Surveillance market booms

Audiovisual specialist Imago has signed a distribution deal with Sony for its Ipela range of videoconferencing and IP monitoring products.

Ian Vickerage, managing director at Imago, told CRN: “We’ve been distributing Sony’s videoconferencing products for many years. In March, Sony grouped its videoconferencing and IP monitoring business under one umbrella, called Ipela.”

The Ipela range provides integrated visual communications tools for government, medical and enterprise customers that want to access and share visual information in real time over their IP infrastructure.

Vickerage claimed the global IP communications market is growing at about 50 per cent a year.

“With the increasing penetration of high-capacity IP networks in organisations, there is increasing demand for devices to utilise this capacity.

“This is something that resellers’ customers can use their IP networks for. Training is needed to install these systems and Imago, in conjunction with Sony, will be providing training for resellers,” he said.

He added that the IP surveillance and monitoring market will overtake the videoconferencing market within the next year. “The traditional CCTV market is largely served by specialist channels, but as IP monitoring becomes predominant, there is a huge opportunity for non-specialists to grow their business. It’s a chance for IT resellers to get into surveillance monitoring,” he said.

Paul Hennessy, business-to-business director for Sony UK & Ireland, said: “Sony had seen a movement away from the traditional way of communicating. Ipela blends Sony’s high-resolution imaging and audio technology with the universal reach of IP networks.

“Imago has a strong presence in these markets and can bring value to its existing network of specialist resellers,” he said.