HD CCTV sales to drive UK security market over the next 5 years

A recent report by Keynote has made a prediction that will make all involved in the CCTV industry here in the UK to sit up and take notice. The forecast predicts that that the UK CCTV industry will see  rise in value of 30.1% between 2012 and 2016. They go on to say that this increase in the CCTV market place will become more apparent from 2013 onwards.

HDcctv Market Growth
This is very much in line with predictions from the HDcctv alliance(figures shown above) and the recent IMS research. Keynote have based their findings on a predicted economic recovery in 2012 accelerating from 2013. This will encourage construction and building projects as well as investment from current CCTV users into their existing systems.
Although the UK CCTV market is currently predominantly analog at present, a strong shift from analog to digital is predicted. With HD-SDI technology standardized  and driven forward by the  HDcctv alliance and IP HD marketed by the likes of Panasonic and Avigilon all competing for the market share, the plentiful choice for end users will mean a huge rise in HD CCTV sales over the next 5 years.

HDcctv UK CCTV 2012
The Olympics will also have a strong bearing on HD CCTV installations during 2012. Many companies are yet to place orders for CCTV systems that will be required to combat the risks of terrorism, vandalism and theft that will come hand in hand with the huge influx of people into the UK during this Olympic year.

HD PTZ dome
CCTV has recently had its reputation enhanced. Further to the London riots, AVIGILON cameras in particular were responsible for over 80% of convictions. The quality of the video that was retrieved was so good it has totally changed public perception of CCTV per-say especially HD CCTV. An indictment of the quality that Avigilon offer and to the flexibility of the Avigilon range of HD CCTV. In truth it has done us all a favour in the long term. It has made the public more aware of HD and as a result end users will start to seek HD CCTV solutions and thus enhance the increase in HD CCTV sales we are all expecting.

Avigilon ACC-4.6 Range
So in summary we have a bright future for HD CCTV sales and this will be the driving force for security installers here in the UK and both HD SDI and IP solutions can bring HD to the mass market.

HDcctv 2012

Image quality, how important will this be in 2012?
We have said for a long time here at integrated CCTV that image quality and HD in particular will be the most important selling point for CCTV in the coming years. 2012 though will be a particularly important year for HD and how better picture quality will be implemented into CCTV systems. In particular anyone upgrading this year will be looking for exceptional value for money, HD and megapixel can certainly offer this. It is with interest then that we read the findings of the recent IMS white paper and view with interest that they see re-focusing on image quality as very important in 2012. Below we look at what they say on the subject.

IMS focus on image quality.
The IMS forecasts that by 2015 more than 70% of all network cameras will be of a megapixel resolution. Perhaps the most important thing though is that most industry professionals are suggesting that HD quality will be enough. This is probably linked to the public’s knowledge of HD and how they perceive HD picture quality. Of course there will always be a requirement in certain situations for more pixels and Avigilon have proved this with their 16 megapixel HD Pro camera, however we believe that for mainstream CCTV systems the desire for HD  quality will suffice.

HD CCTV UK
Avigilon CCTV

As the IMS have identified and something in the industry we all know is that end users want two things above all else. 1) to be able to read a number plate and 2) be able to recognise a face.  Almost every break in I have attended has always culminated in the complaint that “they can’t read the number plate or see the face so what use is this CCTV system to me” ???..Of course they are right, CCTV has been repeatedly mis-sold over a number of years sometimes innocently of course sometimes with less care. However it does a job and does prevent crime, its just with HD technology now on the market it will actually do an excellent job.

Lighting and HD CCTV
With HD though comes lighting issues when used outside, LED lighting manufacturers could find that as CCTV needs higher definition then their sales will increase accordingly. Raytec have the market share at present but watch out for some excellent development in lighting from some less well known names. Efficient, directional and atheistic lighting solutions will benefit from the rise in sales of HD CCTV solutions.

