Future Market Insights recently released their findings regarding the growth of the Physical Security Equipment and projected that it will reach a massive $65 billion in the United States by 2022. As of 2016, it was only $53 billion, signaling a growth of over 20% in only 6 years.
This growth is largely being driven by increased demand for and popularity of access control systems in businesses of all sizes, as well as increased demand for surveillance systems and equipment in both commercial and residential properties.
Video surveillance for example, was expected to grow to $21 billion in market size by 2025. As camera systems become more sophisticated – advanced lighting techniques for dynamic video or analytics software for more effective monitoring and advance notices, for example – prices have increased, but so has demand for them, as businesses find new and more effective ways to employ the camera equipment.
The much-increased resolutions (often 4K or above) found on new cameras is also making them more attractive to business owners and security officers, as they are finally capable of many of the uses they may not have been previously, such as facial recognition and license-plate reading, which require high resolutions and crystal clear video.
Growth in surveillance equipment sales has also been driven by public investment as cities around the country are beginning to employ heightened surveillance efforts in downtown areas in order to ward off crime and respond to it even faster. Public Transportation networks and authorities are also increasing their investment in surveillance networks, installing upgraded HD camera systems with real-time transmitting to monitoring stations as well as extensive archival capacity.
The other major growth in physical security equipment comes from access control hardware. As the capabilities of access control systems become more advanced, they are also becoming even more and more convenient to install and use. Many businesses are also becoming more and more aware of the need for increased access security, as well as the benefits and ease-of-use they offer over traditional locks and other physical security methods.
One trend contributing to the growth of access control is in card-based readers, which are expected to grow the fastest over the next few years, by an estimated 10% by 2020. Contactless proximity card readers in particular are becoming very popular; instead of needing to unlock a physical lock with key or punch in a unique code, users can simply hold their individual prox cards near the door for it to unlock, making it a convenient option for business of all sizes.
Another is biometric access control systems, which were projected to grow 9.9% to roughly $1.2 billion by 2021. Fingerprint and handprint systems are projected to grow to about $590 million by 2021, representing a 9% increase every year. Biometric access control is also likely to be the fastest growing continuing into the future. In total, the access control market is expected to grow to roughly 10% year-over-year.
