both
of which have a CAGR of 25-30 percent. Vendors are eyeing the conversion from
analog to IP systems as one of the major opportunities in the market.

Avishek Rakshit

avishekr@cybermedia.co.in