Raytec LED lighting

Will HD be delivered over cat5 or coax?
Finally of course there is a raging argument at present as to whether HD CCTV will be delivered via an IP solution or HDcctv solution. The difference for those still in the dark is IP solutions are pure IP over cat5 where as HDcctv is delivered over coax i.e. point to point.
HD using IP is well established and there is no reason to see this decline especially with new build projects. However there are certain market places that will seriously benefit from HDcctv over coax. A combination of recession, a mature market  bordering on saturation, may help HDcctv over coax take the lions share of HD upgrades in the UK. That assumes of course that manufacturers really think there is mileage in this. This will be proven if we see some of the main players producing HDcctv products in the next 12 months.
The final barrier to HD is storage requirements. The floods in Thailand will set back many hoping to introduce HD in early 2012 as they will have seen storage costs soaring, a shame, however this will not be long term, whatever happens it will be an interesting year for anyone involved in HD CCTV solutions

CCTV UK

So what is the driving force for CCTV sales today in the UK? Is it crime? health and safety? Perhaps it  is site management and all the benefits that can bring to an organisation? Whatever the reason one thing that cannot be disputed is that it is still a grudge buy. Often considered a necessary evil by the company FD,  he is loathed to spend too much money on something that is not instantly going to bring financial gain to his organisation. CCTV though in the UK is an accepted culture now. Its almost the first thing people do if they have something stolen or damaged in the workplace, they instantly go running to their manager and ask for CCTV evidence that might help them gain some kind of retribution or recover their stolen goods. Sadly in many cases the evidence they are able to view is of poor quality or the incident is not even picked up at all even if there is a CCTV camera in the right location. What’s the point you may ask? Well there is always the deterrent value. The perpetrator of any crime does not actually know what evidence the camera will pick up so doubt may prevent him committing the crime in the first place . Beyond this, the argument becomes difficult for day to day incidents.

HD CCTV UK
CCTV cameras

Even for more serious incidents the police will rarely prosecute based on grainy images. They will  only pursue CCTV images seriously in the event of a terrorist incident or a murder. They do tend to be able to leverage this evidence when there is an extreme reason, otherwise forget it!

HD CCTV UK
Avigilon CCTV

Enter the era of  HD CCTV UK. Now we have a product that actually starts to address all the weaknesses of analogue that we have discussed above. The picture quality is better , much better. The picture can be interrogated without mass pixelation making the image unusable. The camera itself will cover a wider area thus picking up more information and most important the picture is more acceptable to the authorities.  This means they can take any incident that has been captured far more seriously. So why has it taken CCTV UK so long to migrate to an HD format? Well mainly because HD is the domain of IP camera systems and IP camera systems are not the most favorite of things with UK CCTV installers. The learning curve  to install and the need for remote back up and even a fully functioning ITC department means the uptake in the UK has been slower than expected. Now however with concentrated efforts by the big manufacturers training is being dished out to all installers who wish to take it. Companies such as Avigilon have based their future around HD and they expect to be one of the largest CCTV/IP camera providers in the world within 5 years. Their products are superb and they represent the number one reason that IP HD cameras can make a massive impact on the UK CCTV industry. This said, HD IPCCTV  still needs to be accepted by many CCTV installers across the UK, although to be fair uptake of HD IP CCTV solutions has accelerated this year and things will get more interesting next year. So HD is driving the market place and new sales?

HD CCTV UK

Well we also have one more option . That is HD CCTV over coax. This is HD CCTV cameras using the existing infrastructure of coaxial cabling previously servicing a companies analogue CCTV system. Now this technology is in its infancy and is still too expensive to expect all who currently run analogue CCTV systems to suddenly upgrade. However there is promise there. All that said by 2014 it is claimed that half of all new CCTV systems will be HD . Whether that is IP HD or HD CCTV over coax is a question for the market to decide. However HD and all its benefits will drive CCTV sales and we certainly welcome what is going to be a vast improvement to security systems and picture quality across the UK over the next 5 years.