Several years ago, industry analysts began wondering if IP-based video surveillance systems would one day surpass conventional analog solutions. According to a new report by IMS Research, that tipping point is rapidly approaching, as market analysts now believe IP surveillance purchases will outgrow analog sales in 2013.

The report noted that roughly 80 percent of North American system installers and integrators currently buy some IP-based surveillance equipment. This trend is forecast to continue in the future, eventually reaching 90 percent by 2015. Meanwhile, many IT distributors are planning to add more surveillance solutions to their product lines in the next year and a half.

IMS Research also noted that IT managers, rather than physical security executives and chief security officers, will place an increasingly important role in the installation of IP-based surveillance technologies. This is largely because IT budgets are usually much larger than those for physical security. The process will also reduce complexity by allowing IT decision-makers to purchase appropriate devices and have them installed, rather than traditional security administrators buying a product and forcing the IT department reconfigure it to match existing systems.

A separate report by NPD In-Stat echoed the findings and forecast the market for IP cameras, digital video recorders, IP encoders and other surveillance equipment to generate more than $16 billion in revenue by 2015.

NPD In-Stat also predicted that the market for surveillance equipment will heat up in the coming years, allowing larger distributors to consume smaller vendors selling similar products.

“The years 2011 to 2015 will continue to show increased competition and opportunity for chip sales to surveillance video equipment makers, as semiconductor vendors see new specifications and more demand for surveillance video cameras and associated digital video recorders/network video recorders,” NPD In-Stat analyst Max Baron said.