Cynthia Ho

Hikvision, a supplier of innovative video surveillance products and solutions, recently welcomed the delegates from the BRICS Communications ministers conference to its head office in Hangzhou, China. Cynthia Ho, VP at Hikvision, and Keen Yao, VP at Hikvision international business center, hosted the reception, and introduced Hikvision’s latest technology innovations to the delegates. Technological Innovation During the visit, the conference delegates learned about Hikvision's achievements in technological innovation over the past years. Of note are the company’s advances and products made using AI, Internet of Things technology, big data, and cloud technologies – all highly acclaimed by the delegates. Along with that, the guests were also impressed with Hikvision’s expanded overseas business development, including its global business network establishment, the implementation of its localization strategy, and the value continually being added to its worldwide customers. Smart Security Experience Center In the Hikvision Smart Security experience center, conference delegates observed a collection of intelligent functions driven by AI technology, including facial recognition, human body feature detection, and multiple target tracking. They also witnessed how improvements in data-driven algorithm performance have accelerated video intelligence in various “Smart” applications – Smart cities, buildings, transportation, manufacturing, and logistics, to name a few. Hikvision demonstrated its mounting experience in these vertical solutions. Mutual Communication And Collaboration After the visit, the delegates expressed interest in strengthening mutual communication and collaboration, and in enabling more technological innovations to serve the BRICS countries – the economically defined group that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Hikvision has opened local branch offices in each of these countries, each with 80-90% local employees. Expansive localization provides customers instant support and high-quality service. South Africa, as an example, incorporates a service network with offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and the country of Nigeria, covering marketing and technical support services for 45 countries in Africa.

Keen Yao responds to reports around Hikvision's ties to the Chinese state, and its role as the biggest video surveillance equipment manufacturer in the world Hikvision has been in the news in the United Kingdom recently, including a front page news story in The Times. SourceSecurity.com offered Keen Yao, Vice President at Hikvision’s International Business Centre, a chance to set the record straight regarding concerns expressed about hacking of cameras, the company’s ties to the Chinese state, and its role as the biggest video surveillance equipment manufacturer in the world. Hikvision has come a long way in the past few years. Since it was established in 2001, it has become a dominant force in the global video surveillance market, with annual revenues for 2015 standing at around $3.75 billion. Now in 2016, it has a market capitalization of more than $20 billion, employs over 18,000 people and has 40 wholly-owned subsidiaries or shareholdings companies worldwide. In mainland China alone, Hikvision partners with more than 40,000 distributors, system integrators and installers. According to research data from IHS Markit, Hikvision accounted for an almost 20% share of the global video surveillance market in 2015, up from just 4.6% in 2010. And its success is not limited to Asia – the company is ranked number one in the EMEA region with a 12.2% market share, and second in the Americas with 7.3% share. Security Concerns Voiced It is perhaps this spectacular growth that has fueled some of the claims and concerns about the company, most recently in the UK in a front-page article in The Times. While highlighting the company’s success – in the UK it has sold more than a million cameras and recorders installed at sites such as government buildings, airports and sports stadiums – the article questioned whether there is sufficient oversight of the security implications of foreign involvement in critical infrastructure. The concerns were raised in the wake of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s delayed approval of the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant, which is to be financed in part by China. "The recent Times reportincluded many inaccuraciesabout Hikvision and videosurveillance technology ingeneral" The article also questioned the ownership of Hikvision and its links to the government, claiming that the Chinese state holds a “controlling 42% stake” in the company. I asked Yao about their ownership structure: “The ownership structure of Hikvision, like many global, independent, publicly traded companies, is complex, and includes a diverse set of private and public shareholders.” According to Hikvision, 42% of the company’s shares are owned by China Electronics Technology HIK Group (CETHIK) and CETC No. 52 Research Institute; both are part of CETC, a state-owned enterprise. Just over 18% is privately owned by a Hong Kong businessman, 8.5% is owned by the company’s founders and executives, and the remaining 31% is owned by A-shares investors, including international institutional investors such as UBS and JP Morgan. “The recent Times report included many inaccuracies about Hikvision and video surveillance technology in general. Hikvision is a global, independent, publicly traded company. It is not ‘controlled by the Chinese government’,” noted Yao. Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities? The Times article also suggested that the company’s cameras could be hacked by Chinese government agents. Yao said cybersecurity vulnerability is a concern for all manufacturers, including Hikvision, which has “industry-leading cybersecurity best practices.” The company has an established network and information security lab, which is responsible for setting security standards, performing security evaluations and testing, and responding to security issues. It has also partnered with several security data and analytics companies to perform penetration tests and vulnerability assessments of its products. “Hikvision does not provide access to any government for unlawful surveillance through our equipment and is committed to maintaining the highest privacy standards,” said Yao. “We need to move away from outdated Cold War stereotypes and concentrate on solving the serious problems our global society faces today,” said Yao. “The real threat to the law-abiding citizens in the UK and elsewhere is terrorism and criminal activity.” "We need to move away fromoutdated Cold War stereotypesand concentrate on solving theserious problems our globalsociety faces today" R&D Commitment Hikvision’s commitment to technology is apparent in its R&D team of over 7,100 engineers. Hikvision says its significant R&D investment has led to notable advances in video image processing, video and audio codec, video content analysis, streaming media network transmission and control, video and audio data storage, cloud computing, big data, deep learning, video structuralization and others innovations. “Hikvision has achieved a competitive advantage in both technology and cost by establishing a systematic technology and product platform that enhances the product development efficiency,” said Yao. Meanwhile, Hikvision has established partnerships with world technology leaders including Intel. Commenting on the market research findings during IFSEC 2016 in London earlier this year, Cynthia Ho, Vice President at Hikvision said: "We are delighted to see Hikvision's rankings in the CCTV and video surveillance equipment sector increase once again on the previous year’s figures. This is thanks to our team’s hard work and the company’s continuous R&D innovation.” “Hikvision is dedicated to advancing the convergence of technologies, and the development of complete end-to-end security solutions, as was illustrated with the launch of many new product ranges and technologies at IFSEC 2016,” said Ho. Just a sample of these included PanoVu, Turbo HD 3.0 and a high-performance thermal camera range, as well as products with intelligent analytics for use within retail, transportation and building management applications. Save Save Save Save Save

