The SecurityHive.com community voted during the summer of 2014 and selected the Physical Security and Video Surveillance industry’s Top 12 Influencers. – This Profile is one in the series of 12 making a difference in our industry
Fredrik Nilsson is the general manager for Axis Communications with responsibility for the company’s operations in North America since 2003. During that time, he has helped the company increase the revenue more than tenfold and has been instrumental in leading the industry shift from analog closed circuit television to network video.
Mr. Nilsson serves on the SIA (Security Industry Association) Board of Directors. He is a trusted industry speaker and has spoken at leading events such as Securing New Ground, ASIS Emerging Trends in Security, ISC West, and Interop. Mr. Nilsson has appeared as an expert voice in top publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and the Washington Post, and has appeared on national television shows such as CNN Headline News, CNBC’s “Wake Up Call” and the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.” He has written articles for and has been quoted in many security industry publications, including Security Magazine, Security Management and Security Systems News. He is also a regular columnist for SecurityInfoWatch.com, and has authored a book, “Intelligent Network Video” published by CRC Press.
Prior to working for Axis, Mr. Nilsson served as a product manager for ABB, a global leader in power and automation technologies.
A graduate of the Lund Institute of Technology, Mr. Nilsson holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering, with follow up post-graduate studies in economics.
A community of over 8000 industry professionals has just selected you as one of the Top 12 industry influencers for 2014. What is your reaction to that?
I am honored to be recognized and also feel a big responsibility to help lead and guide the industry in the right direction over the next decade. We have really come a long was as an industry to provide a safer and smarter world, but we can still do much better in developing the right solutions that will help our end customers reach their goals of providing a smarter and safer environment in their organizations.
How long have you been active in the physical security/video surveillance industry and what brought you into this industry?
For quite some time, some 15 years or so. I have been working within Axis for the last 17 years, ever since the first Network camera was invented back in 1996. Since 2001 I have resided in the US, and run the Axis North American organization since 2003. I have also had the honor to serve on the board of the SIA (Security Industry Association) since 2007.
How did you get started (what was your first job) in this industry?
My first job was as a global sales and marketing manager for what was called the “Camera Division” with Axis in year 2000. Then, in 2001 I moved to the US and became Director of Business Development, and travelled extensively over the following couple of years visiting all security companies, integrators and end users across the US and Canada, which gave me a very good picture of the industry and the key players within it. I was amazed how friendly and helpful the industry was for a newcomer like me and Axis.
What are some of the changes in the industry that you saw coming and are most proud about being accurate?
It [industry change] has been a change in the way end-customers act as IT departments, who are more and more often at the table and working in cooperation with security departments.
The biggest change has been the move from analog to IP, which has been much more than a technology shift. First, it has brought a change in how complete solutions are provided to end-users and integrators. From having complete solutions offered by one vendor, it has become a best of breed solution provided by partners, in the same way the IT market works. Secondly, it has provided a shift in how the products are supplied to the market, by using a strict two-tier channel where distributors play a clear and important role, again in a similar fashion to the IT industry. Lastly, it has been a change in the way end-customers act as IT departments, who are more and more often at the table and working in cooperation with security departments. There has also been a trend to move from proprietary to solutions that are driven from consumer technologies such as HTDV, Wireless, etc.
How have you seen the industry change over the past few years?
IP has gone from being a solution for early adopters, to more of a main stream solution, especially for large systems with over 100 cameras. The question used to be “should I go IP or analog?” and today it’s “which IP solution should I chose?” In the small and medium systems there are still a lot of analog cameras, so there continues to be a big opportunity for Axis.
What do you see has been the single most impactful technology in the industry?
There have been many over the years; in the past it was Power over Ethernet, and then higher resolution cameras, especially HDTV-complaint cameras. We also have storage technologies that used to be a limiting factor, but now is a great driver with high performance and affordable servers, NAS solutions and SD cards that can easily manage the large amounts of data that surveillance videos create.
As an industry influencer, can you share with us a business success story or case study that you are most proud about?
I think the story we are the most proud of is the way we work in long term, mutually beneficial relationships with our partners—which include software partners, distribution partners, integrator partners and technology partners. We spend a lot of time managing those partnerships and the programs are all built on a joint, long-term vision, and trust. This not only makes for a great business model, but also builds long-term relationships.
