CONTENTS
Apr. 2014
Product Exploration
A Decade in the Making:
VCA Takes Center Stage P.46
Evolving Technology and Expectations Drive VCA Growth
Special Feature
Innovation and Competition Leading M&A Trends
P.40
14
APR 2014
P.52
CONTENTS
Apr. 2014
Vertical Market
Global Gaming Market Changes After Recession P.68
Casinos Looking for Extra Values from Network Video Surveillance P.74
SMAHome
Viewpoint
P.78
A New Type of Mobile Home P.14 Contents P.18 Editor’s Note P.20 Corporate News
16
APR 2014
P.34
P.30 Products of the Month P.92 Show Calendar P.94 New Products
The New Normal: A Risk Society
P.109 Companies in This Issue
EDITOR'S NOTE a&s International, published by Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd., is a monthly professional publication for channel players in the worldwide electronic security industry since 1997. It updates importers, distributors, OEM/ODM searchers, system integrators and other product purchasers on product sources and identifies developments in CCTV, Digital Surveillance, Access Control, Biometrics, Intrusion Alarm, Intercom/Video Doorphone, Home
VCA, the Apple of Our Eyes
Automation and other fields relevant to electronic security.
ISSN 1997-6267 中華郵政北台字第1571號 執照登記為雜誌交寄
Video content analysis (VCA), or intelligent video software (IVS), has been a buzzword in the physical security industry for some time. Now, VCA is able to be bundled with different video surveillance equipment, ranging from network cameras, servers, storage, and other software. It is prerequisite, for a buyer or user looking for VCA-enabled products, to have a clear goal and objective of one’s security implementation, before choosing a centralized versus distributed video analytics system (VCA at the edge). After all, there is no one-size-fits-all solution – VCA performance is highly dependant on how much VCA can be maximized in the system. In the cover story, a&s reviewed the corporate development of some key VCA companies in the past decade, from which we can clearly pinpoint how VCA has evolved over the years and may develop in the future. Interestingly, when we examine some current M&A deals of product manufacturers, VCA also becomes an important factor for many acquirers to initiate the acquisition. Based on many M&A deals, it can be concluded that VCA has played a crucial role in video surveillance systems.
Parson Lee Joseph Lee John Shi
Publisher & Managing Director General Manager General Manager
Editorial
General Press Jill Lai Alf Chang Eifeh Strom Michelle Chu Steve Chin Weiting Chen
Editor in Chief Senior Consultant Reporter Reporter Reporter Coordinator
as-pr@newera.messefrankfurt.com jill.lai@newera.messefrankfurt.com alf.chang@newera.messefrankfurt.com eifeh.strom@newera.messefrankfurt.com michelle.chu@newera.messefrankfurt.com steve.chin@newera.messefrankfurt.com weiting.chen@newera.messefrankfurt.com
Executive Designer Designer Designer
gaven.lee@newera.messefrankfurt.com mao.chang@newera.messefrankfurt.com arthur.wu@newera.messefrankfurt.com
Art Design
Gaven Lee Mao Chang Arthur Wu
Circulation & Subscription
Collins Yuan Michelle Shih
Group Manager Coordinator
collins.yuan@newera.messefrankfurt.com michelle.shih@newera.messefrankfurt.com
Corporate Management
Veronica Chen Juihui Lin Thomas Pin Chihung Lee
Group Manager Assistant to Managing Director Account Manager IT Manager
veronica.chen@newera.messefrankfurt.com juihui.lin@newera.messefrankfurt.com thomas.pin@newera.messefrankfurt.com chihung.lee@newera.messefrankfurt.com
Group Manager
veronica.chen@newera.messefrankfurt.com
asmag.com
Veronica Chen
Secutech & Events (Overseas)
Eva Tsai Summer Cho
Project Manager Sales Manager
eva.tsai@newera.messefrankfurt.com summer.cho@newera.messefrankfurt.com
Secutech & Events (Domestic)
From another feature story – “Casinos Looking for Extra Values from Network Video Surveillance,” we also found that some casinos have started to pay more attention to some benefits of VCA and integrated systems. In the past, many experts did not think casinos were the perfect environment to deploy VCA, due to the huge amount of customers. However, when VCA developed to create more value in business efficiency, and started to synchronize with other subsystems, such as access control, casinos and other market sectors may prove to be another key sector for VCA. Hope you enjoy reading this issue. If you have further questions or comments about VCA, we are glad to receive any of your responses!
