IHS: Rapid changes coming to historically slow moving access control market

May 12, 2014
Market for EWC service and maintenance also poised for strong growth

Although the market for electronic access control has historically been a slow moving one when compared to video surveillance, IHS believes that the industry is poised for rapid changes in the short to medium term.

In a research note released last week, Blake Kozak, IHS’ senior analyst for security and building technologies, said that among the factors driving changes in the market include the arrival of many new entrants such as Axis Communications, new end user demand from the residential space and continued adoption of new technologies like wireless electronic locks.

IHS is predicting that the market size for electronic access control will top $3.5 billion globally in 2014, driven by returning growth in the Americas, as well as emerging regions such as the Middle East and Africa.

“For hardware, much of the growth will be driven by electronic locks which can either be offline-standalone, data on card or wireless-online. Wireless continues to see strong growth as end users begin to trust and understand the technology. Additionally, IT departments are more involved than in the past and will likely continue to be heavily involved and in some cases, may begin to manage and dictate access control installations,” wrote Kozak.  

The research firm also said it expects that open standards will begin to take shape for the access control industry in 2014, despite the fact that widespread adoption may take a few more years.And although trends such as NFC have continued to garner interest, adoption of the technology hasn’t been as extensive as originally expected.

“According to IHS, NFC has not yet been installed for access control purposes and some manufacturers are beginning to look toward other options such as Bluetooth low energy (BLE). Lastly, IP devices are seeing more uptake and are being pushed closer to the edge, allowing for more remote management and reducing installation costs,” added Kozak.

Service and Maintenance to Increase on EWC Equipment

In addition to the aforementioned report on the access control market, IHS also released a report last week forecasting growth of service and maintenance revenues for explosives, weapons and contraband (EWC) detection equipment.

Because of funding shortages in North America and Europe, IHS expects end users will prolong the life of EWC detection devices they have in place. As a result, the research firm expects the global service and maintenance market for EWC, which was worth $1.06 billion in 2013, to increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.1 percent from 2013 to 2018.

“The biggest surprise was the forecasted 7.4 percent CAGR in the cargo and vehicle market. IHS estimated the cargo and vehicle service and maintenance market to be the largest of all product types (Baggage and Parcel, Cargo and Vehicle, Hold Baggage, People Screening, Multi-application), in 2013 worth $358.2 million. IHS found that large gantry X-ray equipment and mobile cargo screening vehicles required increased levels of service and maintenance due to the large number of moving parts and the complexity of the technology,” wrote IHS Analyst Jared Bickenbach.   

 “Overall, the global service and maintenance market is forecast to see faster growth starting in 2016 and continuing through 2018. IHS expects the transition to Computed Tomography (CT) hold baggage screening equipment in the aviation market to be the main contributor to this increase. CT hold baggage equipment carries a significantly higher cost compared to single or multi-view X-ray equipment and IHS found that service and maintenance cost were also higher compared to other types of hold baggage equipment.”