Last month in SDM we offered an outlook for 2020 for the security industry. This month begins our annual State of the Market article series to help you strategize about the types of products and services your company will offer to the marketplace. The cover story, “State of the Market: Video Surveillance,” is the first in the series of articles about the current viability and potential for future sales in four main technology categories: video surveillance, access control, security and smart home (with monitoring), and fire alarm. 

In the article, which begins on page 34, Contributing Writer Maggie Shein writes, “The video surveillance market is ripe with opportunity. Many security integrators and manufacturers realized strong revenues for 2019 and are even more optimistic for 2020. A number of factors, including easier deployment, maturing technology and open, customized systems are making it easier for integrators to meet demand from technically savvy end users wanting to upgrade legacy systems or use surveillance to meet their security and operational needs.”

The author writes that many end users are showing an increase in security knowledge and tech savviness, which is fueling growth in revenues from video surveillance. “In this market in general, people are more educated and savvy and that bodes well for us as an industry,” says Ian Siemer, vice president, product and marketing, OpenEye. 

Stuart Rawling, vice president of market strategy at Pelco, agrees, saying, “End users are way more aware of technology today.” That education and user expectation will translate, says Rawling, into making 2020 a year where end users will focus on using the capabilities of their systems and using them in ways that are more efficient.

Two very useful pieces of this article are “Government Developments Affecting the Video Surveillance Market” with SIA’s Jake Parker, on page 35; and “How the DIY Craze Is Affecting Integrators,” on page 42. The latter sidebar states, “According to a December 2019 report from Parks Associates, 36 percent of Americans intending to purchase a security system prefer self-installed systems. That’s up from 29 percent in 2012, and 18 percent in 2007 — which means you can almost expect the trend to continue growing, and fast.”

We hope you benefit from this article and others in this issue. If you would like to be part of future articles in our State of the Market series, by being interviewed, please contact SDM’s Managing Editor Karyn Hodgson at hodgsonk@bnpmedia.com.