| A new report on the World Market for Video Surveillance by IMS Research shows annual worldwide revenues from open platform network video management software (NVMS) were $184.9 million in 2007. IMS Research predicts that this market will be over 3 times as large by 2011 Open platform NVMS acts as the control centre that ties together multiple cameras and recorders. Undoubtedly the main benefit of these systems is their openness. Most vendors’ solutions allow for seamless integration of products from a range of manufacturers. End-users have the freedom to choose the ‘best-of-breed’ for each separate part of their system. With easy-to-use computer interfaces, security system operators are able to monitor a complete, integrated system from a single location. Alarms can be prioritised as they occur, and each type of alarm can be tagged with a series of simple, on-screen instructions that allow the appropriate response to be followed quickly. NVMS is, for all intents and purposes, infinitely scalable. Solutions are capable of supporting thousands of camera channels. Even the largest networked security projects can be managed with a single management platform. However, this is not to say that these solutions do not work at a smaller scale. Certain vendors now offer vertical specific products which, for example, can be used in the retail environment to bring together video surveillance and POS data. As this market develops, vendors of open platform NVMS are not resting on their laurels. Many of the larger vendors are looking to support new technologies, such as H.264 and video content analysis. Alastair Hayfield, Research Analyst, comments; “NVMS provides a real challenge to the established DVR market. DVRs still represent an overwhelming proportion of the recording market but the benefits of NVMS will see a shift in the market balance.” | 
