In the next five years, six development trends of infrared laser night vision technology that are extremely competitive in the market-see how 3000 meters breaks through the status quo of the industry and leads the infrared laser night vision technology
So far, infrared laser night vision technology has been developed for more than ten years. It has many advantages, such as energy saving, low consumption, long life, in a completely dark environment where you can't see your fingers, the scene is clearly visible in the monitoring range as far as 10 kilometers, and the image effect is good. Therefore, from the perspective of product application, infrared laser night vision technology is compared with infrared thermal imaging night vision technology that can see far but can't see clearly, and low light night vision technology that needs light to see clearly but can't see far. , Has very obvious advantages, especially suitable for applications in highways, high-speed railways, public security and police, energy and electricity, environmental protection water conservancy, safe cities, airports and ports, oil fields, oil depots, long-distance pipelines, large factories and mining areas, border and coastal defense lines, maritime fishing Night vision surveillance in a wide area such as political, ecological protection, and military bases.
Although LED infrared lights and infrared laser lights belong to the same infrared night vision technology, the service life of LED infrared lights is short, only 5% of infrared laser lights; the effective distance is short, generally within the range of 50-80 meters; the characteristics of LED infrared technology are caused by congenital deficiencies The monitoring picture is blurry, there are many noises, and the sharpness is not ideal even in the close range, and many other disadvantages. However, in practical applications, since the main surveillance market (especially the civilian market) did not require high night vision camera effects in the past, the low-cost LED infrared night vision technology is more favored by the civilian market. In addition, the current security market is becoming more and more competitive, so surveillance camera equipment vendors are very sensitive to cost prices. Insufficient market awareness, low quality requirements, and lack of support from equipment vendors, and relatively high price costs have become the biggest obstacle to the development and application of infrared laser night vision technology.
In the past two years, as people's awareness of safety precautions has increased, and the requirements for surveillance camera effects have become higher and higher, LED infrared night vision technology has been far from meeting people's needs. Especially in some strict security surveillance places, such as criminal investigation, border defense, safe city, etc., the requirements for high-definition identification of surveillance cameras are very high, and the demand for night vision is getting farther and farther. The market demand for high-end, long-distance, and intelligent infrared laser lights is very clear, and the scope of application continues to expand. As a result, the market for infrared laser night vision technology, which has been tepid and tepid, is heating up sharply. In order to seize market opportunities, security surveillance camera equipment manufacturers are eager to seek cooperation with powerful and reliable infrared laser light suppliers.
However, because the infrared laser light market has been affected by price costs and high R&D technology thresholds, it lacks the capital and technical support and participation of equipment manufacturers, so that product technology and market applications have not been well developed for more than ten years. , The products on the market are uneven, and the homogeneity of the software and hardware of the products is very serious, and high-end, professional manufacturers are even rarer. Faced with good market opportunities, it is difficult for the unprepared surveillance camera equipment manufacturers and infrared laser light manufacturers to achieve a technological leap in the industry within one or two years to meet the explosive growth of various market application needs.
However, there are always prophets with a keen sense of smell in the market. The founder of Sanqianmi Optoelectronics, who has been in the optoelectronics industry for more than 20 years, has a listed company and a company with annual sales of more than 100 million yuan, which can be regarded as a small achievement. As early as the beginning of 2013, he noticed the increasing demand in many market segments of the infrared laser lighting industry, but the supply was severely insufficient or even blank. He concluded that laser night vision was bound to usher in a huge development opportunity, and began to pay attention to, invest in and organize research and development. High-end infrared laser night vision technology and products.
How can we break through the status quo of the industry and lead the infrared laser night vision technology? He is convinced that high-end infrared laser lights are no longer just as a new type of auxiliary night vision light source products, but will also drive the security night vision monitoring industry to a cost-effective market demand and market competition trend, and promote the innovative security night vision monitoring Technology upgrade. After more than 3 years of market research and research and development, closely following the trend of security monitoring market demand, the sword refers to the three major market value lifelines of infrared laser technology: high intelligence, long distance, and low cost, and clarifies the six polarities of infrared laser lights in the next 5 years. The development trend with market competitiveness has pointed out the direction for the development of infrared laser night vision technology.
