“While PSIM is seeing a higher degree of customisation coupled with increased connectivity, many market participants believe that PSIM functionality can or should be created with off-the-shelf software and not by customisation options,” notes Frost & Sullivan Research Manager Matia Grossi. “It is anticipated, that while the standardisation process gains momentum, the need to provide customised solutions will remain dominant in the market.”

Software development and processor power have accelerated the adoption of PSIM. Today, the majority of the deployments is made mainly at maritime and airports, with critical infrastructure, homeland security and law enforcement applications. Declining costs and greater sophistication are boosting the adoption of PSIM. The advanced use of wizards and plug-and-play technology makes PSIM solutions viable for large- and medium-sized organisations. As a result, PSIM has extended its boundaries from being limited to critical infrastructure protection and homeland security to the larger corporate market.

The migration of physical security technologies from analogue to IP is enabling easier communication, further fuelling the increased usage of PSIM. At the same time, the increasing recognition of its benefits among both security-critical sectors and non security-critical ones is also boosting the prospects of PSIM.

“Heightened competition is leading to a fall in price. Inevitably, more competitors means that this technology is becoming more accessible to a wider range of customers,” adds Grossi. “CNL,Vidsys, Proximex and Nice with the acquisition of Orsus, are the clear market leaders at the moment and have a real stronghold in the market; these companies are driving PSIM adoption and acceptance”.

Ensuring interoperability across different vendors’ devices/systems remains a challenge for the market. The physical security market as a whole lacks common, open standards. Thus, virtually, any deployment requires the development of new drivers to integrate various systems. “However, the first steps towards increasing standardisation are currently being made in the market from organisations such as ONVIF and PSIA,” comments Grossi.

“The capability to intelligently analyse and cross reference incoming data represents yet another challenge,” states Grossi. “With some exceptions, PSIM systems, even today, still process individual alarms.”

Despite these challenges, the outlook for the market is optimistic. As the traditional command centre solution providers have started accepting PSIM and end-users are starting demanding it; PSIM is emerging as a rapidly growing technology category promising increased year-on-year revenues.