Video Surveillance continues to be one of the strongest drivers of the security industry’s rate of growth. The category is looking more like access control every day in terms of the widening variety of security solutions.

Video solutions are starting to take on the same level of versatility as access products, such as card readers, keypads, biometrics, electro-mechanicals, mechanicals and badging.

Because of that, it is becoming imperative for manufacturers to be right- on when they are trying to gauge each new product trend. Corporate competitiveness, maintaining if not growing market share, and reaping high-margin sales demand it.

In turn, distributors, dealers, integrators and consultants have to quickly become knowledgeable about new products to enjoy the same growth spurt and profitability that manufacturers expect — and they often have to do it for more than one manufacturer’s line.

One of the questions these organizations then face is, “Which train do I get on?” Can they really expect to master all the new products being announced by every manufacturer, or do they have to decide which to get on and which to let pass?

All Aboard the Product Trend Train
Because of the growing challenge of tracking the growing number of new products in the marketplace, there is a lengthening gap between the time a new product is announced and the time it is being sold in the field. The gap is generally caused by the time required to educate local security companies and to build market awareness with advertising and PR programs.

Without this market development support, the sales task can take on a high level of difficulty. For this reason, advance notice of this product train’s schedule can be helpful.

The Inside Track on Video’s Future
When I was at GE and Wells Fargo, we held “sneak peak” new product meetings for key customers at both the trade and user levels. The purpose was to give the 20 percent of our customers who did 80 percent of our revenue an early opportunity to see what’s coming down the track so they can start their own planning preparations.

The question was always how far in advance of the official announcement should we hold the meeting. Six months? A year? After all, people do talk and we could be giving away information that helps competitors get their own train up on the tracks earlier than they would have. We decided to take the risk and trusted in the good faith of our customers.

As part of J.P. Freeman and Co.’s regular market research to determine what the train schedule is each year, we now track 26 video surveillance product groups. Manufacturers were asked what they’re planning to introduce to give a precursor as to where the video train is headed. Here’s a “sneak peak” at the latest video train schedule.

The most important train to catch right now is the object tracking express, a.k.a. intelligent video. A little later in the schedule are three trains on the same track headed for the smart camera, wireless camera and integration software stations. Not far behind them are the network video, video server and motion detector camera trains.

Bearing in mind that there are 19 more video trains in the overall schedule, the cabooses — cars like black-and- white cameras and analog recorders — are way back there and not running frequently anymore. If you still have to make a dining car reservation, I thought this might help.

 

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!

Related Content