Axis enters body-worn surveillance market
Axis Communications, the company that invented the IP surveillance camera, has been increasingly diversifying its portfolio in recent years. In 2016, for example, the company launched its own line of network speakers, which was followed up a year later with the debut of a new network radar detector. Both products are designed to help integrators and end-users capitalize on the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) market and enable them to take advantage of security and safety technologies that can be leveraged alongside existing video surveillance networks.
On Wednesday, the company returned to its video roots as it officially rolled out a new body-worn surveillance solution during an online event with members of the media. According to Fredrik Andersson, Global Product Manager for Axis, the company feels these cameras will not only will be popular with their existing government and law enforcement customers, but also with an ever growing number of private businesses, such as retailers, healthcare providers and public venues that are outfitting security and other employees with body cams.
“We have a broad focus for this product. Law enforcement, absolutely, that’s pretty much where body-worn comes from,” he said. “The solution that we have designed is very well fitted for other target groups as well – private security is one of those… and we will investigate use cases, of course, over time.”
Martin Gren, the Co-Founder of Axis, joked that this was also not the first time that the company had created a body-worn camera as he showed a picture of the girlfriend of one of the company’s engineers wearing a camera mounted inside a helmet designed as the company’s logo at IFSEC in 1997.
“She was walking around the tradeshow floor with a wireless camera and it attracted a lot of attention,” he said. “The only drawback was the performance was really slow because it was only one frame every 17 seconds. But as a demonstration for a tradeshow it was great.”
With regards to the expansion of their portfolio beyond traditional network cameras, Gren said that the body-word cameras, along with the other IoT products they’ve launched in recent years, are a “very natural extension” for Axis.
“In the same way we did thermal network cameras, horn speakers and network video door stations, all of these are non-core products, so to speak, but given the way we are setup and how our ecosystem works, I think this is just a natural extension to it and I think it will fit very well as our other initiatives have done,” he explained.
“What we’re adding at Axis when we look outside traditional video surveillance is either products and solutions that our existing end customers, existing channels or, ideally, both are looking for,” added Fredrik Nilsson, Vice President for the Americas at Axis. “If we’re looking at technology trends in general, everything is being connected as we talk about with IoT and the more things you integrate typically the more value you add to the customer. That’s a little bit of the broad philosophy of Axis.”
Though the body-worn surveillance market is relatively mature and already has several established industry players, Andersson said that incorporating this new line into their portfolio will give them a chance to grow.
“We can tap into existing customers and, of course, also to new ones. The market statistics show that sales of body-worn surveillance are going to grow quite a lot over the coming years,” he explained. “We see body worn cameras as a multi-purpose tool: it can be used in many, many areas – not only law enforcement and police officers.”
Additionally, Andersson said that getting into the body-worn camera market also enables the company to strengthen its brand as well as helps them sell more comprehensive solutions to customers.
“We had the vision that this should be a system that is easy to deploy and easy to use. It must be easy to activate the camera when you’re out there because some of these situations are going to be very stressful,” he added. “And there’s supposed to be a natural connection to the fixed video surveillance that the customers already have invested in; it’s more than just a camera, it’s a full system.”
The camera itself boasts a battery pack that can record for over 12 hours in 1080p resolutions as well as a 140-degree field-of-view, VDR functionality, Axis’ Zipstream compression, and dual microphones among other features. Andersson said they expect to release the solution during Q2 and that the camera itself will be priced at $649 per unit.
Coronavirus Impact
When asked if they expect to experience any supply chain disruption related to the recent global coronavirus outbreak, Nilsson said that while there have been some disruption in parts of their supply chain, but he emphasized that they have a very broad partner base with regards to their sub suppliers.
“While there has been some stress on transportation and some components, things are working, under the circumstances, relatively well and we’re monitoring that on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “So far, we’ve been able to hold things up fairly well.”
Joel Griffin is the Editor-in-Chief of SecurityInfoWatch.com and a veteran security journalist. You can reach him at [email protected].
