i-PRO Brand Immersion Reinforces Company’s Edge AI Focus
A weeklong visit across three Japanese prefectures gave SSI and other journalists a chance to learn about i-PRO’s open policy and time-based competition.
i-PRO’s global headquarters and onsite Experience Center allows visitors to immerse themselves in i-PRO’s breadth of offerings. Photo by i-PRO.
Editor’s Note: This article features firsthand reporting from SSI’s Dan Ferrisi following a trip to visit i-PRO in Japan and learn about its focus on secure edge AI IoT technologies. Click here to read his one-on-one interview with i-PRO CEO Masato Nakao. We updated this story as of Dec. 2.
Earlier this month, i-PRO, a specialist in edge computing cameras for security, safety and medical applications, convened a group of security publication editors to give us a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse at the company’s operations, roadmap and corporate strategy.
This included one-on-one time with Masato Nakao, CEO of i-PRO, as well as interview opportunities with key senior executives: Gerard Figols, chief product officer; Dayanna Nunez, chief human resources officer; Hiroo Okamoto, CFO; and others from within executive leadership.
The press trip spanned three prefectures, starting in Fukuoka, where the group visited the i-PRO Fukuoka headquarters and toured the R&D facility there. Later the same day, journalists in attendance were able to dialogue with various i-PRO executives about technology evolution, manufacturing strategy and product strategy.
The next day was more focused on culture, with the group exploring major temples in Kyoto that are protected by i-PRO technology. The following day brought us to Tokyo, where we headed to i-PRO’s global headquarters and visited its onsite Experience Center, allowing us to further immerse ourselves in i-PRO’s breadth of offerings.
Post-tour moderated conversations expanded well beyond security, exploring how the company’s technologies can support life safety, business intelligence and other needs.
A Whirlwind Tour
Under the leadership of CEO Masato Nakao, i-PRO has established itself as a fast-growing organization that’s aggressively capturing market share. Photo by i-PRO.
This whirlwind tour offered the closest look Security Sales & Integration has yet gotten at i-PRO. The company, of course, established itself in 2019, having emerged from the Panasonic conglomerate.
In just five years, under the leadership of Nakao-san, i-PRO has established itself as a fast-growing organization that’s aggressively capturing market share. Indeed, i-PRO enjoyed a 14% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2020 and 2023, with more than 50 billion yen projected for its 2024 fiscal year revenue.
The company has also diversified globally, with about 40% of its revenue coming from Japan, 40% coming from North America and the rest of the world posting about 20%.
According to Nakao-san, i-PRO’s rapid success as its own organization is creditable to the open policy that i-PRO embraces. Instead of following the former Panasonic mindset of seeking to be a total solutions provider, i-PRO focuses on creating the best edge devices, forging partnerships not only with integrators but also with analytics solutions providers (e.g., Vaxtor, Morpho) and with VMS and VSaaS specialists (e.g., Genetec, Milestone, Eagle Eye Networks).
Nakao-san also repeatedly emphasized time-based competition, saying that, prior to becoming an independent entity, development cycles easily stretched to 20 or 30 months, thereby throttling the pace of product launches.
As an independent entity, i-PRO has a 10- to 14-month development cycle and a dramatically accelerated product launch pace. To wit, i-PRO launched nearly 100 products in 2023, a feat made possible by the company’s modular architecture (i.e., the coupling of optical modules, chipset modules and interface modules).
As model launches have sped up, typical lead times have decreased, reinforcing i-PRO as a time-based competitor.
i-PRO Focuses on Edge AI IoT Devices
Nakao-san reinforced i-PRO’s belief that IoT ecosystems are ascendent, saying the company has a laser focus on secure edge AI IoT devices, serving as a conduit to help customers reduce their cloud costs and improve overall accuracy.
Aligning with the i-PRO open policy, it’s actively working with partners for the rest of the solution so as not to detract from its edge AI focus. Figols underscored this vision, saying the company now has close to 300 models, more than 230 of which boast Deep Learning AI technology at the edge.
“Now, the power is at the edge,” Figols declared, arguing that cameras with no (or just basic) analytic functionality should expect a negative CAGR moving forward. Cameras today, Figols believes, should be able to see, understand and interact.
i-PRO is refreshingly cognizant of the ethical implications of AI, and company leadership has sought a seat at the table as the regulatory landscape for responsible AI governance emerges.