Echo Lin Sandra Chen
Trade Fair Manager Project Manager
echo.lin@newera.messefrankfurt.com sandra.chen@newera.messefrankfurt.com
International Advertising [Headquarters]
Juihui Lin Kay Yang Audrey Fang Alex Pai
Manager Operation Officer Coordinator Coordinator
juihui.lin@newera.messefrankfurt.com kay.yang@newera.messefrankfurt.com audrey.fang@newera.messefrankfurt.com alex.pai@newera.messefrankfurt.com
[Branches & Representatives]
Bobbie Ferraro Carolina Pattuelli Cemre Ilkan Evris Consolos Muris Hadzic Manish Gandhi Iris Lai Y. C. Suh Takashi Komori Nguyen Thu Ha
USA/Canada Europe (Italy) Europe (Turkey) Europe (U.K.) Southeast Europe India China Korea Japan Vietnam
bobbie@globetrottermedia.com produzione@ethosmedia.it cemre.ilkan@asturkiye.com evris@kemainternational.com management@asadria.com manish@abcindia.biz iris.lai@newera.messefrankfurt.com ycsuh517@naver.com komori@asj-corp.jp project1@vietfair.vn
Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd.
Jill Lai
jill.lai@newera.messefrankfurt.com
Taiwan Branch: 2F, No. 8, Lane 360, Sec. 1, Nei-Hu Rd.,Taipei 114, Taiwan Phone/886 2 2659 9080 Fax/886 2 2659 9069 Website/www.mfnewera.com Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd., a company formed by Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd. and former A&S Group in 2009, is an integrated media service provider in the security industry. Our service covers magazines, Web sites, events and trade shows. The portfolio of a&s magazines includes a&s International, a&s Asia (above published in English), a&s China, a&s Installer, a&s Solution, and a&s Taiwan (above published in Chinese). a&s Turkiye, a&s Adria, a&s Italy, a&s India, a&s Japan and a&s Vietnam are licensed editions. For changes of address or subscription problems, contact us at mfne-circulation@newera.messefrankfurt.com Copyright© 2014 Messe Frankfurt New Era Business Media Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be republished, reprinted or redistributed in any forms, including electronic, without written consent from the publisher.
Advertisers are responsible for their own advertisement content. The publisher is not liable for any legal, image, patent or trademark disputes from advertisements or among advertisers. Legal consultant: Julia S.H. Yu, Attorney at Law, First Law & IP Offices
18
APR 2014
CORPORATE NEWS
LILIN Signs Distribution Agreement with Invision UK LILIN, a manufacturer of IP-based video security products, announced that it has signed a strategic distribution agreement with Invision UK. This partnership enables Invision UK to sell and support LILIN’s product line. Established in 1980, LILIN has developed a full line of products, from megapixel cameras to network video recorders that can be used with products from many leading companies including Control4, Savant Systems, and URC. This integration provides a smart, convenient, and efficient home solution for the user. This new distribution agreement offers home automation and custom installation dealers access to a sales network from one of the U.K.’s fastest growing trade only distributors of integrated AV solutions for residential, commercial, and marine applications. Jason Hill, Group VP of LILIN commented, “LILIN has committed to becoming the preferred manufacturer of HD cameras and recording systems to the global CI market, we are already integrated with Control4, Savant, and URC and expect drivers for ELAN, Crestron, RTI, and AMX to be finished in the new year. Our end-to-end HD surveillance solutions are suited to the high-end residential, leisure, and entertainment sectors as they are simple to operate, easy to integrate, and do not rely on PCs or software.”
Sentry360 Announces the Largest 360-degree Camera Deployment in Mass Transit History Sentry360, a US-based manufacturer of ultra HD surveillance cameras and systems, announced the deployment of the largest 360-degree surveillance camera system in mass transit history. The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) operates the nation’s second largest public transportation system, servicing the city of Chicago and 35 surrounding suburbs. On an average weekday, approximately 1.7 million rides are taken on the CTA. The Sentry360 cameras are integrated into the CTA’s existing video management system platform, made by Teleste. Teleste was able to integrate Sentry360‘s intellectual property, through a software development kit, into the CTA’s existing video management system allowing the correction of the fisheye view, and delivering the capability to pan-tilt-zoom in all directions both live and forensically, in recorded video. This effort complements other CTA initiatives to bring video coverage across the entire fleet of rail cars, delivering the high quality of security to millions of commuters on a daily basis. Future real-time wireless communications will allow the CTA’s control center and the City of Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications to view live feeds from the rail cars on-demand, adding a vital resource for comprehensive incident management and response.
