“Home Sweet Home” may be the most common saying, but “Home Safe Home” is a close second.
It comes down to this: people want to feel safe in their homes, and they want to know their property and belongings are secure while they’re away. In fact, according to a study by PC Mag, 34% of homeowners are currently relying on smart home devices to keep their homes safe and secure. Therefore, it’s no surprise that a report by Market Research Future predicts that the global residential security market will reach $44.8 billion by 2023.
When industry experts and pundits talk about security trends to watch in 2020, the following topics float to the top:
Under Scrutiny: Smart Home Cybersecurity and Privacy
Before consumers choose a security system for their homes, they need to be certain that it will not compromise their safety or their privacy. A recent study by US Houzz Smart Home reported that concerns about privacy is the reason 23% of consumers are reluctant to install smart technology in their homes.
Research like this indicates that adopting practices that better protect the personal privacy of customers will be an important, industry-wide focus in 2020— especially in the vase of video surveillance cameras. Clear policies disclosing who will have access to the video taken with these cameras should accompany residential security system contracts that include video surveillance.
Video Security On the Rise
Despite the hesitancy many consumers have had about video surveillance in the past, changes in policy and technology are converting more homeowners to their importance. Modern video camera analytics provide a level of surveillance that consumers are increasingly interested in, including features that deliver alerts only on what matters most to you, distinguishing important events from routine activity in real time. Using Artificial Intelligence, some video surveillance systems can distinguish whether a moving object in your driveway is a person, an animal or a vehicle, and send you an alert according to the settings selected.
Sophisticated video surveillance systems have the ability to record what happened, who did it, and when— information that can be shared with authorities, insurance companies, and neighbors. This type of video analytics is the biggest trend in the development of camera surveillance— the technologies are expanding rapidly.
A Safer Day in the Neighborhood
As sophisticated home security systems become more prevalent in individual residences, the potential of integrating data to create more widespread surveillance and security becomes more likely. Experiments of this nature are currently underway, possibly leading to an aggregation of data across neighborhoods, triangulating sensors and video in various homes and helping to identify perpetrators in an active crime.
How Do You Even Use This Thing?
The development of more intuitive home security products is an industry-wide trend. A 2016 study by US Houzz Smart Home Trends revealed that homeowners considered selecting appropriate home security products, installing them, and learning how to use them to be their biggest challenges. An inadequate understanding of cybersecurity, cloud/hosted services, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and other video analytics solutions is also creating barriers in the home security environment.
Green is Better.
Trends toward better health and wellness are not going away— in fact, they’re extending to include “green home security products.” Environmentally conscious consumers are shopping for energy-saving products, including alarm systems and smart home devices that allow homeowners to adjust the temperature in their homes or regulate the lights using less energy than ever before
Playing Nice Together
The integration of security technology and smart home devices will be an important trend in the security industry for 2020. Gone will be the days when security technology and smart home devices will rely on different mobile management apps. It will be up to the industry to create a single platform and app that controls lights, locks, garage door openers, video cameras and other integrated devices. These types of smart security products that are intuitive, reliable, and interconnected will result in systems that are the most user-friendly, providing the most return on the homeowner’s investment.
Buyer Beware
Quality control, expert installation, and professional monitoring will continue to be critical parts of an effective and desirable home security system, no matter what changes are introduced to the industry. Consumers will need to beware of imposter products, masquerading as professional products lines. Only certified products that have been tested by independent labs and agencies, coupled with professional, around-the-clock monitoring, will provide homeowners with confidence and peace of mind.
