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because AI and Machine Learning open a whole new scale of possibilities, solutions, and integrations in and beyond security. At, for example transportation clients like airports, we see that our clients are enormously challenged to keep their operations running whilst challenged on employees and being confronted with much higher passenger quantity. This as an example drives demand for clever VMS security solutions. Security managers in our markets are challenged to do more with less resources. We at Milestone Systems have great solutions to fulfil that market trend,” says Beernink. “Over the past twenty years, we have been through tsunamis, memory factory fires in Japan, recessions, and presidential elections. As we continue to challenge ourselves to deliver more platforms to the market, such as the Q4 2022 release of our Allin-One NVR and Deepstor high-availability external storage, it will allow us to widen our brand globally,” Burgess said.

Despite the fact that the security industry is back on the path of growth, many still believe that in the coming years a series of challenges will ultimately cause some corrections that will affect this growth in the market.

“The world market for video surveillance hardware and software is forecast to grow 11.7 percent in 2022. It is forecast that economic problems will impact both public and private spending on video surveillance equipment in 2023. At the same time, inflationary pressures will persist. The world market for video surveillance hardware and software is forecast to grow 6.4 percent in 2023,” Woodhouse and Cropley said.

“In the first half of the year, our overseas business still maintained a rapid growth, thanks to the company’s years of deeprooted overseas efforts. It also continued to promote business localization strategies, and improved the global supply chain and various supporting systems. Business opportunities in Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East are relatively optimistic; but there are also regions with relatively weak growth. Overseas businesses will continue to face regional factors, inflation and other objective conditions, but the global market is vast, with opportunities and challenges coexisting, and there is still growth potential in the long run,” says Fu

Inflation concerns, supply chain challenges, and instability in global energy markets is all causing businesses to pause many new security investments until they can see what the final impacts could be on their budgets and bottom lines. This does offer opportunities for security vendors to work that much closer with their existing customers in order to identify ways that they can augment existing solutions already in use.

A surge in demand, as well as the aftermath of regional conflicts, have triggered a major supply chain crisis. This has also partially contributed to out-of-control, across-the-board inflation in a range of areas, from energy to food to consumer products. To curb inflation, interest rates have been hiked to the highest in years, raising the spectre of recession. Indeed, the world we knew pre-COVID has changed, and, despite a return to growth in security, the abovementioned challenges bode not so favorably for the industry in the coming year.

As mentioned, the security industry is now faced with certain challenges, one being the worst supply chain crisis in decades. “As with many other companies, we have been affected by supply chain issues. Longer lead times led to slower growth than expected in 2020 and 2021. As we now are starting to see improvements in our supply chain, we are expecting to return to double-digit growth,” Mauritsson said.

Of all the component shortages, semiconductor shortages were particularly severe. This, then, has produced ramifications for security players. “Restrictions on movement due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in demand for consumer electronics. People required laptops to work from home and for home-schooling and spent more of their income on home entertainment. All this equipment required semiconductors causing huge growth in demand for them. Video surveillance equipment vendors were just one group competing for supply of semiconductors,” Woodhouse and Cropley said.

“As far as components, one of the hardest hit technologies was in chips for any type of processor for analytics, intelligence functions, or edge capabilities. These were high in-demand solutions from all customers, so securing components in a timely manner became a key differentiator for projects pitched and won over the last year. Security vendors who were able to diversify their supply chains to secure these components and not feel the impact of adjusted logistical

Geopolitical conflicts in certain parts of the world have also taken a toll on security players. “The ongoing geopolitical issues that we see is of course causing concern and uncertainty. For instance, we have, as did many other companies, suspended our business operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine,” Mauritsson said. The specter of potential new data privacy regulations globally also continues to impact many new analysis and intelligence capabilities across the security industry. Because of this, vendors must build any new solutions with the inherent privacy features already mandated in other regions or countries or have the inherent flexibility in their solution design that they can make quick changes in order to meet any new requirements put before them.

routes globally found themselves to be the ultimate winners,” VanZandt said.

Inflation is also now affecting a range of industries including security. “The price of video surveillance equipment is now being impacted by inflationary pressures in the wider economy. With utility prices, labor costs and raw material costs all rising quickly, video surveillance vendors will be forced to pass on cost increases to their customers in the form of equipment price increases. The average price of a network camera is forecast to increase in 2023,” Woodhouse and Cropley said.

Amid the price increase, security players had to re-strategize and think of ways to retain customers. “Inflation has caused costs to rise across the board and security technology components were not an exception to this. Many vendors and integrators did have to increase their prices in order to counter this, but they turned towards offering more flexible payment models for customers, as many projects did have longer timelines than they typically would,” VanZandt said, adding much of the industry focus has turned towards enhancing the overall customer experience including offering more personalized service models.

As for security trends for next year, AI, edge computing, cloud and cybersecurity will continue to dominate. Meanwhile, multi-dimensional perception will be another development to look for.

“From Hikvision’s perspective, multi-dimensional perception will be another big trend that will enable the security industry to go to the next level. Beyond visible light imaging, we see more perception capabilities, like radar, thermal imaging, x-ray screening, temperature measuring, humidity sensing, and gas leak detection that are being added to security devices and systems, making them more powerful. We are extending our machine perception technologies to the full electromagnetic spectrum, and have developed innovative products and applications that pick up X-rays, infrared rays, millimeter radar waves, sound waves, and temperature variations,” says Zhang. n