20
APR 2014
HDcctv Alliance Approves New HDcctv 2.0 Standards
Surveillance video standards organization HDcctv Alliance has ratified the next generation of its high definition security video standard, HDcctv 2.0. The new standard was agreed to by the HDcctv board of directors, and provides variants which have significant advantages over HD-SDI transmission. The new standards have been developed and agreed for equipment which can produce HD video without the need for IP-based cameras or Ethernet cabling within the secured premises. Todd Rockoff, HDcctv Executive Director said, “There are two primary variants of HDcctv 2.0 – NR and AT. HDcctv 2.0 NR DVRs and cameras add plug & play up-the-coax remote control to the underlying HD-SDI format. HDcctv 2.0 AT delivers true HDTV signals over any legacy CCTV coaxial cabling, along with plug & play up-the-coax remote control.” Jon Hwang, CEO of Eyenix, said, “Those responsible for designing and specifying surveillance systems are now able to work with HDcctv as easily as they worked with analog CCTV 10 years ago. Certified HDcctv-compliant products from a variety of manufacturers will always interoperate, without having to test all pair-wise combinations.”
CORPORATE NEWS
Quantum Secure Modernizes Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Security Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport has launched Quantum Secure‘s software to provide a modern approach to the required processes surrounding vetting and badging airport workers. By implementing the software at the airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor has met their goals of maintaining a comprehensive security credential management solution to function as an operations security portal, eliminating inefficiencies and reducing the time it takes to get airport staff started on their jobs. With more than 100,000 passengers per day, Phoenix Sky Harbor is one of the busiest airports in the U.S. With the anticipated growth of the airport and the industry in general, Phoenix Sky Harbor is taking a modern approach to preparing for the coming years through modernization and implementation of the latest technology to manage various aspects of the airport. Partnering with Honeywell International, Quantum Secure delivered the software solution that was carried out over the course of a year.
Integration Strengthens Security at New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon is one of the largest in the world. After the 2012 race was canceled due to Superstorm Sandy, a record number of runners turned out for the return of the marathon in 2013. More than 50,000 people finished the race. In addition to the runners, more than two million onlookers lined the 26.2 mile route as it wound through all five of New York City's boroughs before concluding in Central Park. Securing events such as races is always challenging. To overcome the challenge, security integrator EIA designed a surveillance system utilizing Sony IP-based cameras connected to a wireless mesh network from Firetide. The technologies from Firetide and Sony allowed EIA to install video surveillance around Central Park in a short amount of time. EIA integrated the various technologies using Milestone Systems‘ open-platform video management software.
Barcelona Shopping Mall Upgrades with Dahua IP-Based Megapixel Solution Heron City shopping mall is one of the biggest shopping centers in Barcelona, Spain. The mall is stationed with many street-popular brands, along with a wide range of restaurants and a big underground supermarket. As a popular local shopping center, Heron has an existing analog surveillance system but requires an updated HD systems. With effort of Iptecno Videovigilancia, Dahua’s local distributor in Spain, and also a local system integrator, the mall executives decided to embrace IP-based technology, and Dahua IP-based system was chosen after rounds of competition.
26
APR 2014
Latin America RepGroup Signs Agreement with Milestone Systems Milestone Systems announced that the Latin America RepGroup (LAR) has signed a sales representation agreement that includes all of the Latin American regions. LAR is the largest manufacturer of electronic security in Latin America. Milestone and LAR have signed a representation agreement for all of the Latin American and Caribbean territories. This partnership is realized with the aim to reinforce the sales and go-to-market activities that these two companies undertake to promote and strengthen trade relations with major dealers, systems integrators, and end users in the security sectors of Latin America. With over 10 years in the Latin American market, LAR has become the largest manufacturer in the electronic security industry, meeting the needs of system integrators and security equipment dealers within analoue and network video surveillance, IP, access control, and fire. LAR has offices in Texas, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Chihuahua, Colombia and Venezuela. The agreement between Milestone Systems and Latin America RepGroup took effect on March 1, 2014.
