Feature

Top Video Surveillance Trends for 2018 – Drone Detection Technologies

Demand for professional video surveillance cameras has been growing quickly and is forecast to continue growing in 2018. It is estimated that less than 10 million surveillance cameras were shipped globally in 2006, which grew to over 100 million in 2016, and is forecast to make over 130 million during 2018.

Despite this increase in demand, the average price of cameras and other video surveillance equipment will continue to fall quickly. As a result, IHS Markit forecasts that in terms of US dollar revenues the world market for video surveillance equipment will grow at an annual rate of less than 6% in 2018.

It will be challenging for vendors to continue to grow revenues and margins, but there will be opportunities for well-placed vendors. For example, both the South East Asian and Indian markets are forecast to grow at higher than average rates. There is also great potential for the next generation of products powered by technologies like deep learning and cloud computing.

So, what will be the big stories during 2018? Deep learning, GDPR compliance and drone detection technologies are just some of the trends discussed in this eighth annual trends IHS white paper. The following articles are designed to provide some guidance on the top trends for 2018 in the video surveillance industry.

 


 


By –   Oliver Philippou

Drone Detection Technologies

In last year’s ‘Video Surveillance Trends for 2017’ white paper, IHS Markit identified the use of drones and robots as a growing technology for security applications. In reality the use of drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) for this purpose has not really taken off because of three main issues – legislation, battery life and cost.

However, the use of drones has emerged as a very real problem for perimeter security. For would-be intruders or unwanted observers using drones, the issues suffered by the commercial market do not apply. Consumer drones are readily available for just a couple of hundred dollars and flown by anyone with no prior training and without a license. Thus the problem of drones in restricted airspace such as near airports, critical infrastructure facilities, or above sports stadiums full of spectators, has become an increasing concern.

Given the large physical area that these restricted airspaces cover, simply being able to identify that a drone is nearby has proven challenging. However, IHS Markit expects that recent developments in drone detection technology mean that in 2018 anyone wanting to secure a perimeter will have to take into account the threat from above.

There are currently two main drone detection technologies:

Radio Frequency (RF) detection aerials: These products are used to detect, analyze and locate the RF used by the drone base station to communicate with the drone. The benefits of RF detection aerials are that they can detect and locate both the drone in the air and the person controlling the drone, in some instances even before the drone takes off. RF aerials are also able to detect over a much greater range than radar or video surveillance cameras. Additionally, RF aerials can potentially even interfere with the communication between the drone and the controller. However doing this can have unknown effects, such as the drone dropping out of the sky. The problem with RF aerials is that they are not particularly accurate at providing a specific location, nor are they able to provide video verification of a drone.

Radar: Ground surveillance radars are used for low-level aerial surveillance to detect and track small drones. They use a similar technology to air traffic control radar, but on a smaller scale, providing a shorter operating range than RF aerials. However, radar is significantly more accurate than an RF aerial, and therefore is well-suited to be paired with video surveillance cameras including PTZ cameras automatically to zoom in and follow targets. The downside of radar is that performance can be impacted by adverse weather (for example rain, snow, sand or dust). Radar-based drone detection systems tend to be more expensive than RF aerial systems.

Video surveillance alone is not considered an adequate detection technology. Object detection analytics can be used on a video surveillance camera for video verification and capturing a visual image of the potential threat. However, both RF aerials and radar can detect beyond the line of sight, and have nearly a 360-degree field of detection. Therefore many vendors are finding that combining all three technologies together offers the best chance of drone detection. The use of video has an important role to play in this emerging field of perimeter security.

 

IHS Analyses 

The A to I of Video Surveillance Terminology    By  – Jon Cropley

Big Differences between the Chinese Market and the Rest of the World  By –  Jon Cropley

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)   By – Josh Woodhouse

Video Surveillance Fault Tolerance   By – Josh Woodhouse

Forensic Video Analytics as a Service   By – Josh Woodhouse

The Evolution of Deep Learning in Video Surveillance   By –  Monica Wang

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