The exhibition was really HUGE, both in terms of size/exhibitor companies and also attendees. Surely one of the reasons is because so many companies working in the CCTV field are based in the Shenzhen and Guangzhou area. As a result this show is becoming a leading trading event for the security systems business.
There were 9 halls in total where exhibitor companies were grouped by the type of systems and/or vertical market applications they offered. Roughly speaking some 60% of the exhibition was focused on CCTV, 25% - access control, 10% - home automation/alarm/consumer electronics, 5% - police equipment, drones and others.
Hall 1 was the main international/oversea area for CCTV where all major players had booths with Dahua having probably the biggest area, followed by Hikvision, Uniview, TVT and others:

As others pointed out - AI was definitely the main theme with most of the companies showing deep learning products, face recognition, LPR, classification, etc. Both Hikvision and Dahua exhibited a complete lineup of such products:


TVT was showing a face recognition IP camera + NVR combo:

Others were demonstrating software solutions:

Hikvision and Dahua were also emphasizing on the non-video products - video intercoms, access control, UAV and others:

Portable Speed Measuring Radar

Doorlocks with embbeded biometric reader:

Deep learning Dual lens traffic camera:

Second tier Chinese companies tried to make their presence noted as well:

JuFeng/XM:

Hall 9, 6 and 7 were home to smaller manufacturers producing all kinds of CCTV accessories, gadgets, strange type of industrial cameras (laser pan-tilts, Ex-proof), network PoE switches, converters, power supplies, brackets etc.
Hall 9 overview:

Various strange interesting products could be found:




And also some quite useful gadgets and accessories:
4-in-1 TVI/CVI/AHD/CVBS converters video-over-fiber:

4-in-1 TVI/CVI/AHD/CVBS modulator being able to transmit 2 video signals over 1 coax cable:

Various network appliances suited for CCTV use like industrial PoE switches with ring capability; Ethernet over coax; Ethernet + PoE over fiber products:

Hall 7 overview:

Hall 3, 4 and 5 were dedicated to access control systems and there were all kinds of products including IP access control systems, biometrics, parking systems, barriers, bollards and others:


At many booths visitors could buy samples or get bargain on "hot" products, big commercials were present in many places - like this poster at the entrance advertising a PoE switch for merely 109 RMB (roughly 17 USD):

There were many other specialized product offerings like UAV/drone systems, video wall appliances, structured cabling systems. The main halls were packed with people almost all of the time making it difficult to talk in details with the exhibitors. Nevertheless, the sales people were making their best to meet and give proper information to the booth visitors, especially upon seeing an international oversea visitor going to their booth. A full and effective visit of this event requires 3 days in my opinion. I missed the first day and I also had some pre-arranged meetings with existing suppliers and other people from the CCTV industry in China which I personally know, which made time for me even less. The visit though is definitely worth it, the scale and variety of products are amazing and this is really a primary source for insight of the things to come in the following years.
After the show I flew to Beijing for a meeting and factory visit of another partner - there I could understand why the CCTV market in China is getting so huge - where else can you find a single metro entrance point or a street pole with PTZ cameras overlooking each other :)

