security technology market It is vital for leading IP Video Network surveillance manufacturers to penetrate the China market and if they can’t get established now that China is moving over to IP technology gradually they will be reduced to competing only at the enterprise level across the world. This market will grow of course but commoditisation of video cameras means you only win by building up volume. Hikvision and Dahua have now reduced their cameras prices to a level that cannot be met by western manufacturers unless they can scale up the size of their operations through a combination of reducing prices and selling hard their expertise in IP technology. Hikvision and Dahua have now reduced their cameras prices to a level that cannot be met by western manufacturers unless they can scale up the size of their operations through a combination of reducing prices and selling hard their expertise in IP technology. Trend 2: IoT and the Building Internet of Things (BIoT) Most people are now quite familiar with the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) but find it difficult to establish what impact it will have on the physical security industry because they have not yet been involved or seen a full comprehensive system. We need to put this in the perspective of just one major application for IoT, buildings. Because most physical security systems are installed in buildings it makes more sense to apply connectivity to all the other sensors and devices in buildings in order to provide a fully automated system a Building Internet of Things (BIoT). IoT technology can collect data from all the sensors and devices and with analytical software, usually referred to as Big Data, immediately optimises and fully automates the buildings performance. Futhermore, it can add a further dimension through more effective convergence with the business enterprise all without the intervention of humans. BIoT in its comprehensive form is not operating at the commercial level today but almost 50% of all video surveillance systems are IP networked and they can be connected to a BIoT and access control is following suit. There are many simple BIoT systems in operation today joining data on a common IP platform from different BAS services but not meeting the full requirements of Big Data which is to fine tune and fully automate without human intervention. These together with promising reports coming from Smart City projects is providing sufficient evidence to show that BIoT will eventually deliver. The semiconductor industry will need to invest $Billions in the development of intelligent nodes and the IT software industry in artificial intelligence but the concept is built on extending the boundaries of existing technology and is achievable. This year exhibitions on Security, Lighting and HVAC have demonstrated how these services can be properly integrated and some promising analytical software tools to deliver a relatively simple BIoT, but much more beneficial than what has been installed over the last ten years. So we are gradually working towards BIoT and this interim stage we have described will operate for some time to come. Before full BIoT services arrive we will see major changes on how smart buildings are designed and constructed and this will have implications for all those in the supply chain across all the BAS services. It will be necessary for some services to have software to control at the edge but all the data from all of the sensors and actuators will be manipulated by Big Data, which will optimise and fully automate the buildings performance. Trend 3: Integrating access control, biometrics and identity management Access control is now entering a period where integration between physical security and logical security is now practical and at the same time there is demand for integration across the other two physical security businesses. Access control when integrated with identity management improves the performance of safety and security in buildings. Access control sales increased by 10% in 2015 delivering the highest growth in all three sectors of the physical security industry for the first time. The future looks bright for it is fast moving into IP Networking and at the same time is integrating logical security. It is only in recent years that the cost of technology to join physical and logical security has been available at the commercial level and growth is now expected to follow. Physical access control biometrics includes everything that requires identity authentication by scanning a person’s unique physical characteristics. It is used where high security is a necessity due to its superiority compared with conventional access control methods. Hospitals, police, the military as well as the financial industry all use physical access biometrics where security is critical and this trend is moving down stream as costs reduce. Trend 4: Access control as a service and cloud based systems There is a growing belief by end users that both video surveillance and access control as a service can be just as secure in the cloud as on their premises. An ever increasing number of endusers are now also investigating the total cost of ownership of operating their own system as opposed to buying it as a service. Building owners are now being made aware that they need to take into account the high cost of maintenance and support in order to make realistic appraisals and at last this is driving up demand. With ACaaS they no longer need internal IT departments to build up and maintain the servers and infrastructure at the business facility, and incur a very high price tag. With cloud-based solutions, onsite servers and appliances are eliminated, thus reducing the total cost of ownership while not losing any functionality. Security News Every Day – www. securityworldhotel.com 12 • d etektor internati onal