US shipments of security surveillance and monitoring systems are forecast to expand 8 percent...

US shipments of security surveillance and monitoring systems are forecast to expand 8 percent per annum through the year 2002 to $5.7 billion. Demand for surveillance systems, which represent the high-tech segment of the security industry, will be propelled by advances in a wide range of related

technologies, including sensors, imaging, computer controls, signal transmission and artificial intelligence. The development of smarter, more integrated security products will support a healthy pace of retrofit activity among major corporations, manufacturing plants and other traditional users, while also broadening the affordability of advanced systems to residences, institutions and small businesses. These and other trends are presented in Security Surveillance & Monitoring Systems, a new study from The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industrial market research firm.

Technologically sophisticated, value-added electronic security systems will enjoy the fastest growth, with electronic article surveillance systems (EAS) and closed-circuit television equipment (CCTV) offering the best prospects. EAS sales will be propelled by rising penetration of retail hard goods industries and the transition to source tagging. In the case of CCTV systems, prices continue to fall for next generation components like color cameras and digital storage devices, whose enhanced functionality will support a strong trade-up market.

Prospects are also favorable for contraband detection equipment, both in the US and export markets. Systems at or near the point of commercialization in the late 1990s offer the ability to reliably and automatically detect a broad range of explosive devices, providing a powerful new security tool to airlines and other organizations facing a threat of terrorism.

The transportation sector will represent the fastest growing security monitoring market, based on an expected upgrade of the nation's air safety system, including the installation of costly new explosives detection systems. Strong growth is also expected for the trade sector, the leading consumer of CCTV and EAS equipment.

Above-average advances are expected in the "Sunbelt" regions of the South and West. These areas are exhibiting healthy secular growth in population and economic activity, and possess rather underdeveloped security infrastructures relative to their crime levels. Relatively weak economic and construction outlooks, mature security markets and crime rates below the national average will all limit potential gains in the Northeast and Midwest.

Security Surveillance & Monitoring Systems (published 8/98, 315 pages) is available for $3400 from The Freedonia Group, Inc., 767 Beta Drive, Cleveland, Ohio 44143-2326. For further details, please contact Corinne Gangloff by phone (440) 684-9600, fax (440) 646-0484 or e-mail at pr@freedoniagroup.com. Full text is also available online through commercial database companies and the www.freedoniagroup.com Web site.

If information in this release is used in an article, please attribute information from this news release to The Freedonia Group, Inc. (Cleveland, OH) and include, if possible, the price of the report. We would also appreciate (at your convenience) a copy of the article or publication in which we appear.