Innovative solutions inspiring the market

Amine Sadi, Regional Sales Manager MENAT, Milestone Systems talks to Safety & Security MEA as he shares his thoughts about the latest trends and technology influencing the video surveillance industry and how his company is inspiring the industry with a wide array of innovative solutions.

How do you view the video surveillance industry of the Middle East?
The industry continues to grow in the region. According to a Mordor Intelligence report, the global video surveillance system market was valued at USD 52.45 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 90.37 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 9.31%, during the period of 2021 – 2026.

What are the latest trends in the video surveillance industry?
Technology trends such as 5G, IoT, Big Data, cloud and AI are key drivers and pushes the potential use of video tech far beyond security and monitoring purposes. We see the adoption of new technologies happening faster now than ever before. This is especially relevant for technologies that support societies and businesses through a pandemic, such as face mask detection, touchless access control, as well as the use of higher megapixel cameras.

The Smart City concept is also gaining fast traction, and with it, the need to unify technologies. This has led to a greater acceptance of platforms rather than just basic integrations. Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS) platforms, for example, is widely discussed and are now also considered in large scale deployments. An open platform video management software helps connect the many systems and manage devices in public and private facilities, providing a consistent user experience, complete situational awareness, and operational efficiency to all stakeholders.

What does the future of video surveillance industry look like?
We expect to see a rise in the adoption of analytics solutions as 5G increases the bandwidth and makes it possible to add more smart devices to the internet (IoT). This will increase data availability and with the right analytics solutions, the data insights can be used for operational efficiencies, automation, and to enable better decision-making in sectors such as retail, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and many others.

Artificial Intelligence will also play a key role in future and current video surveillance technologies due to the emergence of machine and deep learning approaches. For example, in security the new technologies keep enhancing the physical security manager’s response times, and the next step would be to use the data pre-emptively to avoid precarious situations altogether.

This highlights the need for an open VMS platform that can integrate with future technologies. Also, it highlights the need to have solid regulations and procedures in place for data protection. The more connected devices, the more data will be collected, and the more crucial it will be to ensure high security standards. Thus, cybersecurity and privacy protection will remain hot topics.

Give us a rundown on your latest products and how does it make a difference in the current market?
Cloud is a top priority for Milestone Systems, and last year we made our XProtect video management software available on the cloud-based Amazon Web Services (AWS) solution in the AWS Marketplace. A cloud-based VMS can be dynamically scaled to meet an organization’s needs, removing worries about capacity planning, storage hardware, software maintenance or the ‘heavy lifting’ often involved in installing an on-premise VMS.

Recently, we launched a new hardware series of video management appliances bringing together leading computers with Intel processing power and Milestone XProtect video management software.

With the new series Milestone Systems offers its partners and customers a range of six video management appliances that cover a variety of use cases from simple setups in small sites, including retail, all the way to larger and more complex installations, like critical facilities.

Which industry verticals are key to your success in the Middle East?
Video technology is increasingly used not only to keep people, cities and businesses safe, but to also generate information for marketing, environmental and efficiency purposes. In the Middle East, the primary verticals are:

• Healthcare. With medical tourism being part of the region’s general economic drive, I believe healthcare will continue to be an important vertical in the region.
• Retail, leisure, and hospitality are other areas that we expect to grow fast with societies’ re-opening. In general, the region has been known to be a hub for shopping and leisure, and we offer the tools to aid a safe and efficient re-opening of public venues.
• Smart Cities is also a fast-growing area, where innovative technologies can improve the quality of living, help reduce the environmental impact of urbanization and make everyday services run more smoothly. In the Middle East, these initiatives are predominantly driven by the governments, which means this could be the single largest vertical in the future.

What is your go-to-market strategy and how do you operate in the region?
Milestone Systems has developed a strong channel in the region to support the end users in delivering premium services and be able to offer a wide ecosystem of solutions integrated with XProtect as Open Platform. This channel is supported by a team of experts from Milestone systems based locally that shares the knowledge, updates on the new features and provides training and certification. Several webinars, events and sessions but also an experience center in Dubai is available in order to inspire the market when it comes to the available innovative solutions that are released on a regular basis in the market.