Europe and UAE will see a surge in deployment of advanced video technologies according to new research conducted by the global market intelligence firm IDC and sponsored by Milestone Systems.* 

The research revealed key findings including industry plans, challenges, and opportunities for video technology investments.

Technology developments in artificial intelligence, image processing, cloud computing, and sensors are rapidly expanding organizations’ application of video and sensor technology and the business outcomes they deliver.

“Video technologies are moving from a pure ‘insurance’ and security purpose to a real business differentiator, e.g., in citizen service, product quality, patient care, and customer experience,” said Malou Toft, VP EMEA, Milestone Systems.

Emerging insights

According to the report, the majority (84%) of European and UAE organizations plan to deploy advanced video technologies, such as video analytics and sensor information over the next 24 months. Regionally and in the UAE in particular, 63% of organizations are also planning to roll out the same technology.

The report also indicates that 26% of organizations in Europe also plan to establish a video technology platform centrally, which would be connected to other existing technologies compared to 50% in the UAE.

Organizations around the globe are expected to spend US$2.0 billion in 2021 in Video Surveillance Analytics.^[1] Transport and Logistics have also shown the most advanced level of maturity in terms of Video Technologies usage, the report reveals. On its part, the UAE is largely expected to focus on a number of critical areas including,   Access Control Use by 50%, Environment Monitoring by 50%, On-site Security by 75%, Remote Asset Monitoring by 50% and Line Inspection by 50%.

Over the next 24 months, the UAE also plans to develop Crime Detection, Prevention, and Fornices by 33.3%, Traffic Analysis by 66.67% and Predictive Maintenance by 66.67%.

The report also revealed that Critical Infrastructure had increasingly shown the most advanced level of maturity in terms of Video Technologies usage. The UAE has also made meaningful strides in the investment and development of its critical infrastructure. However, in the next 24 months, the report indicates that the UAE will be focusing mostly on developing Leakage and Smoke Detection by 62.5%, Fleet Management 37.5%, and Remote Asset Monitoring 25%.

Key capabilities required

Among the key capabilities required over the next three to five years, buyers highlighted process automation, facial recognition, smart analytics, artificial intelligence, and centralized cloud-driven deployment^[2].

“Bottom line is that businesses and public institutions are actively planning for and expecting new technologies to be deployed with video analytics solutions, to enable a wider set of advanced use cases to be delivered. These new use cases can help enterprises deliver new digital experiences, generate digital revenues, or drive greater operational efficiencies and ultimately remain competitive in the new digital economy,” said Bo Lykkegaard, Associate VP, European Software Research, IDC Europe.

When it comes to Video Technologies investments and plans, three key stakeholders hold the helm: Security, Technology, and Operations Leads.

When asked about business challenges related to video technologies, two challenges rose above all others: 1) privacy protection and 2) security compliance concerns.

So, while the surveyed organizations appear to have plenty of planned video technology projects with business cases in place these projects are inhibited by concerns of possible missteps in terms of privacy and security.

“It demonstrates that privacy and security risk mitigation should always be key activities when building a business case to apply advanced video technologies. Organizations should be careful to choose the technology and service providers who adhere to the highest cybersecurity and privacy protection standards,” said Malou Toft, EMEA VP at Milestone Systems.

* IDC White Paper, sponsored by Milestone Systems, UNLOCKING A VIDEOEMPOWERED NEW NEXT, doc #EUR148161021, September 2021

For more insights on the IDC survey, visit this page.