For example, in December 2023, the company released the i-PRO Ethical Principles for AI, a list of seven core tenets that, the company says, “…establish guidelines for all i-PRO employees when engaged in the use, research and development of AI.” These include the imperative to protect privacy, protect human dignity and cultivate a proper understanding of AI within society.
Taking the conceptual and putting it into practice, the company launched the i-PRO AI Ethics Committee in June 2024. The committee’s remit is oversight of the newly introduced AI ethics review process, which will be critical to the development lifecycle of AI products.
What’s more, just last month, i-PRO introduced AI ethics training for employees across the world. On the technology side, i-PRO’s commitment to ethics manifests in its abandonment of facial recognition development in favor of attribute-focused facial detection capabilities. This, Figols told us, reflects i-PRO positioning itself as a responsible innovator.
An Abiding Commitment to the Integrator Community
i-PRO executives also emphasized the company’s abiding commitment to the integrator community, saying the company strives to provide concierge-level service to its carefully selected community of integrator partners.
“Our main goal is to make the integrator’s life easier,” Figols stated, pointing to five areas from which i-PRO seeks to remove friction: design, procurement, training, installation and support.
In SSI’s one-on-one interview, Nakao-san underlined i-PRO’s support capabilities, saying, “For example, with help calls, we try to respond within three rings. We set up a hotline for those partners, and our system engineers are always ready to respond to their inquiries.”
What’s more, integrator partners benefit from i-PRO’s business development management (BDM) team, whose members regularly reach out to end users and seek to nurture and cultivate leads for i-PRO’s integrator partners. It’s all part of Nakao-san’s vision of leading a channel-centric company.
As he explained to SSI, “Once our integrator partners select us, we are committed to serving them, 100%, with white-glove service.”
At i-PRO, everything from impact resistance, to vibration testing, to humidity resilience, to resistance to temperature extremes is quantified and assured. Photo by i-PRO.
Just as importantly, the i-PRO executives emphasized that its cameras are extremely reliable, enabling integrators to install them with the confidence of knowing that they won’t be called back.
The cameras’ seven-year warranty — the longest extended warranty in the industry, i-PRO told us — attests to this quality commitment. And, particularly when cameras are being deployed for security-related purposes, unquestioned reliability is truly non-negotiable.
Thus, as the journalist group toured i-PRO’s R&D facility in Fukuoka, none of us was surprised to see the extensive testing that the company’s devices undergo prior to release. Everything from impact resistance (facing the wrath of a large, heavy mallet), to vibration testing, to humidity resilience, to resistance to temperature extremes is quantified and assured.
i-PRO Cameras with Advanced Edge AI Capabilities
Amid all the high-level executive discussion, i-PRO unveiled a new line of High Zoom Bullet cameras that are designed to deliver long-range coverage with advanced edge AI capabilities.
The cameras are equipped with powerful zoom and IR LED technologies; thus, according to i-PRO, they offer excellent precision for long-distance monitoring across environments like highways, parking lots, bridges, ports and stadiums.
The new lineup includes 10x and 30x zoom options, complemented by long-range (up to 820 feet) IR LED capabilities for optimal performance in low-light or nighttime conditions. Available in 2MP, 5MP and 4K resolutions, the range offers 20 new models across the X- and S-series. SSI covered the news immediately upon its release on Nov. 14.
It’s tough to schedule and execute a media event with a dozen-plus journalists from across the globe. But I, for one, found my several-day immersion in i-PRO fascinating. I now have a better understanding of the i-PRO vision not only to be a responsible AI practitioner but also to be a growing leader in the field of secure edge AI IoT technologies.
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About the Author
Dan Ferrisi, Group Editor, Commercial and Security
Dan Ferrisi has been a B2B editorial professional since November 2004, covering the audio, video, lighting and music industries since the beginning of his career. Getting his start with Sound & Communications, he ascended from assistant editor, to associate editor, to eventually lead editor. He served as editor-in-chief of Commercial Integrator from November 2021 through August 2023 before being promoted to group editor, commercial and security, gaining oversight responsibility of the Security Sales & Integration brand, as well.
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