VIEWPOINT
THE NEW NORMAL:
A Risk Society n BY LARS THINGGAARD, CEO, MILESTONE SYSTEMS
THE ECONOMY We have a completely changed world economy today, with repeated budget cuts in many countries having put our customers under pressure in recent years, especially in certain vertical sectors, yet higher spending in other areas. For example, we have experienced major changes in defense budgets, not only in the U.S. but also across Europe. At the same time, we have seen higher security investments in Latin America, India, and China. Now the US economy is gaining momentum, Europe has stabilized, and it seems the worst is behind us for now. Speaking of China, we see changes in the positions of the world’s leading
34
APR 2014
economies, with China expected to take over as number one within the next decade. This increases the importance and influence of the entire Asia Pacific region. Our nations are no longer isolated entities: one country’s economic events can cascade into others — our fates are connected more than ever before.
POLITICS We see political changes in many markets. Elections affect economic policies, government funding, and investment confidence. Politics can influence the degree of regulatory requirements with regard to increased security and a growing harmonization
of policies, along with stricter laws on data usage and access. This is indeed affecting our industry. Political unrest also affects public and personal safety, feeds vandalism or even terrorism, creating the need for intensified safety and security measures. Since 9/11, security and public safety concerns have of course been a big focus in the U.S., and increasingly overseas. On every continent, public safety has become a more important concern during the past decade. Motivating incidences include terrorist attacks in Boston, London, Madrid, and tumult during the cascading Arab Spring where democratic uprisings arose indepen-
dently to spread across nations. According to an October 2013 report, “Attacks and fatalities soared to a record high in 2012. More than 8,500 terrorist attacks killed nearly 15,500 people as violence tore through Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. That is a 69 percent rise in attacks and an 89 percent jump in fatalities from 2011, according to START, one of the world’s leading terrorism-trackers.”
CLIMATE Our world today also has an increased focus on climate change issues, including how to monitor and tackle severe storms, more hurricanes than ever, flooding, and other kinds of extreme weather. Video surveillance is proving to be an
operational tool for monitoring and alerting, aiding response, measuring and tracking the effects. We also see a change in the direction of improved security systems to protect infrastructure, energy supplies and natural resources.
TECHNOLOGY We are involved with constantly changing technological developments through emerging innovations such as biometrics; panoramic, high-resolution, and thermal cameras; edge device storage; cloud computing; RFID, and video analytics. Much of this is thanks to the convergence of IP networking as the core infrastructure of every new installation. Milestone is living our mission and vision: to globally drive the convergence of video surveillance and IP-based
business systems through our open platform and business model. We have changed the industry’s expectations of video surveillance by demonstrating the unlimited potential that comes with the freedom to choose components and the power to integrate with third-party systems. By working with the open platform, partners and customers get better solutions that leverage the best of our industry, that work both today and long into the future, able to add any new equipment and systems as they become available over time. What a flexible concept! And it is flexibility that allows us to adapt to change.
LIFE IS CHANGE — RISK AND OPPORTUNITY Our world is indeed changing.
www.asmag.com
35
SPECIAL FEATURE
n BY STEVE CHIN
Innovation and Competition Leading M&A Trends
40
APR 2014
longside the recent surge of M&As in the US physical security industry has arisen a burst in the alarm-monitoring service provider sector. The global alarm monitoring market will see significant growth in the short term, reaching US$65 billion by 2017, according to a press release by RKJ Partners. The recovering housing sector and growing awareness by customers to install cost-effective and efficient home security systems are the main keys to fuel alarm monitoring services in the near future. The recent activities in M&As according to RKJ Partners are due to “increased competition from larger corporate entities and downward pressure on market pricing,” especially after the recession. Some identifiers supporting this on the business side would be Protection One’s acquisition of Central Alarm and Advanced Solutions, and Francisco Partners’ acquisition of Cross Match Technologies. The most recent M&A is Kastle Systems International, a provider of managed security solutions which acquired Mutual Central Alarm Services and Stat-Land Security Systems from ADT. Overall, M&As in the alarm monitoring and service industry have been progressing steadily.
