Abstract
A highly price sensitive fire alarm equipment market has compelled manufacturers to find ways to
keep manufacturing costs low and at the same time provide high-quality products. While larger
companies can deal with the price issue better by compensating for the lower profits through product
lines with bigger margins, smaller participants will be challenged to stay competitive.
Manufacturers have to use the right components at the best prices to create reliable and low-priced
products. Stringent inspection of testing, especially sensitivity testing for devices and
intelligibility/audibility testing of voice evacuation systems, has raised the quality of the
devices by several notches.
This Frost & Sullivan research service provides an overview of and outlook for the North
American fire alarm equipment market. It has been segmented into markets for fire alarm panels and
devices. The research provides detailed revenue forecasts by region and end user to help design
marketing strategies and maximize growth. This study enables companies to align their positioning
strategies to benefit from the changing markets and obtain maximum return on investment.
Mandatory Installation of Fire Alarm Equipment in all Non-Residential Buildings Boosts Demand
Federal, state, and local building codes have mandated newly constructed buildings to implement
effective fire detection and protection measures to suppress fires in the initial stage itself.
These codes are in place, especially in non-residential buildings, to ensure that the fires are put
out before they can cause severe injury to people and damage to property. Their advantage of
providing early warnings makes fire detection and alarm equipment the preferred systems in
non-residential buildings. "In fact, such systems are included in one of the turnkey contract
packages for construction of non-residential buildings, driving the sales of fire alarm
equipment," notes the analyst of the research.
Revenue is not driven solely by investments in fire alarm systems for newly constructed
buildings, but also by existing buildings undergoing renovation, as they have to upgrade current
systems to comply with the latest codes. A new act -- American with Disabilities Act (ADA) --
mandates the use of strobes or visual devices apart from audio devices to alert the hearing
impaired. Since safety codes are periodically revised, fire alarms enhanced application in new
construction and renovation jobs increases market revenue potential.
Systems Integration Pushes Demand for Intelligent Systems
Fire alarm systems are being increasingly integrated with other building safety systems so that
each system can react to the input of the other. Integration of disparate subsystems helps to
optimize hardware and wiring requirements as well as enable a single system to operate several
components. This improves the efficiency of the entire set--up, thereby creating huge demand for
these intelligent fire alarm panels and devices.
Advances in software integration have ensured that fire alarm systems are immune to interferences
caused by the failures of other building systems. "The demand for integrated systems is growing
and is causing technology and codes to be developed and standardized in favor of such systems,"
notes the analyst. "This opens the market to wider application of intelligent and integrated
systems, boosting overall market revenue."
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