Page 12 - Security Today, November/December 2019

Envisioning What Might Be Ahead in 2020
Delivering even better clarity in the camera of the future
BYy Fredrik Nilsson
ou have probably heard the old adage, “Hindsight is always 20/20.” Looking forward though, our vision is not nearly as clear. That is because the security industry is a highly-dynamic ecosystem. Technology continues to evolve at an ever-faster
pace. New markets emerge. Old markets mature. New players en- ter the arena. Old players fall by the wayside.
Taking a cue from current trends, however, it is possible to imagine where our trajectory might take us in the coming year.
Next-generation Surveillance Cameras Will Deliver Even Better Clarity
Video surveillance cameras have a long history of striving to deliver better-than-human-vision. Analog CCTV cameras with CCD and CMOS sensors supplanted earlier tube cameras. Net- work cameras supplanted analog ones. Now we have cameras that operate in extremely low light, have wide-dynamic range to see clearly in shadow and bright sunlight – beyond what the un- aided human eye can perceive.
We have seen camera resolution standards increase from CIF (0.1 megapixel) to 4CIF to 720p and 1080p to 4K (8 megapixels) and beyond.
Given these achievements, you might conclude that video quality and usability have finally reached their limits. But you would be mistaken. In the coming year I expect camera manufac- turers to continue pushing the envelope – increasing processing
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 | SECURITY TODAY
power and improving low light capability to deliver even higher forensic quality video.
Does this mean you will need to replace all your legacy camer- as? Of course not. The average life expectancy for many cameras remains very high, especially compared to other IT equipment. But when it comes time to replace end-of-life equipment, or add surveillance cameras to support additional applications (think gathering business intelligence across multiple departments), in- novations coming out in 2020 will likely accelerate customer use of IP-based technology.
Industry Consolidation
Will Continue to Accelerate
As the security industry continues to experience big shifts in tech- nology, it is having a major impact on market players. We saw this when the industry shifted from analog to IP.
Many new players jumped into the arena, further fragment- ing an already fragmented market. As a result, today’s Top 10 list of players looks very different from the one 10 years ago. We have seen a continuing movement towards consolidation: larger players swallowing up smaller ones, major players changing own- ership and other players deciding to divest themselves of their surveillance business in order to pursue other opportunities.
Today the top 10 players in video surveillance control about 50 percent of the market share, which is low compared to many oth- er technology markets. I expect consolidation to accelerate in the
TRENDS 2020
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