Cloud-based services, integration with the hot video market, IT- and legacy-friendly options and more are expected to give integrators reason to celebrate in the 2014 access control market.
Someone once suggested that to get an invitation to a party you really wanted to attend you should offer to contribute something to the party. If the video market’s predicted strong year in 2014 (Read “State of the Market: Video” on www.SDMmag.com for reasons why) is the kind of “party” access control is hoping to attend, then the market has tapped into that principle, contributing a strong argument for security systems that integrate both video and access control. That integration is influencing the expectations for the access control market in 2014.
“A key development for the coming year will be the expansion of video and the ability to host video information and tie it to the access control solution,” says Chris Gilbert, president, Security Pros Inc., Jeffersonville, Ind., a Brivo dealer who expects his company’s access control division to grow approximately 60 percent this year after experiencing 45 percent growth in 2013. Across the industry, integrators reported a strong 2013 (see “Integrators’ Market Ratings Hit a High Note in 2013” on page 48) and they have even better expectations for 2014. See “Integrators Have High Expectations for Access Control in 2014,” to the left, where the percentage of integrators expecting a very good or excellent year rose to 36 percent, up 15 percentage points from last year.