Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/31498
44 SUPPLIERS www.securitysystemsnews.com MARCH 2011 SECURITY SYSTEMS NEWS IMS looks at IP video door phones Potential add-on, upgrade or new business for installers By Martha Entwistle WELLINGBOROUGH, United Kingdom—It’s partly a security product and partly a lifestyle prod- uct, said Alastair Hayfield, research manager at IMS Research, but when a major European manufacturer dedicated half of its large booth at the Essen show to IP video door phones, IMS Research decided to take a look at the market. The product is typically a small box housing a camera that’s mounted near the front entrance to an apart- ment building or business. It enables apartment or business owners to see who’s at the front door before buzzing them in. The largest market for this prod- uct is Asia, said Emma Chapman, IMS research analyst, who wrote the recent IMS report. The market in Europe is smaller and in the U.S. is even smaller. It does well in places where there are a lot of multi-family dwellings, she said. Most of the major manufactur- ers are in China, and don’t have a presence in North America. The manufacturer who dedicated a large portion of the booth to the product is Germany-based Mobotix, a company that’s working to raise its profile in the U.S. [See story, page 43] Steve Gorski, GM Americas for Mobotix, said that the company wanted to “prominently highlight [its new T24 IP Door Station] solu- tion [at Essen] because it allows us to enter a new market, that being access control for small-to-medium businesses and high-end properties. The solution is unique because it is IP-based and provides a 180-degree image.” Gorski said the company believes North America is “primed for an IP- based solution that integrates access control and video surveillance. Using our hemispheric technology, the T24 captures a 180-degree panorama view of an entire entrance area. That means you can see who is at your door from all angles.” The North American market lead- er is Aiphone, which is introducing an IP solution in Q2 this year. Bradley Kamcheff, senior mar- keting specialist for Aiphone, said this was the “next logical step. It is what our customer base has been requesting for years.” Kamcheff said Aiphone’s dealer base is comfortable with IP tech- nology, but the Aiphone will offer classroom and online training for the new line. The series offers standard video entry security, door release and internal intercom, as well as bell scheduling for schools, call pri- oritization for emergency assistance, multi-zone paging for commercial and industrial applications, and other features as well. SSN Mobotix Continued from page 43 Mobotix can move to num- ber five within a couple years. What differentiates Mobotix, Gorski said, is its “decentralized approach” where the image pro- cessing takes place in the camera itself instead of on a central PC. Storage can also be done on the camera. “The PC is used for viewing and controlling the camera and not for analysis or recording,” Gorski said. “And the bottom line is that means [the cameras] use less bandwidth, fewer servers or less costly servers, and because it’s megapixel, you need fewer cameras.” Mobotix has made inroads in the education, municipal and government verticals, but Gorski says retail is its next frontier in the U.S. The company will be “announcing soon three or four small analytics—people counting, loitering, wrong direc- tion—that will be free for the end user,” he said. These analytics, combined with the company’s Q24 camera (which incorpo- rates hemispheric technology for a 360-degree image) are particularly well suited to retail applications, he said. SSN