Milestone holds its Integration Platform Symposium events twice a year, allowing its partners to hear industry speakers, interact in workshops, take part in training and certification work, check out exhibits from manufacturers and other partners, and network with IP video systems integrators, resellers, distributors and hardware producers.
Attendees came from 30 different countries, and exhibitors included Milestone hardware and solution partners including ACTi, Agent VI, Axis, Cernium, CNL, IQinVision, JVC, Keeneo, Mate, Mobotix, OPAX, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Sanyo, Sony, Technology Associates, UDP Technology, Via:sys, and Vidient.
Held at the impressive and welcoming Marriott Copenhagen, the event kicked off with an opening address from Milestone CEO Lars Thinggaard – and which included a video from Milestone’s 10-year anniversary celebrations in February, set to the strains of U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’.
Big year for H.264
Following that James McManus from IMS Research provided some details of his company’s upcoming reports into IP video surveillance and video analytics, including prediction of compression standard H.264 making big headway in 2009, and the EMEA market for network video set to grow to $2.4 billion by 2012, at a compound annual growth rate of 38.9%.
He also estimated that sales of video servers would reduce 7.7% year on year. McManus said network cameras were likely to increase in price as they added additional features and functions, but that there would be downward price pressure at the low end of the market.
He also suggested that confusion about what video analytics – or ‘video content analysis’ – really is was hampering its uptake.
Kevin Marier of IPVS Magazine spoke about ‘Educating the Business’, and suggested integrators should focus on the value and opportunities that systems provide – what he described as the ‘long term view’. “Technology should be the servant, not the master,” he said.
Profitable storage
John Honovich of Ipvideomarket.info provided his insights on video analytics and the importance of open platform IP video. He said that one of the reasons for DVRs still dominating the marketplace is that onboard storage is very profitable for traditional manufacturers, and said there were two important questions to ask of anything claiming to include ‘video analytics’: Does it work work? And can an idiot set it up?
Honovich said the industry needed to advocate megapixel cameras as a driver towards IP surveillance – but to prove the features and advantages of megapixel and analytics before advocating them; and to collaborate and share online.
Jeff Kessler, managing director of Imperial Capital, and Thomas Kalling of Lund University, offered their own market analyses, from a high level and an integrator perspective respectively.
Camera future
Martin Gren of Axis discussed the future of network cameras. “The market is still 85 per cent analogue,” he said, “and we need to change this.” He agreed that H.264 compression would be important in the next year, and that technology would drive network video further – including local storage, better image quality, wide dynamic range and higher resolution.
“You don’t really get the benefit of network video by using a DVR,” he said. “We need to get that message out.” He also said Axis believes in the partnership model, citing his company’s work with analytics firms as an example of how best practice could be achieved.
Gren also talked about the Open Network Video Forum, or ONVIF, which is spearheaded by Axis, Bosch and Sony. He was asked about the potential clash with the PSIA, or the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance, which is headed up by Cisco and is looking at broader interoperability issues.
“We represent a lot of the cameras installed out there in the market,” Gren said.
“I’d be surprised if Cisco could drive it on their own. But we’re open and want a common standard.”
Feedback hungry
There were also interesting IP video case studies from Sherman Hall of the Atherton, California police department, and Mike McCormack from the University of East Anglia in the UK.
Milestone held Partner Program and product workshops on the event’s first afternoon. the product workshops, in particular, revealed a company keen to get feedback from its most valued partners.