The challenge attracts participants from more than fifty leading research institutions worldwide Hikvision, a supplier of innovative video surveillance products and solutions, recently achieved the no.1 position in the Scene classification category at the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge 2016. Object Category Classification And Detection ImageNet, the global image database resource, hosts the Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC) to establish a benchmark in object category classification and detection across hundreds of object categories, and millions of images. Run annually since 2010, the challenge attracts participants from more than fifty leading research institutions worldwide. Organized by Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Michigan, and UNC Chapel Hill, a high level impetus for the ILSVRC is to allow researchers to compare progress in detection across a wider variety of objects. Another driver is to measure the progress of computer vision for large-scale image indexing, to enable effective retrieval and annotation. No.1 In Scene Classification Category Encompassing Object detection, Object localization, Object detection from video, Scene classification, and Scene parsing, the five ILSVRC categories were each considered and evaluated against a precise challenge. For the Scene classification task, where Hikvision achieved no.1 position, Hikvision Research Institute used inception-style networks and not-so-deep residuals networks that perform better in considerably less training time, according to Hikvision’s experiments and several improvements made for training and testing. “Since it was established, Hikvision Research Institute has accumulated a deep technical background” “The technical data resulting from the competition can be applied to vehicle detection, license plate recognition, vehicle sub-brand recognition, human detection, human property analysis, face recognition, image search and much more, to greatly enhance product performance and application results,” enthused Shiliang Pu, Executive Vice President at Hikvision Research Institute. “In the future, the intelligence and automation levels of machines will be improved significantly, and utilized in the sectors of intelligent surveillance, driver assistance system, intelligent traffic sensing, robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles, to name but a few.” Hikvision Research Institute “Since it was established, Hikvision Research Institute has accumulated a deep technical background,” comments Cynthia Ho, Vice President of Hikvision. “The results of the LSVRC underline Hikvision Research Institute is at the forefront of computer vision research, and their research results will provide strong and sustainable technical support for Hikvision’s ongoing technology development.”The Hikvision Research Institute was established to focus on innovative product research and development and maintain the company’s status as a technology leader. Research topics include Perceptive Technology, Intelligent Analysis Technology, Big Data and Cloud Storage Technology, and Multimedia Technology. Hikvision has acquired sophisticated experience in the fields of video target detection, image segmentation, video structuring, and video retrieval. In recent years, Hikvision has participated in international competitions related to video analytics such as KITTI, MOT, ImageNet, consistently achieving remarkable performance ratings.

