High-end companies looking to play in wider markets, interoperability giving users more flexibility in product choice, and a booming list of video analytics partnerships: These were some of the trends I noticed on Day 2 of ISC West.
It's easy for me to get excited about the "latest and greatest" security products that I see on the show floor, but I always have to ask myself, "Is there a market for this product among security dealers, and if so, what does that market look like?" A few things that stood out to me at the show today were two companies that tend to make products that service the high end of the security market but are now expanding into the middle of the market.
First up was Mitsubishi Digital Electronics. They offer a variety of high-end DVRs with JPEG2000 compression, but their newest product is the DX-TL4U which is a DVR for small businesses looking to upgrade from analog video. This new DVR is Mitsubishi's first such offering targeted at small businesses.
DVTel, known for its high-end IP camera surveillance solutions, is also making a move toward the middle. They have launched their new "Value Series" line of Altitude network cameras, which are priced to compete with analog cameras. (DVTel also launched their Network Video Management Solution 5.1, which is their newest enterprise-level multimedia management system.)
While on the topic of IP, another big trend is interoperability. For example, take the new video network enterprise solution from American Fibertek, called V'nes (pronounced like the planet Venus). V'nes provides an intelligent network, yet its components can interface with other manufacturers' products-including whose cameras you can hook up to the system.
Another observation is that so many companies are partnering to develop products it's easy to lose track of who is working with whom. When I was in ObjectVideo's booth, Alan Lipton explained to me, "We're not a product. We're a feature." What he meant was that ObjectVideo's video analytics capabilities are being added to other products (as opposed to being sold as a finished product by ObjectVideo). In ObjectVideo's booth they advertised 16 companies that they have been partnering with. Similarly, OnSSI is partnering with increasing numbers of companies to provide their video analytics solutions.
Day 2 of the show was a whirlwind, but it's over now. We'll see what happens on Day 3. I'll keep you posted on new technologies that security dealers and integrators should be watching.