Please share with us your visions of this industry and what it will look like for manufacturers, integrators, installers, central stations, and end-users in the next 5 to 10 years:
Technology developments (driven my Moore’s law and consumer industry) will continue at a high pace, giving us all new capabilities such as 4K resolution cameras
In general I think this is what the future holds, whether it is in 5 or 10 years is always difficult to say&ellips;
End-users will demand more from their solutions. Instead of having cameras for deterrence only, and some forensics work, they will have proactive solutions send alerts in real-time when issues occur. I also believe that fully integrated systems, i.e. access control, HVAC, etc. will be the norm.
Technology developments (driven my Moore’s law and consumer industry) will continue at a high pace, giving us all new capabilities such as 4K resolution cameras, much longer retention times on video and higher processing power for video intelligence.
Today the market is very fragmented (the top 10 vendors make up less than 50% of the market). As IP matures and continues to grow the market will consolidate over the next few years. Video Intelligence will finally deliver on (some of the) promises! People counting and license plate recognition are a few examples.
Storage of video will be more flexible with more and more being managed in the cloud.
Are there any current trends you think will be short-lived? If so, why?
Proprietary solutions.
What vertical market do you think is going to witness the biggest impact of industry advancements and why? (Airports, Seaports, Campus (K12/Univ), Hospitals, Law Enforcement, Banking, Oil/Gas, Retail, etc)
I think banking has been behind and will take a big leap towards IP in the near future. Also Oil and Gas and critical infrastructure have been underserved with solutions that they need to automate their operations and security.
What are your thoughts on laws or legislation that are currently being considered or do you think may be forthcoming that will have an impact on the industry (i.e Banning of LPR cameras for police, cruise lines to requiring shipboard video surveillance, schools banned from collecting biometric data on students, etc):
…there will be a higher reliance on technology to provide a safe and secure environment…
Many countries have different legislation around security, depending on perceived threats as well as cultural differences. SIA does a good job monitoring the legislative trends and helping our politicians to consider different aspects before making decisions. In general there will be a higher reliance on technology to provide a safe and secure environment, and I believe mandate for video surveillance in more places is likely to happen.
Privacy issues are always at the forefront in this industry. What is your position on where the privacy line is located today and where you see that line in the future and do you agree with those positions?
Privacy will continue to be a very important issue, whether it is about who is able to watch video surveillance videos, who has access to different areas of buildings being monitored or the cyber security aspects of our systems. However, people want to be safe. A TIME/CNN/ORC poll found that expanding camera surveillance on streets and in public places draws the support of 81 percent of Americans.
What are your thoughts about technologies that may be intersecting with more individual/personal applications (i.e.: cloud, IoT, wearables, etc.)?
The consumer industry is 100 times bigger than the security industry, so whether we like it or not we are heavily impacted by the consumer trends. It is important, however, to do a detailed analysis of the needs we have, and be careful not to jump on a trend in the consumer industry if it does not make sense for us, or is not secure. I believe all applications will be mobile-ready in the future and that system security has to take into consideration that most of the mobile devices used are private (BYOD).
It seems that ecosystems for physical security are expanding rapidly and are requiring deeper integration with different types of partners, providing new market opportunities. How can the industry support or accelerate these synergistic partnership opportunities?
I believe it is a trend for all vendors to call themselves OPEN as the word CLOSED or proprietary is perceived negatively by customers. There are, however, different levels of open, and for a vendor to be truly open you need to dedicate a lot of resources and have a long-term plan of supporting partners. It is a lot more work than to simply print OPEN as a check box on a datasheet.
The industry has seen a significant increase in the merger and acquisition activity lately. What M&A activity do you think has been significant and what do you see happening with companies in the near future?
The industry is naturally coming to a point of consolidation, and the latest M&A acquisition trend is just an indication of that. I would only expect that trend to continue in the future. It is happening on the vendor level, with Milestone and Cann as one example, and among the distributors with Anixter and TriEd as one example.
Is there anything in the “lab” that you’re currently working on or involved with that you would like to share with our readership?
Let’s see what we bring out at ASIS and other shows in the near future ☺ With a large spending in R&D we always try to bring out a lot of new products that increases our value to our partners and customers.
Who do you look to as an industry influencer? Who or what are some resources that you follow?
I believe there are a lot of good shows, like ASIS education, SIA Education at ISC, TechSec, and Securing New Ground, where many of the leaders in the industry share their visions about the future. I especially enjoy listening to practitioners about their challenges and what systems they put in place to solve their issues. Mike Howard, CSO at Microsoft, is one example of a visionary end-user. At the end of the day, it is the end-customer that we are here for, so I try to speak to them as often as I can.