A
▲Allan P. McHale, Director, Memoori Business Intelligence
GLOBAL M&As TO INCREASE IN 2014 AND ONWARDS While the alarm monitoring side of things has been very active, things have not been as rosy on the manufacturers’ side. The actual number of M&A deals in the product manufacturing side of physical security from 2012 to 2013, to our surprise, have dropped by a relatively large number. According to Allan P. McHale, Director at Memoori Business Intelligence, there were 56 deals in 2012 compared to 34 in 2013. While this may be true, M&A activity in the security industry has actually grown by a compound annual rate of 7 percent over the last 14 years. During this time, however, it has peaked and declined four times culminating with its value decreasing by a large 48 percent
▲Cyber security will be the key to unlocking future valuations in M&A deals.
▲Robert H. Scott, III, Project Engineer VP, Business Development, ARES Security Corporation
during the last two years. With this drop in consideration, the value of M&A deals were approximately $5 billion. Despite the number of deals and the total value of acquisitions falling, the actual value of a deal has increased from $120 million in 2011 to $147 million in 2013. There are a few simple reasons for this: according to McHale, a lack of confidence and/or interest by the major conglomerates and a lack of buyers from outside the business, particularly defense and IT. In layman’s terms, this is basically laid out as the major players in the industry have been slowing down in their M&As partially because there has not been much interest in them on the market and also because the security industry is still at its core very niche, sometimes making the trek to finding buyers or partners a difficult one. The good news though is, the middle market, mainly populated by specialist companies, has significantly picked up their M&A activity. As pointed out above, recent technological and product advancement from smaller and middle markets have resulted in them taking a more active role, commented McHale. Overall, the future outlook in the security industry looks good. Memoori forecasts that M&A activity will grow at a CAGR of 8 percent into 2017. In 2014 alone, they project that M&A activity will increase 5.5 percent.
www.asmag.com
41
PRODUCT EXPLORATION
A Decade in the Making:
VCA Takes Center Stage
BY EIFEH STROM
46
APR 2014
n 2006, intelligent video software, also known as video content analysis (VCA) or video analytics, was chosen as a&s International ’s Prime Product of the Year. At that time, VCA was called a “coming-of-age” product. Since then, VCA vendors and security players alike have been eagerly waiting for the other VCA shoe to drop. For years, the security industry has been wondering whether or not “this” was the year for VCA, the turning point. Unfortunately, reality is that moment has yet to come. However, something new is brewing in 2014. This year, VCA vendors and security players sense that this really is the year for VCA. The global video analytics market was estimated to be worth US$250 million in 2012 and is expected to reach around $1.3 billion in 2017 at a CAGR of 38.6 percent from 2012 to 2017, according to a September 2012 report published by MarketsandMarkets. The Americas will lead the market with APAC observed to grow at the highest rate, primarily due to the growth of technology and increasing awareness for network video surveillance. Additionally, non-security applications of video analytics in entertainment and visual communications are considered lucrative markets, according to the report.
I
Although the VCA market has encountered many a speed bump, improved technology and continued market education have helped VCA overcome some of its initial challenges. Key factors driving the video analytics market, according to the MarketsandMarkets report, include the transition of video surveillance systems from analog to IP-based, emergence of open standards, and increase in the efficiency of video surveillance systems. However, the market still faces many challenges: complexity, higher cost of maintenance, and the occurrence of false alarms. Despite these challenges, VCA vendors and security companies are ready to assure end users that all of these issues are being dealt with and that the benefit of video analytics far outweighs the hiccups.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST In a constantly changing and ever evolving market where competition continues to get fiercer, adapting to change is the key to survival. However, as VCA has become a larger part of the security industry, how companies have chosen to adapt over the years has varied. While many of the companies that were founded in the early days have since been acquired or closed their doors, some have been able to ride the wave of change without making any huge modifications
▲Aleksandr Jesikov, Account Manager, Luxriot
to their original business model, while others have changed with the technology and learned to adapt to their environment. One of the easiest and most common ways to get into the VCA market is to partner up with well-known VCA vendors, which many companies have done. Video analytics on the edge is a growing trend in the security industry and video management software (VMS) vendors have realized the value of incorporating VCA technology into their offerings. While some have developed their own video analytics, the majority have partnered with VCA vendors to create a value-added product. Aleksandr Jesikov, Account Manager of Luxriot, a supplier of VMS, bundled with VCA, explained, “Due to the nature of our software, we realized that VCA will play an essential part in the video surveillance industry. Since it is most important for us to offer the best products and technologies to our customers, we decided to use the VCA core from a time and market proven partner as a value-added feature.” Regardless of whether or not companies develop their own or partner with established VCA companies, the thing to focus on is how VCA is spreading through the security industry like a wildfire.
