A report from IHS released today suggests that investment in mass notification systems (MNS) will “soar” in the aftermath of the tragic Boston bombing manhunt and the Sandy Hook massacre.
Mass Notification Systems can range from emergency help points — such as those often seen on train platforms — to giant, outdoor loudspeaker systems. They are designed to transmit warnings to thousands of people over a large area, and also to notify a specific group of people — parents of the children from a particular school, for example — of an imminent or ongoing threat.
Click here to view Figure 1.
IHS’ Paul Everett explains:
From Amber Alerts on television, to school warnings over the telephone on sexual predators, MNS mechanisms have become a fact of life for most Americans. The need for such systems has come to the forefront because of recent high-profile crimes and terrorist acts that have affected thousands of citizens. Because of this, organizations including commercial enterprises, educational establishments, governmental bodies and military operations all are expected to adopt various types of MNS in the coming years.
Spending in the MNS market is expected to increase from $1.6 billion in North America this year to $2.1 billion by 2017. The increase is driven by previous evidence that authorities and organizations have responded directly to threats through investment in MNS — after the killing of 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009 the Department of Defense recommended the implementation of MNS at all DoD sites, according to the IHS statement.
Commercial markets are the biggest market for MNS and also the fastest growing, presumably as organizations attempt to show their staff that they are maintaining their welfare in what at least appears to be an increasingly threatening North America.
The scenes in Massachusetts as the manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects was played out on live television news around the world are being linked by IHS in the release of their latest report suggesting that the fear of terror is the big driver in the MNS market.
In a climate of fear, the public is looking for reassurance from their government and from their schools and workplaces. A poll last month carried out by The New York Times and CBS News found that there was overwhelming support for video surveillance in public places following the Boston bombing.
The question they asked was:
Some people think installing video surveillance cameras in public places is a good idea because they may help to reduce the threat of terrorism. Other people think this is a bad idea because surveillance cameras may infringe on people’s privacy rights. What do you think?
Seventy-eight percent of people said it was a good idea, 16 percent a bad idea, while the remaining 6 percent were unsure. This confidence in surveillance was placed alongside 90 percent of those polled agreeing that Americans would always have to live with the threat of terrorism.
It’s a nervy time to live in the States, or indeed anywhere in the world, as the “terror” incident in Woolwich, London within the last day has shown, but clearly that fear is driving investment in security technologies.
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Here in the the States we do have exposure to a lot of Mass Notification Systems such as Amber Alerts and Silver Alerts but also University based notification systems that are used to broadcast important information to students such as information about campus incidents and lock downs. It is a sad world we live in where these things have become common place but really I think it cuts back on the misinformation that can build up in these situations as well. People are curious and want to know whats going on, its in our nature.
I’d have said that social media and 24hr news are a cheaper, more effective feed for such information, and to a degree I think this is true. But you make one excellent point which is the cutting back on misinformation. See the story from earlier this week on the ‘fire’ at a Muse gig.
I’d have said that social media and 24hr news are a cheaper, more effective feed for such information
@Robert Brown, true social media and 24hr news are a cheaper but they are not secure medium. For example we all know what happened to the stock market when AP twitter account was hacked. I think twitter is already addressing this problem by making twitter login two-step authentication.
I must have missed that story — the Associated Press’ Twitter was hacked? Just Googled it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21508660.
Well, indeed, social media security clearly then needs to be more secure and isn’t necessarily a fully effective alternative to MNS’, but then who’s to say the MNS are any more secure necessarily?
@ johnathonL I agree with your point about MNS cutting down on misinformation. As we learned with the Boston bombing incident, even reports from the mainstream media are not always correct, let alone social media. I subscribe to breaking news notifications from my local new station, so as soon as something happens there is a message in my inbox. In the past week I have received messages about school lockdowns because of police activity in the vicinity, road closures downtown because of suspicious packages being found, traffic accidents, and most recently a high speed chase that crossed two counties. It… Read more »
scarry reality of social media… like everything this could be used as weapon in propaganda wars or stock market manipulation…
I was discussing recently with someone from a major international newspaper about all the Twitter hacks going on. They said they felt left out that they hadn’t been hacked, as every other major paper had. Then they got hacked 🙂 It’s a big issue, that all of the major media are having to contend with and the dangers of misinformation are huge.
the problem this days we are dealing with un-friendly gov. using any tools available to wage a propaganda war on our way of life… in China Red Army have a whole hacker unit stationed in the city square block… Scary…