Our NVS business witnessed a remarkable growth of 41%

In 2023, the company’s network video surveillance business grew 41% compared to 2022 and has attracted clients across IT, pharma, education, logistics, BFSI, automotive, and government verticals. Bhasker Chander Joshi, Assistant Director, Frontier Business Division (FBD), Canon India, is upbeat and ambitious about what the next page unfolds. Joshi manages the FBD operations, straddling areas like sales, marketing, operations, technical alliances, and P&L. Having worked with Canon for 17 years, he is all set to accelerate and innovate ahead. Interacting with Pratima Harigunani, he discusses the strategy to double FBD’s growth in the next 2-3 years. He also shares how SoC, spatial analytics, 5G, government adoption, and privacy concerns define the new font of surveillance. Excerpts:

What role do advanced network technologies play in Network Video Surveillance?

For Canon India, the Network Video Surveillance (NVS) segment represents a key area of growth and innovation. Our expansion into this segment has been driven by the increasing demand across industries in India for advanced and reliable surveillance solutions. This surge in industry demand has, in turn, enabled us to further develop our surveillance offerings, thereby providing customers with the best solutions.

Advanced network technologies are essential to our NVS solutions. They are the backbone ensuring seamless transmission of high-quality video data and robust infrastructure for intelligent security systems.

How much fillip would 5G, Internet of Things, etc. offer here?

As more people adopt cloud services, technologies like 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) have become critical in enhancing our surveillance capabilities. These technologies deliver unprecedented speed, connectivity, and real-time data processing, allowing us to offer more efficient and effective surveillance solutions that cater to the evolving needs of our audience. By integrating these advancements, we are confident that our offerings are well-equipped to deliver cutting-edge solutions and drive growth in the rapidly changing surveillance market.

What is the significance and uniqueness of India as a market?

At Canon, India is a crucial and unique market, significantly contributing to our global market share across all product lines. After 25 successful years, 2023 marked a pivotal growth phase for Canon India with the launch of ‘Henkaku’, i.e. transformation. In 2024, we will continue this momentum with Henkaku 2.0, aiming to further solidify our leadership as a forward-thinking, innovative technology brand. This strategy includes transformative initiatives across three pillars: organisation structure, product and service offerings, and corporate infrastructure. Beyond expanding existing business propositions, we are creating new avenues in imaging expertise, leveraging India’s vast industry opportunities.

Is there anything about your Live-Office strategy that you can share?

Introducing the Live Office concept in India is a key component of our Henkaku 2.0 strategy. Our Live Offices integrate technology and experiences, uniting our exhaustive ecosystem onto a single platform for all, including employees, partners, customers, and other stakeholders. Further, at these Live Offices, we have dedicated demo zones for our entire portfolio so that our products can be experienced first-hand.

With more people adopting cloud services, technologies like 5G and the Internet of Things are critical in enhancing surveillance capabilities.

This setup also includes a dedicated area for our NVS division, allowing visitors to interact directly with our advanced surveillance technologies. This hands-on experience helps customers understand the technology they are considering for investment and equips partners and employees with the knowledge to effectively communicate and utilise these solutions. Following successful launches in Mumbai and Kolkata, we recently unveiled our third Live Office in Bengaluru in May.

What are the challenges and opportunities present in the government vertical here?

In line with the Government of India’s Smart City Mission to establish 100 smart cities nationwide, Canon is committed to transforming this vision into reality by serving as an end-to-end surveillance solutions provider and systems integrator. Surveillance technology is crucial for enhancing public safety, managing traffic, and monitoring the environment within cities.

With more people adopting cloud services, technologies like 5G and the Internet of Things are critical in enhancing surveillance capabilities.

Leveraging our network video surveillance solutions, we offer comprehensive consultancy and services, including CCTV surveillance, access control, public addressing, and video analytics, thus covering the entire networking and surveillance lifecycle.

Are there any examples and deployments that you can talk about?

In 2023, our NVS business witnessed a remarkable growth of 41% compared to the previous, attracting clients across diverse sectors such as IT, pharma, education, logistics, BFSI, automotive, and government. For instance, our surveillance solutions have significantly enhanced security in educational institutions with features like facial recognition, classroom monitoring, mobile usage detection, and unwanted activity detection, supported by robust video management software.

Building on this success, we are poised to further expand our footprint in government projects, including critical infrastructure initiatives, safe city programmes, and integrated traffic management projects with our group of companies like Milestone Systems and Axis Communications. Our endeavour to deliver outstanding customer-centric and result-oriented services helps us to serve to the best of our capabilities, with the expectation of doubling our growth within the next 2-3 years.

Can you share anything about trends like SOC-based surveillance and camera edge AI, VSaaS, high-end drone-based surveillance, spatial analytics, deep learning analytics, etc.?

Canon is at the forefront of integrating advanced trends in surveillance technology, including SOC-based surveillance, camera edge Artificial Intelligence (AI), Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS), high-end drone-based surveillance, spatial analytics, and deep learning analytics. These technologies are becoming crucial for enhancing customer processes and operational efficiency. Our portfolio leverages these innovations to provide comprehensive solutions that address the entire networking and surveillance lifecycle. By maximising the potential of deep learning and spatial analytics, we ensure our solutions meet the evolving needs of our clients and set new

industry standards.

What is the sweet spot between surveillance and privacy? Any advice to enterprise and government users here?

At Canon, we are deeply committed to upholding privacy as a fundamental right within our surveillance solutions. Our approach ensures that our advanced technologies enhance security while strictly adhering to legal and ethical standards to protect individual privacy. We prioritise transparency and incorporate robust privacy measures across our products and services, fostering trust and confidence among our customers and stakeholders. This commitment allows us to deliver effective surveillance solutions that respect privacy, creating a secure environment that balances technological advancement with ethical responsibility. 

BHASKER CHANDER JOSHI

Assistant Director, Frontier Business Division, Canon India

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in