Installer skills and knowledge

The research, conducted by Agility PR for Axis Communications at the IIPSEC exhibition, found that 36 per cent of visitors saw installer knowledge and skills as a key element of the future of IP security. Twenty six per cent of visitors were traditional CCTV distributors and installers.

The survey also showed a continuing trend for physical security buying decisions to move into the hands of a firm's IT director and team. Forty per cent of respondents now believe this is the case, up from 28 per cent a year ago. A third of respondents to the survey thought that security managers used to be more involved in the buying decision than they are today. Nearly two-thirds of show visitors saw remote monitoring via the internet as the key benefit of moving to IP surveillance, rising from 44 per cent a year ago. The second most significant driver for adoption of IP surveillance was the ‘use of existing network and computer infrastructure'.

Nearly a third of visitors believed "integration of physical security applications using IP" was the most significant technical development driving the adoption of IP surveillance in the past year.

A quarter believed that improvement in the quality and output of network cameras and other IP surveillance technologies is the key technical driver in the market.

Axis Communications (UK) MD Steve Gorski said: "This year's trends survey illustrates the positive trend towards more widespread adoption of IP surveillance. Technology developments like the near total availability of broadband and the convergence of different types of physical surveillance systems via the network are having a real impact on demand. However what is also clear is that we need to continue to educate the market about the benefits of the new technology and support our integrators and software developers effectively."

• IT product distributor Enta Technologies is predicting that IP surveillance will emerge as a major opportunity for networking resellers as a new wave of low-cost, easy to install cameras arrive on the market.

The company says it has recently taken on a number of IP-based surveillance products, "giving many systems integrators and retailers the opportunity to move into this exciting and rapidly growing sector of the market for the first time".