the interview What will your future at Axis look like? ”My ambition is to keep working for Axis and to ensure that the ownership takeover will be successful, that is what I intend to work with.” But you have a shorter perspective now? ”Well, I do not have an ownership perspective anymore; that is the difference. I like doing things that I enjoy and I have always thought that this is the most enjoyable thing there is. Unless Canon does “Of course there is always a risk. But Canon has given us promises that things will remain as they are and this includes the brand, the business model and the development centre – all of this will remain intact. As long as we grow and are profitable, I think that Canon will keep that promise. If we stop growing or – contrary to expectations – became unprofitable, well then things will happen, however it probably would have happened anyway regardless of the Canon deal. I sincerely hope that we can make Canon understand our corporate culture and that Canon will keep the promise of allowing us to stay as we are.” Is it certain that you will remain trading under the Axis name? ”Yes, it will not be named Axis Canon or something like that and there will be no synchronisation between Canon’s IP cameras and Axis IP cameras, they will continue to compete with each other.” How will the acquisition affect the security industry? ”There has been a huge wave of consolidation in this industry during the last couple of years. Many people predicted that consolidation would happen, but it came faster and bigger than even the most optimistic bankers had believed.” Would a possible consequence be that other big companies might start to consider acquisitions in order to compete? “Yes, there have been many acquisitions lately: Canon has bought Milestone and Onssi have bought Seetec. There has also been a massive consolidation on the distribution side.” Speaking of competitors, Chinese companies like Hikvision and Dahua are growing very rapidly. What is your view on competition from China? “They are very aggressive. We have to remain alert, and since we will have access to Canon’s technology, I believe that we will be able to keep our innovations one step ahead of our Chinese counterparts.” Thus, we can expect many new Axis products in the future? ”I hope so. At ISC West, we had an all time high displaying 14 new products and it was the first time ever that I did not know them all in detail.” Will you remain as Director of New Projects? ”Yes. Canon has more or less taken all my time during the first half of the year, except for speaking at a number of events. However, I have also been involved in developing two new products that we have launched: our network loudspeaker and our network door station. I have often stated that what we really do is the Internet of security things.” Which are the major trends in the industry today? ”The most obvious trend is the Internet of security things. Our business model fits the Internet of security things very well – which we have proven with our IP cameras. I think we will be a leadfor video analysis require recognised lighting conditions and an image processing technology so good that it works well both when the sun shines directly into the camera and when lighting conditions are optimal.” A couple of years ago you said that edge storage and hosted video were the biggest trends. They have had quite a breakthrough…? ”Yes, they have but there is still much more to do. Above all, cloud storage has become huge, not least in Sweden, Holland, the Czech Republic and the USA. Other European countries are lagging behind.” What is your view on 4K? ”There are a lot of applications where it is suitable. But it will not become main stream and it will take a long time before 4K will become as common as HD. 4K is good for applications where high resolution is really required, such as central banks and ports.” Finally, the future – what are you doing in five years? ”When Mikael (Karlsson, cofounder) and I were managing Axis, he always had long-term visions of 5-10 years while I was not very good at that. However, I was better at guessing 2-5 years ahead. I am pretty confident that I will keep on doing what I do today in the coming 2-5 years, or at least two years. It is certainly my ambition and my goal.” Did you ever imagine that the company you once started would be sold for more than 2 billion dollars? ”I never thought of it that way. My dream was always to build various electronic products that would be sold in large volumes to many satisfied end users. My goal was never to sell the company and I think it would be a very bad goal to set. It should rather come as a result of doing a good job. Now, someone else is taking over and will try to make Axis even better.” Is it sad? ”Of course it is. It is very sad but at the same time it is rational and logical.” ■ Canon has given us promises that things will remain as they are and this includes the brand, the business model and the development centre – all of this will remain intact. something foolish I believe I will continue to think in this way. But I think this is very unlikely as Canon is a well managed company.” How does Axis benefit from the Canon deal? ”The former owners – and I was one of them – brought a longterm perspective and understanding of the company’s culture. The Japanese are renowned for being long-term. One advantage is that Canon is the indisputable leader in lenses and lens materials. Admittedly, they are not so big on CCTV lenses today, but since we belong to the same company group, we will teach them a thing or two about lens technology. Canon knows a great deal about image processing, chipsets and has the third largest patent portfolio in the industry. Finally, they are very big in production and exactly the type of production that is relevant to us: precision engineering and building camera bodies. We believe this will provide both economies of scale and high quality.” Is there not a risk that your corporate culture will change? My goal was never to sell the company and I think it would be a very bad goal to set. It should rather come as a result of doing a good job. ing player within the field of the Internet of security things in the years to come and it is possible for us to add related products to our portfolio. Now we have the network door controller, the network loudspeaker and our network door station.” You have frequently mentioned Moore’s Law (which says that the processing power for computers will double every 18 months, for the same cost) – with this in mind, what will happen in the coming years? ”I have always been careful about making predictions about video analysis and I will remain cautious, but I also know that one day the CPU power and the development of algorithms will give us the ability to create better stuff. However, we must never forget that the biggest problem for a security camera is always the varying light conditions. Optimal conditions Security News Every Day – www. securityworldhotel.com d ete k to r i n ter n ati o nal • 35