Industry status: low price, low quality
Cost price is the most concerned issue of infrared laser lamp manufacturers, security monitoring equipment manufacturers and security terminal users. Cost control is naturally the most important breakthrough approach for manufacturers. The high degree of homogeneity in the hardware structure design of infrared laser lights is the inevitable result of the chaotic competition of the entire industry chain that blindly pursues low-cost. In order to achieve a lower cost advantage than others, some unscrupulous manufacturers directly copy other people's product designs, and do not hesitate to use lower-cost or even inferior materials, accessories, and production processes for production, reducing the necessary inspection and testing production processes.
The result is undoubtedly that products produced based on this low-cost strategy of vicious competition not only fail to provide good solutions for the market, but on the contrary, because of the low quality and reliability of the products, it harms the interests of monitoring equipment manufacturers and end users. And a vicious circle is formed in the industry, and even the entire industry chain is plunged into a quality and reputation crisis. Therefore, this low-price, low-quality product will eventually be phased out by the market.
Development trend one: low cost, high value
In order to create more and higher customer value, it can not only win a larger market share, but also better prevent unscrupulous manufacturers from copying. In addition to designing unique structures, the powerful infrared laser lamp manufacturers began to focus on increasing their independent R&D investment in optical design and program software. The intention is to use technology to reduce product costs, improve product performance and market value, and truly provide monitoring equipment manufacturers with more cost-effective solutions, thereby increasing the market competitive advantage of customers and their own.
For example, through the optical design, the structural components of the infrared laser lamp are reduced, thereby reducing the cost, and can also increase the light power to achieve a better lighting effect. The IR-850-500 infrared laser light invented by 3000 meters in 2015 is a typical case of using technology to reduce costs. It is the only 2W infrared laser light in the entire infrared laser lighting industry so far. For products above 500 meters, other brands of infrared laser lights must be 3W to achieve. Whether in terms of performance, heat consumption, volume, production costs, and operating costs, it creates great market value and competitive advantages for customers.
Provide end users with more cost-effective solutions with high-end products. The market price of infrared laser lights is about 10 times higher than the market price of LED infrared lights. Therefore, many end users believe that infrared laser lights are the "nobles" in the night vision lighting industry. It's "Keep Away." In fact, this is a misunderstanding caused by insufficient understanding of the cost-effectiveness of the two. They do not know that the cost-effectiveness of a high-quality infrared laser light is much higher than that of the third-generation dot matrix LED whose price is only 10%. Infrared light. As shown in the figure below, the cost and expense comparison of infrared laser light and LED infrared light for a 300-meter night vision surveillance project:
The cost and expense comparison of infrared laser light and LED infrared light used in 300m night vision monitoring project
Through the comparison of the cost performance of the two products in the above table, it is not difficult to see that it is precisely because infrared laser lights have a higher cost performance than LED infrared lights, which has promoted the development trend of infrared laser lights that will gradually replace the lower market value of LED infrared lights. . This low-cost, high-value market strategy based on customer demand and creating win-win value will also be increasingly recognized by surveillance equipment vendors and end users, and will become the main motivation for the continuous development of the infrared laser lighting industry.
