the interview Siemens Head of Fire, Mario Kahlert, on the future of the fire detection market: “IP cameras will not replace fire detectors” The fire detection market has traditionally been slower in adopting new technologies such as IP and the cloud. Detektor met up with Siemens Head of Fire, Mario Kahlert to find out more about where this market is heading. “Not everything that is technically possible makes sense in a business where life safety is crucial”, he says. By Henrik Söderlund While products for video surveillance and access control have been extensively developed and have moved through a technology shift from analogue to IP during the last 10-15 years, products for fire detection are lagging behind. Mario Kahlert, Head of Fire Safety, stresses that the market for fire detection is growing and that the trend is steady. The growth rate is about 3 per cent and is closely linked to the construction market. In Europe there is not so much new construction as for example in China and the Middle East where the market is growing faster. digitalisation still unsettled There is much talk about digitalisation within the industry and according to Mario Kahlert, the industry is still trying to figure out the best way to approach it. He believes it is very important to keep the balance between what is technically possible and what is allowed according to industry regulations. He considers digitalisation and how products can be installed and serviced easier as the main trend in the fire detection market. “I think that the general trend of connection and digitalisation is here to stay. A major issue is how we bring digitalisation without risking anything in the life safety area. But the general trend of digitalisation is something we want to pick up and really drive forwards, either with remote connectivity, with service ability and also with BIM (Building Information Model) for our products”, he says. Mario Kahlert stresses that cloud solutions support a business model that makes the customers more productive and efficient. But there is always an issue about how much data the customer wants to share and that data has to be used for the right purposes. “Nobody wants to die because someone hacked into a system and shut it down. I think there is a thin line here; we have to make progress in this area, but also make sure that we are not endangering what the industry stands for. It is all about life safety”, he says. Integration with other systems Another main issue is how fire detection systems can be integrated in other security systems. “In the end, as an operator or as an end user, you want to combine different functionalities. Our solution brings fire together with HVAC (Heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and other functions into a management station. It is an open platform that we want to develop further”, Mario Kahlert says. An interesting question for the future is how solutions for fire detection and fire safety – with all its regulations – can be part of the 24/7 connected Internet of Things society. Mario Kahlert has a twofold perspective on this: on the one side, IoT is a general trend that cannot be stopped and players need to find out how to participate and how to develop and shape their portfolios and offerings over time to fulfil market needs. “It can be via remote access, visualisation and remote information and we are already offering this to our customers. And there is more to come. However, not everything Detektor met up with Siemens Head of Fire, Mario Kahlert to find out more about where this market is heading. that is technically possible makes sense in a business where life safety is crucial. You do not want to fail with detecting or alarming because the server was down or because the device just did not connect. This will never be accepted, you have to be careful”, he says. ogy (Aspirating Smoke Detector) will grow in importance. “We are constantly looking for what other technologies there are on the market and evaluating what will work on a mass market where the customer gets a very good product for a reasonable price.” Nobody wants to die because someone hacked into a system and shut it down. New fire technologies IHS recently claimed multi-criteria detectors, which combine multiple detection technologies, have become more common in the fire detector market and that the market is expected to grow by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6 per cent between 2015 and 2020. During the last couple of years, new solutions of how to detect fire have been launched on the market. One example is cameras with video based fire detection combined with intelligent video analysis for early flame and smoke detection. However, Mario Kahlert thinks that the basic principle of today’s detectors will remain and that ASD technolHe does not think that cameras will replace fire detectors even though more functions can be added to detectors in the future. “They are two different systems. The detector must live up to a standard while the camera does not. That is also why I see a limited value in the camera replacing the detector. The interesting thing here is to integrate them: the detector can send an alarm to the management system and then the operator can have a look at the camera and see if there is a fire.” Privacy is another issue, most people will not accept having a camera in their hotel room, but a fire detector is perfectly fine. Security News Every Day – www. securityworldhotel.com dete kto r in te r n at i on al • 27