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Axis Technology Summit

Axis Communications held its third annual Technology Summit in Johannesburg in September. The event consists of a number of presentations from Axis and its partners, as well as an exhibition area in which partners display their products. Hi-Tech Security Solutions was there.

Roy Alves, Nick Mallet and Jason McGregor.

The event was opened by Jason McGregor, Axis Communications’ sales manager for Africa. He introduced the keynote speaker for the day, Philippe Kubbinga, Axis Communications’ regional director for MEA.

Kubbinga provided an overview of Axis, where it has come from and its goals for the next few years. Axis was founded in 1984 and has been driving digital video surveillance ever since. It currently offers a wide range of products and has around 75 000 partnerships in 179 countries. It also has offices in about 40 countries. The company employs over 2000 people and 2014 sales reaches US$ 747 million.

Kubbinga noted that in the EMEA region, Axis is still leading the market in security cameras, network cameras and video encoders, according to IHS. It has also strengthened its position in other markets, driven by the continued move from analogue to IP.

The company plans to continue its global expansion, including in the emerging markets. Today about 27% of its sales come from emerging markets and its goal is to gain 2% each year over the next few years. This growth will be in cooperation with its partners.

Looking ahead at 2020, Axis has a goal of ONE. It wants to be number 1 in video surveillance (O) with 10% of its revenue from new business (N), and 40% of revenue coming from emerging markets in 2020 (E).

To achieve this, the company is broadening its base in the MEA region, where it already has over 2000 partners. It will also open new offices in Nairobi, Kenya this year, as well as another African country in 2016. It recently also opened an experience centre in Dubai where partners and customers can come and see its technology in action and talk to experts.

Innovative partnerships

Jamie Donald, heading up global sales solutions and strategic alliances for Axis followed, talking about the need for partnerships as the security and IT worlds converge. Partnerships are a crucial aspect in securing your environment, especially in the age of cybercrime and as the Internet of Things (IoT) grows. He also noted the importance of smart cameras for smart cities, highlighting the four-layered approach to building a smart city: network, sensors, platform and applications.

He ended by talking about the need for bandwidth optimisation, something everyone can identify with, as well as the importance of good quality images.

Mike Metcalfe, Milestone Systems’ channel business manager in South Africa followed, highlighting the growth of Milestone which aligns with Axis’ own growth with the digital surveillance world. He also stressed the importance of an open platform, highlighting the numerous cameras and partners Milestone has using its platform.

Providing something for every business, Metcalfe covered the various product offerings the company offers, from the free version of Milestone XProtect Go and up to XProtect Corporate. In addition, he included the clients Milestone provides, which includes its smart client, a Web client and a mobile client. It is also focused on developing add-on products to enhance and expand the capabilities and reliability of its platform.

Like Axis, Milestone is also providing assistance to its customers and partners in the form of training, professional services and its newest offering, Milestone Care.

Zipstream

Roy Alves, regional business development manager for Axis delivered a presentation describing the company’s new Zipstream technology. Alves spoke about the current compression technologies available for surveillance and then explained how Zipstream uses intelligent algorithms to reduce the bandwidth for unimportant areas of the image while making sure the important areas, such as a face or licence plate are transmitted and stored at a high quality.

Not only will Zipstream reduce the bandwidth required to stream video, in certain instances reducing it by over 50%, it will also require less storage space on corporate servers or NVRs. It delivers savings in these areas, while ensuring that the important images you need are available at the quality you require.

And on the subject of storage. EMC’s Justin Ludik followed with a presentation about storage for video surveillance. He noted that 20% to 30% of the enterprise surveillance bill is spent on storage. This is due to the growing number of high resolution cameras in use. The enterprise storage market as a whole boasts a 15% CAGR and we are seeing demands for simplified storage solutions as well as edge solutions coming to the fore.

Interestingly enough, he also showed that about 70% of storage spend in the video surveillance market in 2018 will come from three segments: government, transport and city surveillance. What customers want in these instances, is more flexible, scalable, open and future-proof storage solutions.

Ludik then went on to talk about EMC’s distributed (edge) and centralised storage offerings, from VNX-VSS at the edge to Isilon at the core.

Other presentations covered the Axis solution for outdoor and perimeter security by Rudie Opperman. Ross Joughin from Cathexis spoke on using surveillance and analytical platforms for situational awareness and improved ­efficiency, and Avaya’s Omar Fahnbulleh delivered an interesting presentation on software defined networking, which seems to be the future of networking.

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