The command and control room, and public safety answering point (PSAP) market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.1 per cent from $5.4 billion in 2015 to reach $7.6 billion in 2020, according to IHS Markit – a critical information, analytics and solutions company. It also expects annual growth between three and six per cent in the UK's control room market over the same period.
IHS Markit states that national public safety initiatives are major factors for market growth, such as FirstNet and NG911 in the US. It also states that control room consolidation, technology integration and system interoperability and “the increasing value placed on big data and analytics” will also impact the market.
Alexander Richardson (pictured), market analyst for critical communications at IHS Markit, said that growth in the public safety sector – the control room market’s largest industry – has recently been "stagnant", but he expects strong growth over the next four years. Richardson reports that the slight increase in UK growth for the control room market over the 2015 to 2020 period is likely to experience "a pickup before the [ESN] network is in service and a slight taper after the contracts finish".
"Lack of funding has impacted the sales of traditional public safety suppliers (in the US) and has resulted in low or flat growth, especially on the LMR side," explained Richardson. "There has been a wait and see approach. This is especially true with regard to FirstNet as agencies are putting off upgrades of their radio networks to wait for further decisions surrounding the national public safety broadband network.
“The control room market has become extremely dynamic as of late, because of the variety of suppliers competing in the space and the range of technologies used within command and control rooms and PSAPs.”
LTE
Richardson added that when it comes to LTE's impact on the control room market, it is likely that computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems would need to be upgraded to handle the extra inputs and records-management software (RMS) systems would likely become more robust to store more records and data.
Although voice dispatch and other technology markets are experiencing slower growth, investment in CAD, RMS, geographic information systems (GIS) and other systems is picking up, according to the IHS Markit Command and Control Intelligence Service - 2016 report.
A recent example of the UK's activity in the sector is North Wales Police’s order for Frequentis’ web-browser based 3020 LifeX integration platform for Public Safety control room ICT solutions. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) also signed a contract with Frequentis back in December 2015 to ensure that its control rooms will be able to handle ESN (Emergency Service Network) calls from the start of the national transition to the ESN network.
"Solutions like this [Life-X] offer viable options to public safety sector customers who often face tight budgets," added Richardson. "A trend we’re noticing in the United States is interest in Cloud. “Many solutions like dispatch and GIS are moving into Cloud because pricing can be scaled more easily depending on the size of the agency.
"Also, vendors are now better able to address security requirements, which has allowed agencies to feel more at ease with their information being stored offsite."
IHS Markit has also seen a trend in the US, with public safety agencies refreshing CAD systems over the last two years due to technologies reaching an end-of-life after 12-15 years in service. In comparison, India's large states are placing an emphasis on regionally integrated CAD and GIS systems to improve the efficiency of emergency response.
Across industries, IHS Markit has observed a convergence in control-room functions, noting that operators are seeking to combine dedicated communications and security control centres capabilities.
The company points to the CAD system as the focal point of this movement “paving the way in the integration of various forms of data”. Video dispatching is now also becoming a reality, with trials taking place in Asia and Africa.
“It is evident that the dispatcher’s role is changing, as more data becomes available and GIS is used to visualise the location of this information,” adds Richardson.
“Big changes in emergency response are expected over the next 15 to 20 years, especially in the public safety sector.
“Not only will 911 become just another number, but Cloud, broadband networks and video surveillance are also spurring changes in control rooms, offering huge growth potential to the market.
“While growth in voice dispatch and licensed mobile radio technology markets will be influenced by the traction of public safety broadband networks, other market forecasts for CAD, GIS, RMS [records management systems], 911-call-taking software and other technologies are very favorable.”
Social media
Social media is an "interesting trend" to Richardson due to its variation across the globe and from agency to agency.
"On one hand, I visited a mid-sized, multiagency control room here in Texas, and they did not have an interest in social media as there were concerns about how to handle the large volumes of data coming in," added Richardson. "On the other hand, I’ve interviewed folks in the UK, and they felt social media was picking up."
He added that he has seen some agencies use it as an outbound tool to "blast out updates", with others preferring to use it as an inbound tool as part of intelligence gathering efforts.
"Some agencies have a dedicated social media analyst who performs sentiment analysis," explained Richardson. [This is] to get a feel for where a crowd may gather or other events might occur. Other agencies have their call takers keep one window on their monitor open to passively monitor social media activity.
"Overall, especially in larger cities, we’ll see further social media usage. This data may not be routed directly to call takers, but we will definitely see social media use more and more as an intelligence gathering tool."
Smart cities
Safe cities, a sub-set of smart cities, is a "huge trend", adds Richardson. He's seen the popularity of this trend vary by region and reported that it is important to the control room market due to the control room being the "heart of the operation".
"You have several systems converging here including PSIM (physical security information management), video surveillance and VMS (video management solutions), CAD, GIS, voice dispatch and others" adds Richardson.
"China, the US and India are some of the countries where we see the most opportunity for safe cities projects. The market is already being impacted by these initiatives and will continue to be. There have been several ‘Safe Cities’ projects awarded in cities throughout India. We are planning to do a detailed study on this space due to publish in January/February 2017."
Alexander Richardson is an analyst on the Critical Communications team at IHS Markit, which covers a range of research on LMR/PMR technologies. Some of his recent work includes regional reports on the market for command and control rooms/PSAPs and critical communications vertical markets. He has also held industry presentations at events such as IWCE and GITEX. Before his position with IHS, he worked in a product management and research role in the aerospace & defense sector. He has a BA from Indiana University.
