Spot the fishy incidents — 10 perspectives from the
industry
Panoramic fisheye cameras have seen fast growth in the surveillance
industry. With the key feature in surround view monitoring and the advantage in
reduction of installation cost, they are becoming the popular adoption in
security system. With a promising market ahead, differentiation of product and
market strategy from competitors is the way for major manufacturers to think
when planning next moves.
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| EU and US regions |
We here presented 10 worldwide providers from the security
industry – VIVOTEK,
Sony, Axis Communications,
Hikvision
Digital Technology, Samsung
Techwin,
Dahua Technology, Merit LILIN,
EverFocus
Electronics,
Panasonic System Networks & AMG
System.
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| Asia regions |
VIVOTEK｜Taiwan
“The 360-degree cameras can be especially ideal
for intercom or retail applications. Retail stores especially demand for a
cost-effective and comprehensive surveillance system, which dissuades
shoplifting and pickpocketing,” said Steve Ma, Executive Vice President of
VIVOTEK. “With several unique features and wide surveillance coverage that can
be delivered by the 360-degree fisheye camera under complicated environment,
retail stores tend to deploy 360-degree fisheye camera the most.”
“The deployment of 360-degree fisheye cameras
could be financially and technically beneficial. It is worth to note that just
one 360-degree fisheye camera can deliver the same coverage as 6 to7 cameras
that have been used in the stores. With the installation of panoramic models,
the total number of cameras needed by the clients can be significantly
reduced,” explained Ma.
VIVOTEK has made our fisheye camera as a
pro-active smart sensor through our superior algorithms, making fisheye cameras
performing intelligently, like people counting, field detection, trip wire,
according to Ma. “With the technology evolvement and rising awareness of
cost-effective solutions, the prevalent adoption of 360-degree fisheye camera
for wide open area surveillance in the following years is foreseen. In
addition, a 360-degree fisheye camera with intelligent capacity is undoubtedly
to be a trend.”
Sony｜Japan
“With its multiple security benefits and
associated cost savings for end users, it is easy to understand why the
360-degree security camera has been highlighted by IHS as one of the key
drivers for the video surveillance camera market in 2014 – which is slated for
double-digit growth this year. Sony also recognizes the importance of these
cameras in addressing the ever changing security environments of the modern
world, and will continue to advance in the 360-degree security camera market
with our end users,” said Riki Nishimura, General Manager of Visual Security
Solutions, Professional Solutions Company (PSAP) at Sony Electronics Asia
Pacific.
AXIS｜Sweden
“According to IHS Research, sales of network
video start to overtake analog in 2014 due to the powerful functions of
advanced video processing and analytics. This is especially true in the
retailer sector, as 360-degree cameras allow for an overview of all activities
in a given area while being affordable for users having to work with
tight-budgets in for example the retail and education sectors,” said Petra
Bennermark, Product Manager at Axis Communications.
“In a study by Axis Communications, more than half
(58%) of UK retailers are planning to migrate from analog to network video in
order to integrate network cameras with business intelligence (BI)
applications. BI application integration was considered the most
significant reason for UK retailers to move to network video.”
HikvisionDigitalTechnology｜China
“Normally, SMB users may tend to use
entry-level fixed cameras instead of panoramic cameras, since the latter are
mainly targeted for middle-to high-end project use, and price are relatively
higher. Therefore, Hikvision plans to introduce economical mini panoramic
cameras to penetrate into SMB market in the middle of this year,” said Adler
Wu, Product Marketing Manager of Hikvision Digital Technology.
“And for Hikvision, we forecast to increase at
an annual growth rate of 60%-70% [before 2017], according to our company
strategy, product planning and the market development. Panoramic camera would
develop in two different ways in the future, one for SMB adoption and the other
for high-end application. With more and more manufacturers joining in the
competition, the price of panoramic camera may decrease to a level, allowing
the cameras to enter SMB market; for high-end use, due to the wide coverage of
panoramic camera, more images/ scenes could be achieved compared to common IP
camera. Therefore, how to well make use of this advantage could be a
breakthrough to eventually benefit the end users.”
“Considering lots of manufacturers have
introduced their panoramic cameras, it becomes very important for us to provide
innovative products to differ from the others at this stage.”
SamsungTechwin｜Korea
“360-degree
cameras are increasingly being specified for projects where there is a
requirement to monitor activity 24/7 in environments such as banks, offices,
retail, transportation and warehouses. The advantage they offer is that a
single 360-degree observational camera is all that might be needed to
efficiently and cost effectively covers a whole area where a much larger number
of standard cameras might normally be required, to avoid any blind spots,”
suggested Tim Biddulph, Product Manager of Samsung Techwin Europe.
