While the R&D efforts of most video surveillance companies in recent years has involved bringing new products to the market leveraging IP technology, there remains a substantial portion of the industry that relies on analog video for their security needs. Many of these analog CCTV users also have no plans to migrate to network video anytime soon, however, that doesn’t mean that they’re not looking to improve upon the technology they currently have in place. In fact, there is an ever growing segment of end-users that has opted to install Analog High Definition (AHD™) video products in their businesses as a way to obtain the resolution provided by today’s leading IP cameras but at a fraction of the cost.
Recently published statistics also tend to backup up this trend. IHS Markit projects the installed base of surveillance cameras in North America will grow from just 33 million in 2012 to nearly 62 million by the end of 2016. Additionally, the research firm said that high-definition CCTV cameras, which include AHD products, have seen a significant rise in adoption, growing from less than 1 percent of the installed base in 2012 to almost 13 percent in 2016.
One company that is leading the charge in this AHD revolution is South Korea-based Nextchip. Founded in 1997, Nextchip is a fabless semiconductor company that specializes in embedded vision applications ranging from video surveillance to automotive use cases. For the last 19 years, the company, which holds 47 patents related to image processing technology, has worked to develop a reputation of trust within the surveillance imaging market.
SecurityInfoWatch.com (SIW) recently sat down with John Coh, marketing manager of Nextchip, to discuss the company’s plans as it relates to the U.S market and what differentiates AHD technology from the other high-definition CCTV solutions.
SIW: Why have you decided to enter the U.S. market at this time? Does the market appear to be ripe for an analog high definition (AHD) like yours?
Nextchip: As a matter of fact, this is not our first time entering the U.S. market. We have a business reference which goes back to 2008. Due to the nature of our business, we closely work with manufacturers who adopt our image processing solutions into their CCTV product lineups. However, since China has risen as a manufacturing center for the electronics industry, our partnership with U.S. manufacturers had to migrate to China. Consequently, the U.S. market has become an end-user market for us.
There was also a great success of the HD analog market in mainland China in 2014. Driven by this growth momentum, Chinese manufacturers who have considerable market share in the U.S. actively began promoting analog products. This greatly helped create market awareness and brought buyers’ attention to AHD™, as a de-facto standard of HD analog. So, we saw it’s our time to engage in an active communication with U.S. buyers to promote our company’s technology and AHD™.
SIW: How does your AHD technology differ from other offerings on the market? How does it differ from HD-CVI or HD-TVI?
Nextchip: It is unfortunate that it hasn’t been well-known to the U.S. market yet, but as a matter of fact, AHD™ offers a highly optimized and integrated imaging solution for any analog-based CCTV systems.
First, AHD™ provides highly advanced imaging features for the camera side of a CCTV system. Since Nextchip is a vision technology company in essence, AHD™ comes with a wide range of image fine-tuning capabilities and sets of parameters with which the users can customize and enhance their own video products.
Secondly, AHD™ also provides system flexibility for DVRs. It supports advanced signal filtering features, cable-independent transmission and is an open-ended solution in terms of channel expansion, which gives AHD-users a great edge, allowing them to flexibly develop, manage and diversify their product lineup according to their product and marketing strategy. And this is what truly differentiates AHD™ from other formats.
SIW: In an industry that has already reached the tipping point with IP, why have you concentrated your efforts on improving the analog experience?
Nextchip: As an image processing company, we are not only focused on analog and IP technology within video surveillance, but also other verticals including automotive, consumer and industrial. As for the IP segment, we are currently providing our ISP (Image Signal Processors) to IP camera makers. Our ISPs enable a good combination with corresponding Codec by reducing noise factors and adjusting other degradations, since our ISPs can optimize image pipelines for bandwidth control.
As for our dedication to analog, it may be helpful to explain a little about our background. Before the invention of HD analog, analog transmission once faced a great challenge as it was required to migrate from SD over to HD resolutions. There was a problem related to CCTV system itself, however, Nextchip had solutions covering both the camera and DVR side. This gave us a great advantage as it provided us with a systematic approach to solve this “analog problem.”
As a result, we have achieved huge progress in the analog domain. AHD™ technology has so many possibilities and is currently being evaluated for automotive applications among many others. We thought it was imperative that we actively promote its potential to the U.S. market as well.
SIW: How do you make your best return-on-investment and total cost of ownership argument regarding your technology when compared to IP-centric video?
Nextchip: Simply put, analog-based products can be easily developed and implemented compared to IP-based products. Unlike IP products, analog products do not involve complicated network settings, VMS software or complex pricing policies. Whether it’s a certain place or area, analog products can be quickly installed and upgraded with relative ease. They provide robust and cost-effective imaging solutions for any given CCTV application. All this makes our analog solution a very reasonable and sensible choice in regards to an investment-and-return question.
