The Next Failure in Wireless Video Surveillance: $18 Million Funding

Siklu Inc., the global market leader in the millimeter-wave technology...

...With this new funding and partnership, Siklu will continue to disrupt the mmWave market.

I predict this company will self-disrupt...

"Short range: Max distance is ~1km, which limits applicability."

Longest range we've ever done is 1200ft.

Unneeded bandwidth: Siklu is rated for gigabit throughput that is overkill for connecting to most cameras.

No such thing as too much throughput.

Strict line of sight: These high frequencies mean no obstacles or barriers whatsoever.

We're pretty diligent in keeping to line of site, but sometimes there are "slight" obstacles, so could be problem in some case.

High price: The cost per link is ~$5,000, which is 20x more than what is most commonly used in surveillance, i.e., Ubiquiti.

OH HECK NO

I used to work for Fluidmesh. Hundreds of projects, never found an area that was oversaturated, per se. You just need to look a little harder.

As far as line of sight and penetration goes, it's just simple physics. Wavelength is, quite litterally, the length of the wave from peak to peak or valley to valley. A wave will punch through material about 40% of the thickness of the wavelength before it gets too attemuated to continue. 900 mHz is hundreds of feet from peak to peak - you can punch throuh a lot. 5.4 GHz is a little smaller than a baseball, a little bigger than a golf ball. You might punch through drywall, if you hit it straight. 70 Ghz is about a millimeter. You'll do well to punch through a piece of paper.

As far as bandwidth goes, wireless is often used to backhaul from a remote facility. 25 cameras in the building across campus, etc. Most mesh radios are half-duplex, and there is overhead, so on the best day, you're going to get 60Mb/s throughput. It's not overley difficult to overwhelm a sub-6 radio in a point to point.

These guys are not competing with Fluidmesh, they're competing with Dragonwave, etc. $5k is pretty competitive in this space. They will do well to partner up with the Fluidmesh's of the world, as their products are complimentary.

I was formerly a director of the distributor who first brought both Siklu and Ubiquiti to the UK market, so I feel I am qualified to comment.

1. Siklu equipment has been extensively and very successfully deployed for surveillance links in the UK over the last 5 years. Many enterprise and government customers are reluctant to use 5GHz solutions for higher capacity links that aggregate multiple cameras. Whilst it may be the case today that a link runs (almost) error-free, customers are investing in hardware that is intended to last 5 years or more and no integrator can confidently provide guarantees of zero interference operation over that time period given the huge number of low cost 5GHz links that are being deployed, particularly in urban areas. With higher throughput links where you need larger bandwidths (40MHz and above) this is more of an issue.

2. Of course in terms of volume there are usually more access links than backbone links in a project, but this is not always so. Think of customers such as public housing where they may have 20 or 30 cameras in a building all cabled, but they want to have centralised monitoring and recording.

3. Unlike Firetide, surveillance is only one relatively small market sector for Siklu. I am certain the majority of their link installations are for last mile access and cellular backhaul.

4. The EH-600T's form factor is due to its primary target market of small cell backhaul rather than single cameras (for which I agree it is not at a suitable pricepoint).

5. Whilst Ubiquiti has a comparable capacity solution in the AF-24, the 24GHz band is limited to 100mW EIRP in Europe so it has the same range limitation of a mile or less. The AF-24 also has a completely different form factor, weighing 17kg for the 1Gbps full duplex variant, compared to 1.8kg for the EH-600T and 4.5kg for the EH-1200.

(Disclaimer - I am Director of Business Development & Sales, Video Surveillance & Security at Siklu)

It would be of value if I were to clarify a number of items which seem to have become a little misty in this important discussion.

With the most deployed mmwave radios in the world, and selected for four consecutive years as a leading millimeter wave company, Siklu today is, by all accounts, a very successful millimeter wave wireless technology company.

Our 60 70/80 GHz radios have been adopted by major carriers across the globe and successfully address challenges such as network density, climbing capacity demands and video and image jittering.

I would also like to shed light on the additional $18M funding. This capital will not only be directed to the video surveillance market, but will also be used to help grow additional markets, such as the Gigabit-To-The-Home (GTTH) market - including the Multi-Dwelling-Units (MDU) niche market.

Siklu’s market strategy and sales processes are not centered on one vertical market at any given time, but rather on maintaining a steady and developing customer base, while new growth-markets, with a compelling need for network resolutions, such as those that Siklu delivers, are nurtured. These markets include edge-based and backhaul connectivity.

I agree there's a big question surrounding all microwave/millimetric vendors. You only have to look at Ceragon who have been around for over 15 years but consistently fail to realise a profit. Valuation is always based on potential volumes, which never quite seem to arrive. I personally would not invest my money in these businesses.

Siklu has transformed the millimetric market - before their arrival the only options were companies such as Bridgewave and Gigabeam selling links at $30,000 each. This doesn't necessarily mean their business model will succeed in the long run but customers are certainly benefiting from the improved economics.

If we extrapolate from the UK figures we get cumulative worldwide sales of at least 15,000 units (hard to believe we account for more than 10%). If Siklu earn $1500 for each radio sold, then that's $22m of revenues so far. Not enough yet to justify the VC investment but not insignificant.