Hikvision supplied security products to cover a variety of key installations throughout Hangzhou Hikvision, a supplier in innovative video surveillance products and solutions, has been awarded souvenir medals by the Hangzhou police department, in recognition of the company supplying ‘best-in-class’ security solutions and services to safeguard the 2016 G20 Hangzhou Summit. Comprehensive Product Lines For Versatile Applications Hikvision’ involvement and preparation for the massive G20 security project was over a year and a half in the making. The company supplied security products to cover a variety of key installations throughout Hangzhou, including Hangzhou’s International Airport, metro and railway stations, highways and main traffic intersections, as well as the G20 Summit conference hall and reception hotels. Hikvision’s HD network cameras, transition and displaying devices, access control and alarm systems, and centralized management platform were all utilized to play a crucial role in the security project. Of special note, Hikvision’s Intelligent Traffic System was deployed to greatly enhance traffic flow throughout the city, encompassing efficient response, linkage alarms and emergency deployment, to name but a few advanced traffic management features. State-Of-The-Art Technologies Remarkably, Hikvision’s latest technologies, including its UAVs, facial recognition and big data, further elevated the security solution’s capability to another level. “We are proud to have provided our products and support service for the G20 Summit,” commented Cynthia Ho, Vice President of Hikvision. “Hikvision will continue the ongoing investment in research and development, to provide industry-leading and reliable products to the market, and offer more benefits and service to our customers.”

Hikvision to exhibit surveillance, Pyronix home & business intruder alarm ranges, at Security Essen 2016 At Security Essen 2016, Hikvision, a supplier of innovative video surveillance products and solutions, will be showing visitors a number of key products and additions to the company’s expanding range. Illustrating that the company is not only a video surveillance manufacturer but a total ‘end-to-end’ system solutions provider, Hikvision will showcase their new surveillance, and Pyronix home & business intruder alarm ranges. In addition, 3rd party systems integration, control and analytics solutions will be presented by Axxonsoft, Seetec, Milestone, IPS and Agent Vi. PanoVu Series Security Monitoring At the top of the range is the latest 16MP PanoVu Series camera. Enabling wide-area security monitoring, the award-winning PanoVu Series camera combines 8 sensors with a high-powered PTZ camera. This allows end-users to replace or support multiple cameras with just one 180, or 360-degree view PanoVu camera, to deliver highly detailed panoramic displays. Incorporating video analysis and multiple target-tracking algorithms, PanoVu’s advanced functionality includes highly effective alarm indication of intrusion detection, line crossing, and region entrance and exiting. Thermal Camera Video Analytics Thermal cameras embedded with Agent Vi’s video analytics component will show the greatly enhanced surveillance benefits to be gained by using the combination Offering advanced situation awareness, a new thermal camera range will be displayed. Available in hand-held, static and PTZ versions, thermal only, or thermal and video imaging with 36x optical zoom, their thermal imaging capability extends to up to 1200m at resolutions up to 640 x 512 pixels, no matter what the light level or weather. Thermal cameras embedded with Agent Vi’s video analytics component will show the greatly enhanced surveillance benefits to be gained by using the combination. Explosion-Proof Color Camera Providing a solution to deliver safe surveillance within extreme operational environments, Hikvision will also show their new explosion-proof color camera. The DS-2XE6626FWD-ZH(R)S 2MP Network Bullet Camera is ATEX and IECEx rated, and features either a 2.8-122mm or 8-32mm motorized zoom lens. The camera’s 316L stainless steel housing is effective to IP68, and with capability to capture coloured images at 0.002 Lux illumination. Including designer styled door stations, with vandal proof and built-in biometrics and face detection models, Hikvision will reveal their new intercom systems. Catering for door entry, there will be a selection of new access control readers too. “As a security solutions provider, we are delighted to demonstrate our expanded range of security products to our German and international customers,” commented Cynthia Ho, Vice President at Hikvision. “We will be showing the combined Hikvision and Pyronix product ranges for the first time since our announcement in May, of the acquisition of Pyronix. We are looking forward to supporting German and international security industry business success for many years to come.”

