[Editor's Note: SecurityInfoWatch.com asked five industry notables to blow away the hype, roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty and not pull any punches when it comes to where they see the video surveillance industry today. The result was honest, open takes on our business. Their columns will be appearing consecutively on SecurityInfoWatch.com. Part 1 featured Bosch's Dr. Bob Banerjee. Part 2 featured the ideas of Ari Erenthal of products distributor B&H Photo Video in New York. Part 3 featured Guy Apple from NVT. Part 4 featured Firetide's Ksenia Coffman. John Honovich completes our eye-opening look at the state of video surveillance in this article, the conclusion to our series. We hope we have stirred up some feelings. The comments area is open, so share your perspectives, too!]

Both the recession and the rise of IP video have significantly shifted the reality of the video surveillance industry, exposing some trends and beliefs as simply hype.

Video Surveillance is not recession proof

The last year has clearly demonstrated that neither the video surveillance is not recession proof. Security managers indicate that budgets have been cut significantly. Many manufacturers are showing revenue declines of sometimes greater than 10vpercent. Indeed, these results seem to prove that the last recession's strength was driven more by the war on terrorism than any natural resilience our industry has to economic downturns.

Project delays, extended maintenance of existing systems and lower cost product options have all increased significantly as responses to the recession.

Video analytics is more hype than substance

Momentum and public opinion for video analytics has sunk substantially. While a few years ago, the war on terrorism, new product excitement and a strong economy combined to make video analytics the hot technology in video surveillance, enthusiasm has now waned. This is repeatedly seen in the trade press as well as in public opinion surveys.

Compared to megapixel cameras delivering far higher quality video than ever before, video analytics is increasingly seen as a risky, costly technology. While video analytics will likely mature over the next few years and meet its early hype, for the immediate future, the highest potential is elsewhere.

Megapixel is for real

Not only is the use of megapixel cameras growing extremely fast, almost every manufacturer has added megapixel cameras to their product lineup. The combination of fast growth and wide product offerings makes megapixel available and attractive to most end users.