Development trend two: ultra-long-distance, high-definition
With the continuous development of security monitoring technology and market demand, the demand for night vision monitoring has gradually expanded from outdoor corridors, aisles, and warehouses of more than ten meters to large squares, cities, oil fields, ports, airports, and In many long-distance monitoring fields such as highways, railways, forests, border defenses, and military bases, the effective distance of infrared laser night vision lighting has also developed from a few hundred meters to several kilometers or even more than 10,000 meters. With the ultra-long-distance night vision surveillance market demand, it is also necessary to have a matching cost-effective solution to better promote market development. For example, for a 3000-meter seaport or airport surveillance project, someone would divide the entire project into 10 groups of 300-meter mid-range and near-range infrared laser surveillance camera equipment, but the total cost of doing so is higher than using 1 group of 3000-meter ultra-long range. Infrared laser monitoring equipment. In addition, in some special fields such as seaports and airports, it is inconvenient or even impossible to use multiple sets of close-range monitoring equipment.
Different from low-light night vision and thermal imaging night vision technology, ultra-long-distance infrared laser night vision technology allows the camera to see far enough and clear enough in the dark night, and the cost is low, which has become another important new development of night vision technology. The trend is also one of the important indicators for the market to measure the R&D strength of infrared laser lighting technology.
Development trend three: ultra-close range, high-definition
Although, ultra-long distance is one of the important development trends of infrared laser lights. But in terms of the entire night vision surveillance market, the current demand for close-range night vision surveillance still occupies about 90% of the market share, especially in the night vision surveillance market within a 100-meter range, which has been completely covered by low-priced LED infrared lights. Occupied. All manufacturers of infrared laser lights with ultra-long-distance and high-definition are all staring at this, but they are only staring at it.
This situation is firstly due to the high cost of infrared laser lights. In addition, the infrared laser itself has good collimation and high light intensity. In addition, the previous infrared laser light technology synchronous zoom, automatic dimming and other intelligent functions are relatively backward. In a close range of 30 meters, the intensity of the infrared laser is not well controlled, and the intensity of the infrared laser is too large, causing the surveillance image of the scene to turn white. And the closer the distance, the stronger the light and the less clear the image. Therefore, if infrared laser lamp manufacturers want to enter the night vision surveillance market of tens of meters, they must first solve the two major problems of cost price and intelligent functions.
According to 3000m Technology R&D Director, it is not impossible to use high-level optical design and electronic software program control to reduce costs and achieve good ultra-near range infrared laser night vision. After the creation of the ultra-long-distance infrared laser light, 3000 meters has already planned to prepare the "ultra-short-range" infrared laser night vision lighting technology project plan. The project is aimed at the low-cost civilian near-range night vision surveillance market. Once this project is successfully developed, 3000 meters will once again open up a new range of infrared laser night vision technology applications. After ultra-long-distance infrared laser lighting, it will create a new category of infrared laser technology and promote the night vision surveillance lighting industry to enter infrared laser lights. Completely replace the new era of LED infrared lights, and become the first infrared laser light manufacturer to enter the civilian near night vision market.
Development trend 4: soaking rain and haze, harsh environment
In addition to the darkness and no light, night vision surveillance must also face severe weather such as rain, fog, wind, and haze. As the infrared laser is transmitted in rain and fog, it will be absorbed and scattered by particles such as rain, fog, haze, etc., which causes the energy of the laser to be continuously attenuated, which ultimately affects the night vision effect. Therefore, penetration of rain and fog is a very important and practical function of infrared laser night vision technology.
The fog penetration function of surveillance equipment on the market is divided into physical fog penetration and digital fog penetration (also called optical fog penetration and electronic fog penetration). The digital fog penetration is processed by the back-end image software of the camera equipment. The fog treatment effect is limited and easily distorted. In order to obtain better image quality, high-end night vision surveillance camera equipment adopts front-end fog penetration (that is, optical fog penetration). Because infrared light can penetrate rain and fog, it is filtered by optical principles and is clearly projected on the imaging target surface. Although infrared lasers are necessary equipment for night vision monitoring and rain and fog monitoring, not all infrared laser lights have good rain and fog penetration functions.
Different wavelengths of infrared lasers have different characteristics such as the ability to penetrate rain and fog, the sensitivity of the camera, the optical power, the required power consumption, and the effective distance, as shown in the following table:
Infrared laser lamp manufacturers can cooperate with camera monitoring equipment manufacturers to develop special infrared laser lamp series products suitable for different environments or market segments, such as marine defense, tropical rain forest and other environments.
