Dax Networks to tap the emerging IP-based surveillance market

CHENNAI: Networking major Dax Networks based here has drawn up plans to tap the emerging IP-based surveillance market in India. Surveillance may seem ubiquitous in an era of terror threats and a necessity to protect corporate secrets, but statistics suggest that the country is lagging in surveillance usage.

According to data available with surveillance industry players, the industry size in India is a mere $26.1 million, with a projected market size of $89.2 million in 2013. In contrast, the network video surveillance market in Asia in 2014 is projected at $2.1 billion, at a cumulative aggregate growth rate of 32.8%.

"Surveillance facilities are either non-existent or they are the outdated analog systems, even in establishments like banks and financial institutions. In some cases officials in an organisation are not even aware that the camera has not been capturing visuals for days together", says Subashini Ramakrishnan, chief technology manager of Chennai-based Dax Networks.

She said Dax had recently entered the surveillance vertical, and that the new business was already contributing to 5% of the company's revenues. The local market for IP surveillance solutions is fragmented. There are a handful of international players like Pelco, Bosch, Verint, Sony and Axis sharing the IP-based surveillance pie in the country.

NBFCs in India have keenly embraced IP surveillance systems. “We have cameras across all our 3,500 branches in the country, some of them 8-channel DVRs, besides live streaming at the corporate office. Regulators also insist that we have such security systems”, says KR Bijimon, chief general manager of the Muthoot group.