According to a new report from IMS Research (www.imsresearch.com), remote video monitoring is forecast to be the fastest growing service within the remote monitoring market. The remote video monitoring services market was worth nearly $250m across the Americas and EMEA in 2009, and is experiencing impressive growth which will continue to accelerate as the global economy recovers and technology improves.

According to report author and market analyst Ewan Lamont, remote video monitoring is good news for central stations and suppliers to the industry: "Everybody is a winner with remote video monitoring services. Alarm dealers can make bigger margins on remote video services compared to alarm monitoring, as well as generating revenue from increased equipment sales, installation and maintenance." Lamont goes on to say "Customers who are able to replace guards with a monitored system are reportedly seeing return on investment in a relatively short period of time. As for customers that do not have a manned guard to replace, insurance companies are listing remote video monitoring as an equivalent substitute and reducing premiums accordingly. Even telcos are benefitting from supplying the extra bandwidth that the video transmission requires."

So does this growth in video monitoring signal trouble for the manned guarding industry? Not necessarily, says Lamont: "Manned guarding hasn't changed significantly in a hundred years; it generally comes down to boots on the ground. It has a clear legacy, but levels of service have rarely changed. Adding remotely monitored video to a manned guarding service allows a central station operator to watch multiple cameras, and then direct guards to where they are needed. This maximises the area under surveillance, and allows the response to be focussed where it is required. If manned guarding companies use remote video monitoring to compliment their offering then this could be a breathe of fresh air through the guarding industry."

IMS Research predicts more and more service providers will add remote monitoring services to their portfolios over the next five years to take advantage of this trend. IMS Research's recently completed report, "The Americas and EMEA Markets for Remote Monitoring Services - 2010 Edition" addresses this and other relevant topics in detail.