The siliconisation of surveillance cameras has had a great impact on the security industry, especially this year. The cost of complex megapixel cameras has decreased dramatically as this functionality is now available on chips. The camera industry has gone from innovating on the camera’s performance and functionality to acting more like the PC OEM business, and this siliconisation is driving industry commoditisation.
Commoditisation is levelling the competitive landscape as customers are not willing to pay for extra features that some companies provide as “premium” when adequate features are available from other companies. Siliconisation will continue to be an industry trend as companies may fall to the wayside if their economic models do not address end user value and value creation.
Now our industry will need to regroup and see where we can add value. Today, the increase in camera resolution and slow increments in which features and functionalities are added within the VMS are not producing the innovative benefits that they once did and that end users have become accustomed to expect.
Open standards approach
At Vicon, we see a way to increase innovation is working with open standards and collaborating in teams together with innovative partners and end-users. Offering free and uninterrupted access to our APIs and underlying code for some proven and tested camera drivers is a springboard for reigniting innovation at the edge.
At Vicon, we are implementing a standards-based approach to our business. We believe in protecting the end-customer and want our customers to have the freedom to choose a whole Vicon solution or to buy only the products that meet their needs.
 |
| Siliconisation has led to a significant decline in the cost of complex megapixel cameras |
Vicon’s new strategy works optimally when we work together as a team with our Partners. The new Vicon does not have a company-centric approach, but rather believes in an end-user approach in which we, as a team ecosystem, work to create dynamic end-user solutions that address real problems.
Giving end-user freedom of choice
Over the last couple of years, we have seen a lot of industry consolidation resulting in companies reverting to a traditional propriety behaviour while trying to lock up their customers in propriety solutions. We may see that you have to buy a full solution from one vendor in order to get the maximum benefit of their solution, such as optimised recording servers. I strongly believe that there is a need for end-users to have a market that drives towards fully open standards to deliver solutions that are state-of-the art and give the end-user freedom of choice to select what solution they need. Now it will be more about how you provide a service, than how you package your solution.
See the full coverage of 2015/2016 Review and Forecast articles here
