EMEA and North America command and control room market valued over $2.8 billion for first time

The market for services and key control room technologies in the public safety, transportation and utilities markets across North America and the collective Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region is set for solid growth.

By IHS Inc. April 9, 2013

The market for services and key control room technologies in the public safety, transportation and utilities markets across North America and the collective Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region is set for solid growth to $3.4 billion by 2015, according to a recently published report from IMS Research, now part of IHS.

The report, called “Command and Control Rooms – EMEA and North America – 2013,” measured the revenue in both regions for key technologies such as computer aided dispatch (CAD), geographic information systems (GIS), voice dispatch and call-taking software within the control room industry. The projected revenue for 2015 represents growth from $2.8 billion in 2012, and points to important developments percolating in the market for the foreseeable future.

“The command and control room industry for public safety is undergoing a significant period of change,” said Jennifer Shortland, mobile radio market analyst at IHS. “In developing regions, investment is going into the installation of new control rooms and emergency call-taking infrastructure. However, the interesting story is that within the regions with established emergency dispatch infrastructure, changes have been driven through funding cuts and efficiency savings. As a result, across regions such as the U.S. and Western Europe, regionalization is taking place in which smaller control rooms are consolidating into much larger regional control rooms.”

While the new installations of control rooms are driving increases in control room revenue, the regionalization of control rooms is also spurring heightened value for control room technology, Shortland noted. “Larger control rooms, some containing several different emergency agencies, require the installation of a universal CAD platform capable of meeting the needs of a wide range of users. These increasingly sophisticated CAD platforms and associated equipment are driving up the value of these projects,” she added.

The two volumes of research for EMEA and North America in the study also examined the key services provided to the control room industry. These services include change management, data management, support and installation. The research, for the first time, broke down the control room industry for public safety into its various emergency agencies, systems sizes and overall installed base of seats.

The installed base and revenue is further broken down, accompanied by regional insights discussing the factors affecting control rooms on a local level.

– Edited by Control Engineering, Plant Engineering

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