Editorial

At a trade show around the turn of the Millennium I heard a CCTV manufacturer confidently predicting the end of analogue “within five years”. If your only take on the CCTV industry was visiting trade shows and reading the trade magazines you might get the impression he was right and be thinking that digital had taken over almost completely. However, CCTV installers will know that the reality is quite different. Analogue systems in 2004 still account for 64 per cent of the total market value and are losing ground to digital at a more moderate rate than predicted (Sales of analogue systems in value terms will decline by a mere one per cent in 2004!). According to the latest report on electronic security (see page 64), in situations where basic monitoring is required, analogue systems have remained the most popular choice from 2000-2004 with analogue accounting for £166m worth of business against digital’s £92m.

Surprising really, when you consider how the odds are mightily stacked up against analogue ... the image quality after a few playbacks, the lower storage capacity, higher storage costs, the trouble of managing the tapes, the limitations on event recording, the fact that digital systems have tumbled in comparison ... the list could go on and on. But despite the fact that the industry would like to talk analogue out of existence, the fact is many end users do not have the extra funding for the digital option or are waiting to install digital systems when their financial situation improves.

It seems analogue will be around as long as cost is the deciding factor. (Similarly, who would have believed that in 2004 black and white cameras still accounted for £48m worth of business? ... “Yes, and what colour was the getaway car?”) Despite the fact that all the interesting technology – and interesting magazine articles – centre around digital, we’ll endeavour to make more effort in 2005 to reflect the market share.