Report: Video surveillance market to see double-digit growth globally in 2014

According to a new whitepaper from IHS, the global market for video surveillance equipment is expected to grow by more than 12 percent in 2014. In fact, the market research firm is forecasting that revenues this year will rise to nearly $16 billion, up from just over $14 billion in 2013. Market revenues are expected to top more than $20 billion in 2017.

“During the past decade the video surveillance equipment market has grown quickly, expanding at a double-digit rate in most years,” said Niall Jenkins, research manager, video surveillance and security services for IHS. “This year will be no exception, with growth led by strong demand for fixed-dome and 180/360-degree network camera products. As for vertical markets, the city surveillance and utility/energy sectors will drive the biggest increases in sales.”

The expansion of the market represents is one of the 10 trends that IHS previously said would shape the industry in 2014. Among these trends include the rise in use of big data, the arrival of thermal cameras in the commercial market and the continued introduction of Power-over-Ethernet (POE) technology.

Looking at the remaining trends, IHS predicts:

• Police forces will increasingly request, and need to manage, crowd-sourced video surveillance data. While this will allow law-enforcement agencies to react more quickly, especially with the use of social media monitoring, it will also create data analysis and manipulation challenges.
• In China, the concept of the cloud is becoming increasingly popular, especially as the telecom infrastructure matures. As network bandwidth improves and network product pricing declines, cloud-based video surveillance solutions have drawn the attention of more suppliers.
• Increased competition, new products and new end user markets will mean that 2014 is a breakthrough year for thermal camera technology.
• The big video surveillance camera category winner in 2014 will be 180/360-degree panoramic network cameras, with global unit shipments forecast to increase by more than 60 percent year-on-year.
• Recent developments in PoE standards and products make the technology a much more viable option for security managers.
• Following the school shooting in Sandy Hook, the idea of facility security managers securely sharing live-video footage with law enforcement in the event of an incident has gained renewed focus. With costs dropping and attention growing on the protection of assets of both the physical and human kind in the post-Sandy Hook era, 2014 could be the year where live streaming of video surveillance to law enforcement becomes the norm.
• The market in 2014 for video surveillance devices with chargeable video content analysis (VCA) will expand in applications where end users need advanced and reliable analytics.
• With much of the technology already available, and given the constant need to differentiate products and increase system efficiency, the market will see greater emphasis on the audio capabilities of video surveillance systems in 2014. 
• Video surveillance vendors will look at new markets as they invest profits made from years of fast sales growth. This trend will continue in 2014, with more new product and service announcements coming from network-focused security companies, as they seek to add fresh revenue streams to their portfolio.