DVRs Moving into Integration

Integration is now making its ways into the DVR industry, and some Korean manufacturers have had the plans to unveil products with point-of-sale (POS) or automated teller machine (ATM) compatibility.

WinnerTec Systems Co., Ltd. is the first to introduce POS DVRs as early in 2002, after which other competitors have also followed suit, claimed Jake Lim, its manager of overseas sales department. He said there are also vendors adding in the ATM functionality.

Also, the integration trend will move into home networking in the next two to three years.

At that time, the intelligent DVRs will be incorporated with biometrics features or RFID, having the capability of talking to the home appliances such as refrigerator or washing machines.

Early this year, it launched GoldenEye all-in-one DVR. This integrated solution saves the users’ hassles as it combines DVR, TV and monitor into a single machine. The company managed to clinch a deal with a Japanese client for GoldenEye and hopes to bring it to the U.S. and Europe soon.

The company, which mainly produces PC-based DVRs, has also a slew of standalone models, including a 16-channel, MPEG-4 unit to be launched by end of the year.

PC-based Versus Standalone

Although the market acceptance of standalone DVRs is picking up in Korea, it will not replace PC-based as both solutions cater to different market requirements, pointed out Kim Dae Hee, president and CEO of WinnerTec Systems.

He said that these two types of DVRs will co-exist in the market as they have specific features for different segments of the market.

The mainstream model in Korea now is still the PC-based DVRs, accounting for 70 percent of the share. It is still going to take three to five years for standalone DVRs to split the market equally with PC-based ones, he projected.

However, Chris Choi, overseas sales manager of Comart System Co., Ltd., foresees that standalone models will be the major type of DVRs in the next five years.

She said that PC-based DVRs run on Windows operating system and its instability is an issue to most users.

Comart has unveiled a mobile DVR, which is said to be a complete solution in MPEG 4 format with anti-vibration feature. It is currently talking to police stations and transportation sector for installations.

It also has plans to introduce POS DVRs, and is in the lookout for partners in this area.

Customization

Meanwhile, iCanTek has recently launched a network DVR server, which incorporates MPEG 4 compression technology, and literally can transmit and record at 120 ftp.

Furthermore, it has the function of recording during the transmission, and is specially designed for banks and convenience stores.

“Customization and integration abilities are key to sell the products. For our products, we need to develop vertical applications to collaborate with integrators. For example, we’ve been working with ATM suppliers and integrating our solution to ATM systems,” informed Michael Lee, director of marketing and sales.

For the next target, it is in search of access control partners for product development.

“We highlight the software design with professional knowledge in networking and communication for the solutions,” he claimed.