$5 billion control room market driven by transition from voice to data-centric emergency response
Ecosystem set to expand as more information becomes available in the field
28 November 2017: The global market for command and control room technologies and services was estimated to have been worth $4.99 billion in 2016, according to research carried out by analysts IHS Markit. North America was estimated to have generated the most revenues, achieving $1.8 billion.
The installed base of control rooms is approaching 240,000 worldwide. Public safety growth is forecast to be low because of efficiencies, both in cost savings and operations, leading to an increase in the consolidation of public safety control rooms. The transport and utilities sectors are both forecast to grow steadily.
The benefits of consolidation are improved emergency response due to better collaboration, enhanced technology because of bigger budget pools and increased visibility into operations, which save both personnel resource costs and time needed to address incidents.
These and other issues around the control room market will be discussed in detail at the International Critical Control Rooms Congress (ICCRC), due to take place in Geneva from 5-7 December.
Produced by TCCA’s International Critical Control Rooms Alliance (ICCRA) Working Group, the ICCRC is the only dedicated event in the world focusing on the complete ecosystem for critical control room environments. This established event is set to bring together key decision makers looking to share and engage with key market insights.
Peter Prater, ICCRA chair, said: “Today’s critical control rooms are facing increasing challenges across the board, from rapidly evolving technology to managing operational changes. This event is an opportunity to share best practices around the convergence of control room functions, dispatching and security, and safe and smart city initiatives.”
Control room markets
North America has the biggest installed base of public safety control rooms with almost 6,000 PSAPs in the United States alone. The Western European installed base is consolidating, especially in the Nordic countries, in some countries in Eastern Europe and in the Netherlands. Other Western European countries, Germany and France for instance, will likely maintain a high installed base of control rooms and only consolidate slowly because of the governance structure in these regions. In Western Europe, there is a strong need for services and consulting especially as the transition to digital communications continues and broadband LTE takes place. In addition, the integration of analytics technologies, social media and digital evidence management are supporting the market.
Asia Pacific continues to expand its installed base of control rooms across sectors, including public safety. The Middle East and Africa is experiencing a similar trend as countries in these regions build up and advance their emergency response infrastructure to handle more demands on call-taking software. This is due to increasing emergency incidents coming from expanding populations, and education surrounding the role of emergency services.
Control room evolution
The focus on voice has begun to change in favour of more computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and data focused solutions. More data such as incident information, video, images etc. can be made available to resources in the field via tablets or ruggedized smart phone devices. Additionally, such devices, which run on a broadband network, can be significantly cheaper than their radio counterparts. For this reason, especially in particularly price-sensitive regions such as APAC, there has been a strong preference for broadband devices and CAD systems over radio and voice dispatch.
New applications and technologies are being integrated within the control room, and need to be centralized within the CAD. Video, sensors, altering, advanced GIS analytics and other technologies can all be connected to CAD, making it much faster and more efficient than ever before.
Alex Richardson, Critical Communications Analyst with IHS Markit, said: “With the Australia, Dubai, Japan, South Korea, the US and UK going ahead with plans to build out national public safety broadband networks, the LMR and traditional voice dispatch markets will continue to experience pressures from the entry of broadband-based communications, and systems like CAD, Room Management System (RMS), and logging will gain greater importance.
“The value of such contracts will only increase because of the vast range of new data inputs they will be required to manage. We see these networks as ecosystem expanders, increasing the value of the control room market beyond traditional applications.”
About IHS Markit (www.ihsmarkit.com)
IHS Markit (Nasdaq: INFO) is a world leader in critical information, analytics and expertise to forge solutions for the major industries and markets that drive economies worldwide. The company delivers next-generation information, analytics and solutions to customers in business, finance and government, improving their operational efficiency and providing deep insights that lead to well-informed, confident decisions. IHS Markit has more than 50,000 key business and government customers, including 85 percent of the Fortune Global 500 and the world’s leading financial institutions. Headquartered in London, IHS Markit is committed to sustainable, profitable growth.
About ICCRA
ICCRA is a TCCA Working Group, bringing together critical control room professionals in order to help deliver excellent mission critical services. We provide members with the opportunity to network and learn, providing environments for international collaboration and discussion, and influencing the wider critical control room stakeholder community. This is important to ensure mission critical services constantly adapt to the many changing factors affecting them in order to deliver consistently high service in the most cost effective manner. Participation in the Alliance is open to any person or organisation engaged in the provision or support of a critical control room service, across all sectors. For more information please visit www.iccraonline.com
About TCCA
TCCA represents all standard mobile critical communications technologies and complementary applications. Our Members are drawn from end users, operators and industry across the globe. We believe in and promote the principle of open and competitive markets worldwide through the use of open standards and harmonised spectrum. For more information please visit www.tandcca.com