CE Pro November 2021 - 64

SECURITY & SURVEILLANCE
turmoil is the higher-end installations typified
by multiple surveillance cameras and fully integrated
with a whole-house control system
- the sweet spot for custom integrators. It
is against that backdrop of change that CE
Pro conducted its 2021 Security & Surveillance
Deep Dive Study to gauge the extent
of security installations being performed by
residential integrators.
Many Security Systems Still
Standalone Jobs
The data show that the
security and surveillance
market is alive and
well among CE pros,
with 82% of integrators
installing at least one
alarm or surveillance
system in the past
year. According to the
data, custom integration
companies have seen
their residential security and
surveillance business grow by
nearly 15% (14.7%) over the past year,
and 23% over the past 5 years.
The average residential surveillance
project, including both intrusion and video
surveillance, is $5,090 with a profit margin
of 22.5%. That margin is considerably lower
than what integrators earn on most other
subsystems, such as lighting control, home
Integrated vs.
Standalone Security
Installations
(Percent of Installations
Integrated with WholeHouse
Control)
In all, a median of 36% of security
installations are integrated with a
whole-house control system. That
means 64% are standalone security
systems likely controlled by an app
or a separate alarm controller.
theater and audio, which all tend to run the
mid-30% range for profits. However, there
are likely many traditional residential alarm
companies that would be jealous to earn a
22.5% margin on their security installations
as many have been driven to a breakeven or
even subsidized business model that relies
on the long-term monitoring contracts to
earn profit.
The breakdown between pure intrusion/
burglar alarm installation versus video surveillance
installations is intriguing.
It appears that a little more
than one-third of the
time integrators are
called upon to purely
install a burglar alarm
system (39% of security
projects), and about
half the time (48% of
security projects) they
are being asked to install
surveillance cameras. Those
video surveillance jobs are likely
in many cases a situation in which
the integrator is tacking on cameras to an
existing whole-house AV or lighting project.
Meanwhile, 36% of security installations are
integrated with whole-house controls, which
means 64% of the time they are standalone
systems with either app-based controls or a
separate control panel.
The average residential video surveillance
100% - All integrated
7%
76% to 99%
7%
51% to 75%
23%
SECURITY &
SURVEILLANCE
FAST FACTS
82%
62%
6
Percentage
of custom
integrators who install
residential security or
surveillance systems
Percentage
of custom
integrators who install
commercial security or
surveillance systems
Average number of video
surveillance cameras per
residential installation
$5,090
22.5%
47
0% - All standalone
7%
1% to 10%
11%
Copy
XX%
26% to 50%
23%
11% to
25%
23%
15%
$10
Average
end-user
price point charged for a
residential security and video
surveillance installation
Median
profit
margin on a security
or surveillance system
installation
Median number of
monitoring alarm
accounts per integration
company
Percentage of
integrators'
projects that have remote
video surveillance storage
in place
Median price per
month per camera
charged for remote video
surveillance storage.
64 | CE Pro November 2021
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CE Pro November 2021

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