You may be forgiven for not hearing about IDIS before this year. The surveillance equipment manufacturer was mostly in the business of producing surveillance products for other brands and distributors until around a year ago.
It was, until mid-2012, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM).
Click here to view Figure 1.
But in June 2012, they established IDIS Holdings, and in the last few months, has embarked on a relentless marketing push to get the brand of IDIS into the minds of consumers.
A casual observer and first-time visitor to IFSEC International would have looked at the size of its stand and assumed it was one of the most established brands in the business. But the truth is, until very recently, many installers and end users would not have even heard of it.
However, the numbers reveal the established scale of IDIS. The Korean-based company was established in 1997, and since then, it has formed over 100 partnerships in 35 countries. It claims that 51 million days of surveillance have been recorded by IDIS devices; over 1.7 million IDIS DVRs are installed worldwide; and there are over 11.5 million cameras connected and operating with IDIS products. And its annual turnover is sitting at $271 million.
Norbain and DirectIP
IDIS Global has truly stepped out of the OEM shadow, then, and it was interesting to note that IDIS had taken part of the space that was left by the massive Norbain stand from IFSEC International 2012 at this year’s show.
I asked the directors if the decision to establish IDIS as its own brand was as a direct reaction to the events last summer when Norbain entered a brief pre-pack administration. This event rattled the cage of the UK distribution chain but was a coincidence, they said, and the move to promote IDIS as a cost-effective complete IP manufacturer was in the pipeline for several years.
But there’s no denying that being the masters of their own destiny in an unpredictable world market must provide several key benefits to the manufacturer. Not least the fact that they can now talk about their own product suites such as DirectIP.
DirectIP is a suite of cameras, NVRs, and other networking equipment such as switching hubs, bundled with IDIS’ own video management software IDIS Center.
Launched at IFSEC last week, DirectIP will only be available in Europe for now, as IDIS wants to establish the brand as a proven IP solution before taking it to the US and Asia markets. IDIS said that as it sets out to become a leading global player in video surveillance solutions, it makes sense to launch its latest innovation in Europe first, as it’s ‘at the forefront of new and emerging technology compared with other parts of the world.’
I’m not sure if that’s true for the UK, although the IP market is expanding now relatively rapidly here, and the EMEA market is estimated to reach $3 billion by 2016. This is perhaps the real explanation why IDIS was keen to step out on its own.
IDIS claims that DirectIP is a ‘revolutionary rethinking’ of networked HD surveillance due to it’s plug and play nature. 16 cameras installed by one engineer who doesn’t even need a PC to hand. Pretty impressive, but I’m always dubious at revolutionary claims. However, the buzz around the IDIS brand is certainly strong.
Time will tell if that buzz translates into the huge growth that IDIS Holdings Group — which also includes industrial display and industrial card printer arms — has targeted, from $500 million in 2012 to $1 billion in 2017.
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on my end I do hope we would see this market trend/growth continue… as technology improving…
It’s certainly interesting to see a new brand on the showfloor when you’re usually used to brands swallowing up others. Bodes well for how the security industry is trending generally.
yes, you are right, this days rule of the market big players absorb smalers one:)
same like in IT hardware… market…
I am a big fan of new initiatives. They are hard to penetrate through the market however, they do provide the same purpose. I will be happy to see this cameras penetrating through the market. In most cases I have seen the pricing plays a big difference. Not a lot of people want to buy new product a big higher than existing ones. If the price is cheaper than existing products and offers the same functionalities I will go for it.
Yes, well a big part of IDIS’ proposition is that they provide cost-effective, simple to set up and good quality products.