Dubai's Latest Advances in Analytical Video Surveillance

A highly anticipated 19^th edition of the Intersec Trade Show will be hosted in Dubai at the beginning of 2017. During the 3-day Intersec event, scheduled to start on January 22 and end in January 24, a global assembly of security experts specialized in video surveillance and related intelligence will display their most advanced solutions at the Dubai World Trade Centre. This year's theme will be on integrating video surveillance into the retail sector, and transforming the traditional video surveillance from merely providing preventative security to providing real-time in-store intelligence for increased profitability.

The trade show comes at a time when the video surveillance industry is registering unprecedented annual growth, globally, at 20%. Most of this growth has been inspired by zealous uptake in the Middle East, with Dubai being the fulcrum of advanced video surveillance in the region. In 2016 alone, the global video surveillance industry generated $1.69 billion in profits, and it is anticipated to reach the $4.23 billion mark within the next five years. As this accrues, Dubai, the hosting city is already a testament of advances in video surveillance across the UAE. According to experts, the city has already embraced analytical video surveillance in the retail sector, advancing how they exploit the traditional security-biased solution.

Adding Video Analytics to Traditional Video Surveillance

Traditional video surveillance in the Middle East, and globally, was only conceived of a preventative security measure. Today however, business organizations have acknowledged the need to extend video surveillance from providing mere security, to being an additional operational asset for real-time data analysis. In what has been phrased as the need to transform bottom-line benefits of video surveillance, the 19^th Intersec will explore how video surveillance can help in:

1. Generating real-time statistics on stock management
2. Enabling prevention and control of in-store losses
3. Monitoring in-store customer behavior and relations
4. Advancing in-store intelligence such as store layout and customer access
5. Enabling value addition processes including the display placements of products
6. Profiling a store's stock portfolio and layout dynamics

To do this, video surveillance will have to append an analytical capability to the videos captured, beyond providing security. This explains why much of the media reports on the anticipated 19^th Intersec trade show have largely focused on bottom-line benefits of video surveillance in the retail sector, not only in Dubai, but also globally. Of interest however, is how the traditional security-biased video surveillance will transform to analytical video surveillance for real-time business operations besides providing a security solution.

A good example of the advances in analytical video surveillance to be displayed in Dubai will include incorporation of IP-based video surveillance, converging Internet of Things (IoT) with video surveillance, and embedding statistical analysis to video surveillance. Towards the future, video surveillance will be complemented by motion sensing, facial recognition, alarm systems, low-light image capturing, and remote monitoring of retail stores.



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Potential Impact of Expected Advances in Video Surveillance

Perhaps the most important feature of advances in analytical video surveillance will be witnessed by a launch of novel software and hardware solutions for video surveillance. A good example is the Samsung CCTV that promises to link video surveillance with computerized analysis. As such, besides installing digital and analogue video cameras over expansive storage spaces (measured in PB or Petabyte), the retail sector is likely to inspire a series of analytical software and hardware previously not included in a video surveillance package. Traditional video surveillance merely captured security-biased video, but could not differentiate between dead store areas, and the most active store locations. That is likely to change, to benefit retailers in optimizing their in-store management.



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Among the software and hardware solutions expected, include customer behavior analytics. The integration of facial recognition, biometric isolation of customers (i.e. VIP, regular, and new customers), customer profiling based on their characteristics, virtualized in-store movements, and similar analytics are also likely to feature in Dubai's retail-focused Intersec Trade Show. It is predictable that retail stores will soon know which areas of their stores are attracting customers than others, how their product/service display if influencing customers behavior, how customers respond to specific incitements, and how to eliminate avoidable operational losses.

19^th Intersec Trade Show and Future of Retail Business

Over 1,200 exhibitors have already been scheduled for the 19^th Intersec Trade Show, incorporating experts from 52 different countries. Further, more than 33,000 visitors are expected to attend the 3-day event. This will converge specialists and retailers from 128 nations in the world. It is predicted that, the coming 19^th edition will not only be the largest, but also the most globalised edition of all times (represented by the international scale of participants). The trade show will be exhibited in seven categories for display, namely:

1. Commercial security solutions
2. Fire and rescue solutions
3. Safety and health solutions
4. Homeland security and policing solutions
5. Perimeter and physical security solutions
6. Information security solutions, and,
7. Smart home and building automation solutions

As leading experts in video surveillance solutions attend the 19^th Intersec Trade Show, the future of the video surveillance industry is likely to change within and without the Middle East. The experts will predictably showcase novel solutions, products, and services that transforms video surveillance in the retail industry, with digitalized and virtualized analytics. Besides offering security solutions, there is a notable increase of focus on how video surveillance can improve customer relations, optimize profitability, and reduce losses and expenditure in the retail sector. Experts hope that the trade show will facilitate bottom-line benefits of video surveillance, both significantly and realistically for the retail industry, globally.