There is no crisis in security - Security Essen 2008. The International Trade Show for Security and Fire Prevention took place in Essen between October 7 and 10. There were participating nearly 1000 companies, of which about 600 from Germany. In an era of crisis of exhibitions and financial and economic turbulence, it is an impressive number.
The fair in Essen is the second most prestigious event in European security industry - the No. 1 trade fair is recognized to be the IFSEC in Birmingham, taking place in spring.
The trade show in Essen confirmed the trends from Birmingham: strong market expansion of megapixel cameras, popular use of H.264 codec, and great development of software for image analysis.
A new thing is the emergence of IP cameras with the H.264 codec - Arecont, Hikvision (to date, manufacturers focused mainly on DVRs). Another new products are hybrid recorders, providing analog and digital channels, up to 16 + 16.
Network Video Recorders (NVR) have emerged as independent, but fully functional devices, so there is a chance that the dedicated devices will supplant PCs in IP CCTV applications in the future.
The number of software companies has also increased rapidly. Various needs of customers, as well as the lack of standards in the IP CCTV, makes it necessary to create software even for individual products.
However, this situation may change. The initiative taken in the spring of this year by Axis, Bosch and Sony - Open Initiative Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF) aims to coordinate the development of standards for video surveillance systems. The organization, presenting the idea in Essen, encouraged other manufacturers to join this initiative.