The IHS report shows Hikvision is continuing to grow rapidly in the CCTV & video surveillance equipment market  The latest report from business information provider IHS Inc. shows Hikvision has once again reinforced its position as the world’s largest supplier of CCTV & Video Surveillance Equipment, for the fifth year running. CCTV & Video Surveillance Market   Detailed in the report is how Hikvision occupies 19.5% market share for the global CCTV & video surveillance equipment market in 2015, up from their already dominant 16.3% in 2014. Furthermore, the company has claimed No.1 market share position in almost every individual equipment category, including network cameras, analog and HD CCTV cameras, DVR/NVRs, and video encoders.  From an 8% market share just three years ago, these figures illustrate the rapid growth of a company that has become a technology leader of the industry - thanks to its continual investment in research and development in new and innovative products. Continuous Innovation Announcing the news during IFSEC 2016 in London, Cynthia Ho, Vice President at Hikvision said: "We are delighted to see Hikvision's rankings in the CCTV and video surveillance equipment sector increase once again on the previous year’s figures. This is thanks to our team’s hard work and the company’s continuous R&D innovation. “Hikvision is dedicated to advancing the convergence of technologies, and the development of complete end-to-end security solutions, as was illustrated with the launch of many new product ranges and technologies at IFSEC 2016. Just a sample of these included PanoVu, Turbo HD 3.0 and our latest high-performance thermal camera range, as well as products with intelligent analytics for use within retail, transportation and building management applications, etc. “Long-term technical partnerships with leading technology companies and continual development input from our trusted customers allow Hikvision to drive the industry forward, to meet the demands of end-users. “We place great value in the technical and business relationships we enjoy with our partners and customers. We’re very grateful for their continuous trust and support, and look forward to another great year of growth across the security industry for us, our partners and our customers.”

Visitors to Hikvision’s stand were shown a number of key products and new additions to the Hikvision range Hikvision, provider of video surveillance products and solutions, has reported a greater number of visitors to its stand than ever before, at this year’s IFSEC international security exhibition at London’s ExCeL. Showcasing a raft of new developments across the Hikvision range, visitors to the company’s stand were shown a number of key products and new additions to the Hikvision range, proving the company is not simply a video surveillance manufacturer - but a total end-to-end system solutions provider. 16MP PanoVu Series Camera At the head of the range was the latest 16MP PanoVu Series camera. Designed for wide-area security monitoring applications, the PanoVu Series camera combines 8 x sensors with a high-powered PTZ camera, allowing end-users to replace or support multiple cameras with just one 180, or 360 degree view PanoVu camera, delivering a highly detailed panoramic display. PanoVu’s advanced functionality incorporating video analysis and multiple target-tracking algorithm, was shown to deliver highly-effective alarm indication of intrusion detection, line crossing, and region entrance and exiting. Turbo HD 3.0 Solution Alongside this was the acclaimed Turbo HD 3.0 Solution, which upgrades an analog system to 5 MP-resolution, making high-definition surveillance systems possible without the costly replacement of existing coaxial cables. Engineered with high-caliber H.264+ compression, Turbo HD 3.0 technology reduces bitrates by up to 50% while maintaining high-quality video. Thermal Camera Range Also featured on the stand was the new Thermal camera range. Offered in static and PTZ versions, thermal only, or thermal and video imaging with 36x optical zoom, their thermal imaging capability extends to up to 1200m at resolutions up to 640 x 512 pixels, no matter what the light level or weather. Standard Hikvision cameras were also displayed adapted for License Plate Recognition (LPR) applications, using free-to-download software, adding further application functionality. Also demonstrated were new Hikvision intercom systems, including designer styled intercom door stations, with vandal proof and built-in biometrics / face detection models too. For door entry systems, Hikvision displayed a selection of new access control readers. Meanwhile, Hikvision also introduced a series of security solutions for vertical markets, including Retail, Transportation, Building and much more. For instance, for mobile CCTV applications including buses, coaches and trains, Hikvision displayed their new PTZ camera designed for vehicle use – complete with magnetic base, 3G/4G control and built-in WIFI, 8-hour on-board battery and two SD card slots. “We are really pleased with the record numbers of visitors to the Hikvision stand at IFSEC 2016,” said Cynthia Ho, Vice President at Hikvision. “As an end-to-end security solutions provider, we were delighted to demonstrate our expanded range of security products to our UK and international customers, and look forward to supporting their business growth throughout another successful year.”