Revenue in 2014 is expected to rise to $15.9 billion, up from $14.1 billion in 2013. “During the past decade the video surveillance equipment market has grown quickly, expanding at a double-digit rate in most years," said Niall Jenkins, research manager, video surveillance and security services for IHS. “This year will be no exception, with growth led by strong demand for fixed-dome and 180/360-degree network camera products. As for vertical markets, the city surveillance and utility/energy sectors will drive the biggest increases in sales."

The expansion of the market represents, what IHS believes are the first of 10 key trends that will shape the video surveillance business in 2014. These trends range from the rising use of big data, to the arrival of thermal cameras in the commercial market, to the continued introduction of power over Ethernet (POE) technology.

When considerting the remaining trends, IHS predicts that police forces will increasingly request, and need to manage, crowdsourced video surveillance data. While this will allow law-enforcement agencies to react more quickly, especially with the use of social media monitoring, it will also create data analysis and manipulation challenges.

In China, IHS has found that the concept of the cloud is becoming increasingly popular, especially as the telecom infrastructure matures. As network bandwidth improves and network product pricing declines, cloud-based video surveillance solutions have drawn the attention of more suppliers.

In addition, Increased competition, new products and new end-user markets will mean that 2014 is going to be a breakthrough year for thermal camera technology.

In terms of new product offerings, according to IHS, the big video surveillance camera category winner in 2014 will be 180/360-degree panoramic network cameras, with global unit shipments forecast to increase by more than 60 percent year-on-year. 

Further more, recent developments in POE standards and products make the technology a much more viable option for security managers.

Following the school shooting in Sandy Hook, the idea of facility security managers securely sharing live-video footage with law enforcement in the event of an incident has gained renewed focus. With costs dropping and attention growing on the protection of assets of both the physical and human kind in the post-Sandy Hook era, 2014 could be the year where live streaming of video surveillance to law enforcement becomes the norm.

The market in 2014 for video surveillance devices with chargeable video content analysis (VCA) will expand in applications where end-users need advanced and reliable analytics.

IHS also predicts that with much of the technology already available, and given the constant need to differentiate products and increase system efficiency, the market will see greater emphasis on the audio capabilities of video surveillance systems in 2014.

Finally, it is also expected that video surveillance vendors will look at new markets as they invest profits made from years of fast sales growth. This trend will continue in 2014, with more new product and service announcements coming from network-focused security companies, as they seek to add fresh revenue streams to their portfolio.