▲Zvika Ashani, CTO, Agent Video Intelligence
▲Geoff Thiel, CEO, VCA Technology
www.asmag.com
47
PRODUCT EXPLORATION
Evolving Technology and
Expectations Drive VCA
BY EIFEH STROM
ideo analytics vendors readily admit that VCA technology will never be 100 percent accurate, but very few things in life ever are 100 percent guaranteed. Accepting the flaws, working with them, and understanding them are the best way to truly take advantage of all video analytics has to offer. It is with these things in mind that has driven market acceptance of VCA technology in the security industry.
V
factors need to be made. Computer processing power has very much had a direct impact on video analytics, much in the same way it affects computers. Limited processing power means limited means to process algorithms. That is why improved processing power has helped drive change in video analytics. “The locomotive pulling the train of change in VCA technology, in our view, has been the growth in ubiquitous
processing power, allowing increasingly more sophisticated algorithms to be applied to the problems at hand,” said Eric Olson, VP of Marketing at PureTech Systems. “The advances in computing power, including using cloud computing, have opened up the opportunity to analyze mass quantities of video with better algorithms and much faster real-time.” Improved processing power and more CPU availability also allows for more accurate computing, according
DRIVING CHANGE VCA started as a technology focused around perimeter security. While some companies such as SightLogix still focus on outdoor perimeter security, for which VCA was first intended, the use of video analytics has permeated many other applications. Now, VCA can influence almost every aspect of surveillance. However, in order to do that, improvements and changes, not only to the technology itself, but to outlying
52
APR 2014
▲Eric Olson, VP, Marketing, PureTech Systems
▲Steve Viegas, Director, OEM Sales, IntelliVision Technology
edge-based video analytics in network cameras is one way network camera manufacturers could add a competitive advantage, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets.
Growth
to Steve Viegas, Director of OEM Sales at IntelliVision Technology. Additionally, increased processing power has also helped big data processing, according to Shiliang Pu, R&D Director of Hikvision Digital Technology, which has facilitated “video surveillance transit from traditional passive surveillance to intelligent proactive surveillance, significantly helping to save on overall labor force, cost and time, and increase both security and non-security values.” Increased use of IP networks, as well as improved picture resolution, has also contributed to change in the VCA market. “The picture material, its quality, and its resolution have increased significantly over recent years. Due to the increased usage of IP networks, it has become easier and easier to access whatever picture content is required, and this is normally already provided in digital format,” said Frank Brandtner, Head of Administrative Product Management at Geutebruck. Another company that
QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
highlighted improved picture quality as a key factor in VCA improvement is Aralia Systems. “As higher spec cameras begin to fill the market, end users will want to exploit them to their full potential and run more sophisticated video analytics,” said Eleanor Wright, Product Development Executive of Aralia Systems. Continued growth and maturation of the video surveillance market was also pointed out as a key point for change in the VCA market. The global market for video surveillance equipment is expected to grow by more than 12 percent in 2014 alone, according to IHS Technology. This double-digit growth provides a huge market for the growing trend of edge-based analytics. IHS forecasts the market for video surveillance devices with chargeable VCA to expand in 2014, particularly in applications where end users need advanced and reliable analytics. Furthermore, as competition in the video surveillance market continues to get stiffer, embedding
In truth, there has not been much in terms of new and innovative technology when it comes to video analytics. Instead of a significant amount of new innovations, the VCA market has seen a vast number of subtle improvements in technology, which has upped the quality of the technology and made it more reliable. “It is more a case of incremental improvements in accuracy and reduction in price. It is like cars and TVs: they are significantly better and cheaper than 10 years ago, but the gains are made in the form of a large number of small improvements,” said Geoff Thiel, CEO of VCA Technology. Despite the lack of “new” innovations, there are still “newer” avenues that VCA vendors are exploring. The utilization of metadata, literally data about data, is becoming increasingly popular by VCA vendors. “By employing metadata, it’s now possible to apply new analytics rules to recorded video in an attempt to find, for example, any blue cars that exited the parking lot between seven and nine in the evening last week,” said Shahar Ze’evi, Senior Product Manager at Tyco Security Products. The use of metadata, according to Olson, is only limited by our imaginations. “Once we have a notion of the content of the video, all kinds of applications can be written to slice and dice the data in different ways for different purposes to translate data into useful information,” said Olson. The introduction of 3D video analytics is another point of interest. By utilizing a stereo camera — a camera with two or more lenses with a separate sensor,
www.asmag.com
53
VERTICAL MARKET
Global Gaming Market Changes After Recession
BY MICHELLE CHU
68
APR 2014