Development trend five: intelligent matching, remote control
The intelligence of existing infrared laser lights is mainly reflected in synchronized zoom and automatic dimming functions, and the technology is relatively mature. "Automatic dimming" can automatically adjust the luminous intensity of laser light according to the intensity of external light, avoiding light waste or insufficient light intensity. Solve the problem that the picture becomes white due to the high light intensity at close range; or the picture is dark when the light intensity is too low at too far distance. "Synchronized zoom" has an intelligent synchronous zoom interface, which can achieve synchronized zoom and focus with the lens, accurately calculate and adjust the light intensity, avoiding the infrared laser from being too strong or too weak during the zooming process, and ensuring a stable and clear camera image.
However, the current infrared laser lights on the market cannot automatically identify and match the monitoring equipment. Intelligent technical parameters such as automatic dimming, synchronous zooming, and lighting angles for equipment of different brands and models must be reset on the chip before leaving the factory. For system software parameters, make corresponding matching settings. For example, the same infrared laser light can be matched with the Univision camera, but it may not be completely matched with the Hikvision camera. It may be necessary to re-set technical parameters such as interface protocol, calculation commands, and lighting angle. It's like we have an excellent combat aircraft, but no one on the market knows how to control it. Therefore, only these two powerful intelligent technical functions are still far from meeting the market demand. They must be easily matched to various brands and models of monitoring equipment on the market, otherwise they will only become a major player in the expansion of the market by infrared laser vendors. obstacle. This requires the manufacturers of infrared laser lights and monitoring equipment to further open up their technology and cooperate together to achieve more and more perfect intelligent functions of infrared laser night vision technology.
Regarding the trend of intelligent demand for infrared laser lights, the sales director of 3000 meters put forward two main views based on the common needs of mainstream surveillance equipment vendors:
1. Intelligent matching, plug and play-the intelligent software system of infrared laser light can perfectly replace the infrared laser lighting system of other brands on the market, intelligently matching different brands and different types of monitoring equipment, plug and play, no need for lighting Matching of technical parameters such as angle and interface protocol.
2. Real-time monitoring and remote control-The system software can monitor and intelligently control the working status of the laser's temperature, power consumption, light efficiency, current and voltage, etc. The software supports remote settings and online upgrades.
Development trend six: free-standing, waterproof and sunscreen
The stand-alone infrared laser light that can be installed and used independently is the finished product upgrade of infrared laser night vision technology. In addition to requiring highly intelligent functions, it also requires good structural performance design and users such as waterproof, sun protection, and constant temperature. Experience. For the infrared night vision surveillance industry chain, it is not only a product strategy test, but also a market opportunity to change the overall market layout.
For monitoring equipment manufacturers, independent infrared laser lights can not only be directly delivered to them, but also reduce the volume of monitoring equipment, save customers' operating costs, and have multiple advantages such as flexible selection and easy installation.
For the end user, the purchase price is relatively low due to the reduction of the profit of the equipment manufacturer. Moreover, it can be used flexibly according to the application environment, and the existing
The monitoring equipment is upgraded.
For infrared laser lamp manufacturers, they have a more proactive advantage in standardization, increase economies of scale, reduce production costs, and can also work with surveillance camera equipment manufacturers to further promote and open up the end user market.
Looking at these six development trends, there is one thing in common. Their internal motivation is to use technology to create greater value for market demand, rather than chasing low prices and low profits attached to the surface of vicious competition. As the R&D director of Sanqianmi said, "Only when customers are satisfied will they become our spokesperson for interests." It can be seen that, whether it is an infrared laser light manufacturer, a security monitoring equipment manufacturer, or the entire industry, only from the perspective of customer needs, can truly create market value for customers and establish mutually beneficial customer relationships in order to achieve rapid development.
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