As 2013 draws to a close, research firm IHS has released its predictions of video surveillance trends for 2014. As in years past, IHS expects demand for video surveillance solutions to increase, forecasting the global market to grow by more than 12 percent compared to 2013. IHS also believes the emergence of crowd sourcing video surveillance data collection will be a major factor within the industry.

The following was written by Niall Jenkins, IHS research manager of video surveillance and security services, about how these expected trends will impact the industry.

Video Surveillance: The Star Markets for 2014 IHS has been researching the video surveillance equipment market for more than 10 years. During this time, the market has grown quickly, most years at a double digit rate. The year 2014 will be no exception. IHS forecasts that the global market will grow by more than 12 percent compared to 2013.

Within the global market, IHS has identified fixed-dome and 180°/360° network cameras as the fastest growing product segments, and the city surveillance and utilities/energy sectors as the vertical markets to watch.

Big Data: Crowd Sourcing Video Surveillance and Social Media Analytics
The prevalence of smart phones, with cameras and internet connectivity – combined with social media apps such as Vine or Instagram – has led to the first “crowd sourced” data collection for an investigation in 2013, following the Boston Marathon bombings.

Now that the trend has begun, IHS predicts it is likely that police forces will increasingly request, and need to manage, crowd sourced video surveillance data[…]