SIW: What’s your go-to-market strategy in the U.S.? I assume you plan to go to market through the dealer/integrator channel?
Nextchip: Our first step is to mainly focus on marketing campaigns targeting our buyers. Currently, we have a quite extensive network of AHD-based manufactures that have strong ties with U.S. dealers and integrators. Thus, we came to a conclusion that we need to support our partners’ promotion efforts in the U.S. market through our marketing campaigns which are designed to positively influence the decision-making process of our buyers who would be interested in adopting AHD™.
So, our main objective in the U.S. will be to promote Nextchip and AHD™ technology. By doing so, we expect to create market awareness and stimulate market demand for analog-based products in the longer term.
SIW: What vertical markets do you believe should be taking a closer look at the advantages of AHD and how do you plan to help educate these end-users and their integrators as you enter the U.S. market?
Nextchip: Our solution can be used for virtually any kind of analog application related to image processing. AHD™ solutions offer highly integrated image features and high-resolution video transmission performance. It facilitates high-resolution image processing up to UHD with advanced features like 3D-NR, defog, WDR and the like. It also enables flexible CCTV system configuration with longer transmission distances.
As for end-user education, we plan not to be overly technical. Currently, we do manage training sessions for manufacturers, but they are heavily technical and thus we don’t see it as suitable for end-users. So, we shall mainly communicate with them through our online and offline marketing activities covering owned media and paid media. We have regularly participated in industry tradeshows, such as ISC West, since 2008. And we will make sure our end-users get prompt updates on our company’s new products and technologies through regular newsletters, website content and marketing collateral on social network services and YouTube. Lastly, we are in the process of developing a website dedicated to online training sessions called “Nextchip Technical Campus.” Actually, this is meant to be for developers, but it will be a good reference for our end-users as well.
SIW: What kind of benefits can both end-users and integrators expect to see as a result of using your AHD technology?
Nextchip: They can enjoy innovation in their analog products which offers unique value propositions that IP products do not cover. Our AHD™ solutions enable high resolution video transmission up to UHD in an existing coax infrastructure, simply by exchanging cameras and corresponding DVRs. Users do not have to invest in upgrading their infrastructure. So, AHD™-based products can be easily implemented, installed and upgraded.
Additionally, AHD™ solutions can offer real-time, uncompressed video transmission, which is critical for time-sensitive applications. Also, unlike IP-based products, analog products are free from the data security issues.
Lastly, AHD™-based systems could also work well with IP segments, thanks to the hybrid technology. So, in certain CCTV sub-systems, end-users or integrators could enjoy more flexibility, as they have combinations with analog and IP for their projects.
SIW: Do you plan to work with any other manufacturing partners as you make your push into the U.S.?
Nextchip: We already have good relationships with major CCTV manufacturers in China and Korea. They all have adopted AHD™ to their analog products. They also maintain analog lineups with other HD analog formats, but due to the rise of universal standards, the importance of interoperability between differing HD analog formats is increasing and thus, we plan to more actively work with them in this regard.
Ever since the emergence of HD analog, AHD™ is taking the lead in the segment. Now the market’s issue is with regards interoperability and high-resolution above QHD. AHD™ has solved all of these issues and is expected to meet the needs of the market. AHD™ is offering the market’s first real-time QHD solution and we expect to present UHD solution soon. Also, AHD™ was first to launch universal format without patent issues.
SIW: I understand Nextchip places a premium on R&D, can tell me what separates your R&D efforts from those of your competitors and how will customers benefit as a result of this?
Nextchip: Nextchip’s R&D efforts heavily involve vision technology. We are focusing on acquiring core vision technologies and AHD™ was one of those. Currently, we possess over 47 patents regarding image processing only.
Having a firm technical roadmap, we will develop and diversify our IP (intellectual property) portfolio for the vision processing domain. As our IPs evolve, we expect our customers will enjoy our solutions in a more highly integrated manner.
SIW: What kind of presence can your U.S. customers expect from you moving forward? Will you be attending any tradeshows or opening a U.S. office?
Nextchip: We have regularly participated in ISC West for the past nine years. We will also focus on online marketing campaigns for U.S. customers as well.
As a company with nearly two decades’ experience, we have established a broad business network comprised of sensor makers, IP & software providers and semiconductor companies in the U.S. We are having regular meetings with them as well.
Lastly, we are going to open a branch office in Detroit by end of this year for our automotive business.