he global casino market was deeply impacted in the first few years of the global recession. Meanwhile, given the fact that online gambling started to expand at the same period, the physical casino market was even more severely compromised. The US casino market has been hit hard, and the revenues have been declining for several years. In 2010, revenues in the US casino market were flat, rising by merely 0.2 percent, which was the first increase since 2007, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Global Gaming Outlook report. EMEA, on the other hand, took the hardest hit during the last five years — not only as a result of economic downturn, but also demanding government regulations, such as a ban on smoking in European countries and limiting casinos to operate in remote areas in Russia only. Despite the fact that these two major casino markets were terribly hurt, growth can still be seen in some other areas, especially APAC and Latin America. APAC is projected to increase from US$34.3 billion in 2010 to $79.3 billion in 2015, at a CAGR of 18.3 percent. In 2008, APAC overtook EMEA as the second largest regional casino market; and earlier this year, Macau announced that its total revenue in 2013 was seven times that of Las Vegas, rising as the largest casino
T
Zebedo Pena, Director, Market Development and Sales, Gaming, Genetec
▲The rise of racinos throughout the eastern states, a combined race track and casino, has also stimulated the casino industry’s growth.
market in the world. According to Zebedo Pena, Director of Market Development and Sales at Genetec, “Because the North American casino market experienced a challenging past five or six years, investments in upgraded or new IP-based video surveillance systems were slower, despite the fact that the largest casino market in the world is still North America now. This is finally changing, and we are optimistic to see market movement. Internationally, many people are estimating that in 2015, the Macau market will overtake the entire North America casino market, which presents a good market for modern, IP-based security installations to assure casino guests have a safe and positive experience.”
Fernando Pires, VP, Sales and Marketing, Morse Watchmans
Riki Nishimura, GM, Visual Security Solutions Division, Professional Solutions Company, APAC, Sony Electronics
US CASINO MARKET CONTINUES TO RECOVER Despite the previous downturn, the casino industry in the U.S., in brief, has largely recovered compared to a few years ago and still remains the biggest market in the global casino industry. Not only are previously delayed projects slowly being carried out again, an increasing number of casino projects can be seen in more local areas, especially east of the Mississippi River. Expansion of newly built casino projects still can be seen in some new jurisdictions that have allowed the gaming business to set up shop in order to tax casino revenues to make it through during the recession. Another factor that supported the recent US gaming industry growth is the boom of Indian gaming. Indian gaming was not as severely impacted by the recession — in fact, the total gross gaming revenue of Indian gaming has been growing steadily since 2003, and only suffered a minor setback during the economic downturn. The revenues generated in 2012 are the highest ever and marks the third consecutive year of growth of gross gaming revenues since the recession in 2008, as released by the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). “Interestingly, expansion and
www.asmag.com
69
VERTICAL MARKET
Casinos Looking for Extra Values from Network Video Surveillance
T
wealthy players during retrofiting. “Almost all are migrating to hybrid or pure IP. New ‘greenfield’ installs might be pure IP but most are expansions or retrofits, and those favor hybrids,” explained Mike Scirica, President of WavestoreUSA. “Casinos are more likely to make new investments at high budgetary figures; however, slow to update existing systems — they generally try and maximize their investment over long periods of time and update as necessary. Casinos look
Peter Francis, Regional Manager, Asia and Middle East, Gallagher Security
Joshua Phillips, Director of Marketing, Enterprise and Critical Infrastructure, Video Intelligence Solutions, Verint Systems
BY THE a&s EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
he mindset of casino operators toward new technologies is generally more conservative, compared to other market sectors. Casinos are reluctant to risk adopting new surveillance technology until its reliability is proven, due to the costs involved in shutting down VIP tables or alienating
74
APR 2014
for systems that can be upgraded and modernized over time rather than invest in a system that will become insufficient for their security requirements and have to be replaced [if this information is known at the time of purchase],” according to Kim Loy, VP of Global Marketing and Chief Product Officer, DVTel. But, just like other sectors, none of the casino operators want to fall behind either, even though the latest security technology is very expensive. “It is easier to promote IP-based surveillance in Western and Northern Europe, as these are two of the markets that started to go for IP-based products in the very beginning. They want to be able to record high resolution pictures, and easily distinguish the color of the chips; therefore, they are very willing to adopt new technology such as 60fps, etc. in their casinos,” explained Tom Li, Technical Support Manager of Europe at Hikvision Digital Technology. It does not matter if it is a retrofit project
looking for upgrades and migration to IP-based, or a newly-built casino considering adopting full-IP surveillance, all the casinos’ operators want to make sure that other than high-resolution images, the investment in network video surveillance can bring them extra values. As a matter of fact, there are some new security technologies, such as video analytics and video-centric integrated systems that are about to be used by some current casinos, along with the adoption of network video surveillance.
