What's the Best Source of Video Surveillance Information?

JH
John Honovich
•Published Oct 01, 2009 00:00 AM
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The two most impressive findings from our recent survey is the value found in company meetings and the disinterest in printed trade magazines. Here is the breakdown of the 95 respondents to "What is the best source of video surveillance information?"

  • Websites (online): 60%
  • Meeting with companies: 29%
  • Tradeshows: 8%
  • Magazines (printed): 2%
The strong lead for the web should certainly be discounted since this is an online poll for IP Video Market readers.
 
However, even comparing the breakdown for the other 3 options shows how relatively strong "meeting with companies" is and how weak printed magazines are.
 
This is a bad sign for the future of printed magazines (in the comments of the article, the SSN Editor acknowledged that SDN recently discontinued its print edition, at least the 4th magazine to do so in the last 12 months).
 
However, a positive sign is the value seen in meeting with companies. Indeed, I would personally rank "meeting with companies" as the best source of information. The main downsides to this is the time consumed in doing meetings and the need to have specialized knowledge to get the most out of meetings. If companies could 'virtualize' meetings by posting in-depth videos online, this could really help provide better information on lower costs (see good examples from Pelco's webinars and Vidsys' webinars).