Access, CCTV Form Integration’s Dynamic Duo

Ruth and Gehrig. Bogey and Bacall. Magic and Kareem. Lennon and McCartney. Just as these famous duos worked in unison to create a magical aura around their professions, access control and CCTV are teaming up to change the systems integration field.

In the vast business and corporate marketplace, security concerns are driving integrated security sales levels to all time highs. In fact, access control and CCTV dominate the list of most frequently integrated technologies according to the “1999 Report on the Access Control Market” and the “1999 Report on the Closed Circuit Television Market,” both from J.P. Freeman Co. Inc. of Newtown, Conn. Significant trends identified in the reports include:

– The CCTV portion of the integration industry is growing and poised for a technological revolution that will sweep across the industry in the next five years.

– Combine this CCTV revolution with the fact that access control currently represents 36 percent of the American integration industry’s revenues.

CCTV, Access Lead List of Frequent Integrations

CCTV and access control systems stand far above other integrator business areas.

Access control systems represent the foundation of systems integration work. CCTV systems, meanwhile, are more frequently integrated with access control systems than any other because they are effective at identifying authorized vs. unauthorized behavior.

Integrator Sales, Revenue, Profits Soar

Systems integrators who responded to Freeman’s CCTV survey report an annual average sales level of $7.5 million, while those who responded to the access control report approximately $6.3 million in average annual sales.

Large office buildings dominate the integrator market, with hospitals, factories and airports also being important sales targets.

Most revenues reported by integrators come from hardware, installation and system debugging charges. In fact, hardware sales now account for half of systems integrators’ revenues.

Access Market Serves as Integrator Backbone

Access control survey respondents said that the need to upgrade existing security systems influenced their customers the most.

Integrators say they most frequently advise system users. In turn, those end users provide access control integrators with their largest business referral base.

High-tech advancements, such as smart cards and biometrics, though, are still less likely to be recommended than mature products such as Wiegand and magnetic cards.

New CCTV Technology Will Continue the Boom

CCTV represents the true growth market for American integrators at the advent of the 21st century, the report concludes. Respondents to the Freeman CCTV survey name theft as the most important demand factor spurring sales.

CCTV survey respondents are also finding new camera systems represent the bulk of their business.

Digital technology, fiber optics and computer system camera controls are moments away from changing the CCTV industry.

Currently, systems integrators report that 88 percent of video systems record footage on VHS or S-VHS tapes. By 2004, that percentage will be zero, while DVD-R storage is expected to jump from zero percent to nearly 70 percent.

By 2004, integrators expect that 57 percent of projects will include digital recorders, compared to 6 percent today.

14 percent of integrator customers use computers for CCTV system control purposes today. Integrators say this number will rise to 55 percent by 2003.

New, Upgraded Systems Key to Future

The mix of the forecast for new CCTV systems together with the forecast of an access control upgrade boom bodes well for the industry.

Competition among integrators is also expected to boost business. Users will continue to increasingly rely on the integrator’s mastery of system design and new technology to solve their systems problems.

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