How IP Storage Benefits Casinos
Daniel Lin, Sales Director, Qsan Technology
“Casinos undertake high volume financial activities that are similar to financial organizations, but in an entertainment context. A lot of criminal interests such as money laundering and cheating are aroused and casinos need to protect themselves from the vulnerabilities and they are more willing to adopt new technologies such as casino chips, casino cheques, currency exchange, employee complicity, high-end surveillance systems, etc. IP SAN best fits into video surveillance application for the perfect balance among cost, manageability, and performance. Due to the increasing need for longer retention time and higher resolutions for video recordings, it’s becoming crucial to provide high performance IP SAN with scale-up capacity,” mentioned Daniel Lin, Sales Director of Qsan Technology.
ANALYTICS Since high-resolution pictures are widely available now, casino operators have the option to adopt analytics software into their surveillance systems. “This could involve using license plate recognition to flag when high rollers have arrived at the casino, or point-of-sales analytics to
monitor employees and card-monitoring technology to manage tables, dealers, and gamblers, which could greatly reinforce casinos’ ability to manage the business,” suggested Joshua Phillips, Director of Marketing of Enterprise and Critical Infrastructure of Video Intelligence
Solutions at Verint Systems. Similar to license plate recognition, analytics can be used to identify card values and suits with a high degree of accuracy, John Katnic, VP of Global Gaming at Synectics commented. “A casino operator could use video to
www.asmag.com
75
Companies in This Issue Products of the Month • EVERFOCUS • EYESPYFX • MOBOTIX • PELCO BY SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC
Viewpoint • MILESTONE SYSTEMS
Special Feature
TECHNOLOGY • HONEYWELL SECURITY • HUPER LABORATORIES • INTELLIGENT SECURITY SYSTEMS • INTELLIVISION TECHNOLOGY • LUXRIOT • MARCH NETWORKS • MOBOTIX • PURETECH SYSTEMS • VIDICORE (RIVA) • SIGHTLOGIX • SYNECTICS • VCA TECHNOLOGY
• ALLEGION • ARES SECURITY CORPORATION • IHS TECHNOLOGY Vertical Market • MEMOORI BUSINESS • ARECONT VISION INTELLIGENCE • MAGAL SECURITY SYSTEMS • DVTEL • GALLAGHER SECURITY • GENETEC Product • HIKVISION DIGITAL Exploration TECHNOLOGY • 3XLOGIC • MORSE WATCHMANS • AGENT VIDEO • NORTH AMERICAN VIDEO INTELLIGENCE • QSAN TECHNOLOGY • AIMETIS • SONY ELECTRONICS • AMERICAN DYNAMICS • SOUTHWEST (TYCO SECURITY SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS PRODUCTS) • SYNECTICS • ARALIA SYSTEMS • VERINT SYSTEMS • DVTEL • WAVESTOREUSA • GEUTEBRUCK • HIKVISION DIGITAL
Next Issue Product Exploration HD-OVER-COAX
Vertical Market LEISURE/HOSPITALITY
Special Feature KEY COMPONENTS (CHIPSET & OTHERS)
www.asmag.com
109