The emergence of IP-based cameras is allowing the video surveillance industry to go beyond its traditional use as a security tool and move to new applications such as transportation, retail, government, and even home networking.
According to a new study by research firm iSuppli, this market expansion is being helped "considerably by the idea of networked video surveillance, which allows for greater flexibility, field upgradeability, increased automation, and more intelligence to be incorporated into the overall system."
Because of this, the report said IP cameras will experience continued growth in surveillance, displacing existing Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras with modern technology that can be networked into larger security systems.
Similarly, surveillance Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are transitioning into networked devices, said Mark Kirstein, vice president of multimedia content and services at iSuppli.
The iSuppli report said it predicts 2011 will be the first year that IP cameras will overtake CCTV cameras as the dominant equipment in video surveillance.
Kirstein said he also expects to see the development of a consumer IP camera market, with telecom operators expected to offer IP video surveillance as a value-added consumer broadband service.
Global video surveillance camera revenue is forecast to grow to more than $9 billion by 2011, maintaining a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.2% up from $4.9 billion in 2006, the report indicated. Meanwhile, video surveillance unit shipments will more than double to 65.7 million units in 2011, rising at a CAGR of 17.1% from 29.8 million in 2006.