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A world of opportunities

Technology innovation continues to drive developments in the video surveillance industry, which is serving a market expected to mushroom globally from US$ 11 billion in 2011 to an estimated $25 bn in 2016.

In South Africa, the relentless march towards the convergence of legacy analogue and new-generation digital technologies continues. Within the next 12 to 24 months we can expect more than 50 percent of all video surveillance installations to feature high-quality, megapixel resolution digital cameras.

From a technological perspective, the most likely advancements will be in areas such as low-light capability and wide dynamic range. We can also expect increasing adoption of P-Iris lens technology.

P-Iris is an automatic, precise iris control that involves specialised hardware and software geared to optimising image quality. A P-Iris system addresses the shortcomings of earlier technologies in areas such as contrast, clarity, resolution and depth of field.

A lengthy depth of field – where objects at different distances from the camera are in focus simultaneously – is key to the effective video monitoring of, for example, a parking lot where vehicles are sited at varying distances from the camera. In bright light situations, P-Iris limits the closing of the iris to avoid blurring. This blurring, or diffraction, is caused when the iris opening becomes too small. This can typically occur in older camera systems.

In outdoor video surveillance applications, being able to avoid diffraction from an automatically controlled iris is a sought-after benefit. While lens technology is advancing apace, so is its incorporation in network-based IP cameras, along with the proliferation of IP-based peripheral components such as alarms, intrusion detection systems and a variety of control methods.

Soon advanced technologies such as video content analytics will be widely accepted and integrated into intelligent video systems- thanks to innovations from semiconductor and applications vendors. Other innovations include motion detection, behaviour detection and thermal/infrared cameras, giving surveillance systems the capability to capture movement at night.

The provision of platforms for the plug-in of these and other technologies is boosting increased marketplace acceptance of cloud-based video surveillance, also known as VSaaS (video surveillance as a service).

VSaaS is expected to grow significantly in 2012 as suppliers explore a variety of potential routes to market. Rather than limit the tasks of security cameras to their accepted roles, VSaaS suppliers are inventing new applications designed to appeal to tech-savvy users.

For example, business owners are learning about the value to their marketing departments of streaming high quality security video to the Internet, allowing customers to see real-time footage of the places they intend to visit. Industry watchers expect video streaming to be integrated into services such as Google Street View to optimise investments in security solutions which could then be transformed into revenue generating tools.

Research companies estimate that nearly 65% of the digital video recorders sold last year (2011) were Ethernet-enabled, clearly underlining the marketplace potential for video to be distributed to the cloud and used to boost corporate image or marketing initiatives.

What is more, by collapsing surveillance system elements onto a corporate network, IT managers will have the opportunity to integrate surveillance systems into information management systems, giving security professionals and executives alike better visibility of the processes associated with surveillance in the broadest sense.

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