Samsung Techwin's 360 degree camera is part of
the company's extensive range of IP network cameras. Tim Biddulph emphasizes
the importance of fully understanding clients' needs first, before endeavoring
to persuade them to migrate to 360-degree or other products and technologies.
Dahua｜China
Fisheye cameras are mostly deployed for indoor
surveillance, getting more and more popular in public buildings, pointed out by
Peter Pan, Product Manager from Dahua. Seen as the economic choice for security
system deployment, one single fisheye camera can achieve wider coverage of
monitoring than other non-panoramic camera.
This is even true to public units, hotels, and
schools. They often have budget concerns; theses users are not too demanding in
security image details while their purpose of surveillance system is mainly for
prevention, Pan suggested.
“At present, many surveillance camera
manufacturers have proposed new thoughts of design,” he continued. Currently,
end users start to use 360-degree cameras and PTZ speed domes altogether,
featuring both wide-coverage and detailed monitoring views. The 360-degree
cameras are going to become an essential solution in surveillance systems,
according to Pan.
“Although fisheye cameras are expecting fast
growth in the near future, the 360-degree cameras won't become the majority in
surveillance camera market due to their own pitfalls such as low pixel counts
at the edge of images, and image distortion,” explained Pan.
However, as Pan mentioned, the technical
improvement related to these pitfalls has been essential to manufacturers in
the industry. Meanwhile, some manufacturers have started enhancing camera
capacities in IR support for advanced day/night monitoring.
MeritLILIN｜Taiwan
“Fisheye cameras are all about seeing
everything in a scene more efficiently than with multiple cameras; therefore,
providing security managers the ability to cover an entire scene in a logical
way without gaps of coverage is prominent,” according to Chris Hsu, Global
Marketing Manager at LILIN. “LILIN panoramic IP camera is an ideal choice for
open-ended lobby areas such as entrances, exits, and lobbies.”
“The current leading technology trend in global
market is ‘less is more'. We expect cameras can cover a range of area such as
360-degree fisheye camera is an ideal all-in-one product will definitely
continue to shine in the following years.”
EverFocusElectronics｜Taiwan
Douglass Wang, Deputy Project Manager of
EverFocus Electronics, emphasized the importance of fisheye and speed dome
cameras' synergy, combining advantages from both types of cameras, and adding
value for wide-area surveillance without compromising the optimal image quality.
“The end users can finely utilize pan, tilt, and zoom functions on speed dome
to keep tracking region of interest, while monitoring the entire area through
360-degree camera view, more importantly, without any blind spot,” Wang said.
As panoramic camera is favored to be applied
with speed dome in areas such as airport, warehouse, public space, and parking
lot, end users might hesitate due to complicated cameras configurations.
“EverFocus provides end users a 4-steps image calibration which dramatically
reduces configuration time,” Wang highlighted.
Panasonic｜Japan
It is
forecast that a growth of more than 50% will be seen in the panoramic camera
market – more than current security market trend expectation – as higher image
resolution will expand the deployment and acceptance of fisheye camera in more
vertical markets, commented Akihito Akiyama, product planning manager at
Panasonic.
According to Mr. Akiyama, Panasonic has
strengthened its 360-degree cameras by continuingly progressing at technology
development, including dewarp, super dynamic function, and vandal resistance.
With the solid technical base, the 360-degree cameras are capable for
high-resolution image quality with even edges, stable performance under various
lighting environments, and last but not least, durability.
AMG｜UK
Fisheye
cameras, compared to other types of cameras, offer a number of key advantages —
monitoring of surround view without blind spot and reduction of installation
cost and work — whilst still keeping high-resolution recording quality, David
J. Myers, Technical Director of AMG, highlighted. AMG have noted that
360-degree fisheye cameras are becoming the mainstream when analog CCTV is
gradually replaced by IP CCTV systems.
“We are not sure that there is one particular
market deploying the most 360 degree cameras. In the USA, the retail market is
strong. And transportation is a natural market for wide-angle camera when one
single camera can cover whole view of a bus, or a train carriage,” Myers said.
“Banks, schools, colleges, museums, and public buildings are also the target
market of 360-degree cameras. So are car parks and outdoor perimeters.”
-I would
like to thanks Michelle Chu from Asmag
