SPARSH : Benchmarking quality standards with technology excellence

We at Sparsh focus on indigenous design and manufacture of technologically advanced electronic security devices. All our products are indigenously manufactured under the brand “Sparsh”. We are the first Indian Company to manufacture CCTV camera in India and have alliance with global technology leaders in this domain like Sony Electronics and SHARP.

Q. Could you brief us about overall business activities of your company (tie-ups, associations, reach, network)?
We at Sparsh focus on indigenous design and manufacture of technologically advanced electronic security devices. All our products are indigenously manufactured under the brand “Sparsh”. We are the first Indian Company to manufacture CCTV camera in India and have alliance with global technology leaders in this domain like Sony Electronics and SHARP.

We have a history of firsts:

• First Indian company to manufacture CCTV camera in India.
• First Indian electronic security equipment manufacturing company to go green-Manufacture RoHS certified products.
• First Indian electronic security equipment manufacturing company to get CE,FCC and EMC certifications for its products.
• First Indian company to manufacture Sharp based CCTV cameras in Technical Tie up with Sharp Electronics (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
• First Indian company to own the complete value chain from R&D to manufacturing to distribution to servicing.

There is full control on the product quality as we own the complete value chain making it our biggest USP. This ensures speedy customized solutions and quick service to our partners and provide value for money products based on latest technology.

Q.Can you elaborate more about the product portfolio & its applications?
Our product portfolio includes:
CCTV Cameras a popular surveillance product that is used to maintain security in a public place by monitoring the crowds and singling out any suspicious activity. There are different types of CCTV cameras available and these can be used as per the requirement of the place where the cameras are to be installed. Some of the popular types of CCTV cameras are IR Day/Night camera, Dome camera, Vandal Proof camera, Hidden camera, Box-C/CS mount camera, or pan tilt zoom camera. CCTV security cameras can be used for monitoring residential apartments, offices, airports, schools, construction sites, train stations and many other places. According to market requirement we have brought our complete camera range into three categories: Bravura-650 TVL & 540 TVL OSD camera Series for Hi-end Market Segment where catching finer details of the picture is equally important, Elegant comprising of 450 TVL, 480 TVL and 540 TVL for Hi to Mid Segment and eYe Comprising of 420 TVL and 480 TVL Cameras targeting low end Market Segment.

We have extensive range in Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras using original Sony Zoom Module both for day & night applications. Our IR and Laser Speed dome range can clearly monitor upto 200 mtr. even at complete darkness. We have different models both for indoor and outdoor applications with optical zoom upto 36X. Our Extensive DVR range of 4/8/16/24/32 channels have all advance features like H.264 compression, privacy masking, motion detection etc. and can be integrated with external Sensors and annunciators . Our OmniSurv IP camera series has complete range on IP cameras suitable for any kind of application. The IP cameras could be monitored and recorded using a powerful CMS having video analytics like Missing object detection, Foreign object detection, People Counting, Camera Occlusion, Motion Detection, Redirection etc. Apart from camera range we have wide range of CCTV accessories like UTP Balun, PAN/Tilt Motors, Surge Protectors, Switchers video distribution amplifier, Power Supply etc.

Q. Which are the some of your pioneering products you introduced in the market recently or Is there any plans to launch the new products?
Sparsh is pioneering Surveillance Industry with its unquenchable thirst and commitments. Few of its Pioneering products are:
Recently we have launched our Bravura 650 TVL camera series based on Sony Effio-E technology. This camera series provides clearer picture with higher sensitivity compared to conventional CCTV cameras. The Series utilizes the latest chip technology from Sony, the Effio™-E & realizes a horizontal resolution of over 650 TVL in combination with Sony’s newly developed 960H CCD image sensor. This enables to provide clearer pictures with higher sensitivity compared to conventional CCTV cameras. These CCTV cameras can generate images in the Day/Night modes with 650 TVL resolution at up to 0.01 lux of minimum illumination (0.0001 lux in active frame accumulation mode). In addition, Bravura has 2DDNR noise reduction system, ATR (Digital WDR), High Light Compensation (HLC), Privacy Masking & Motion Detection. Number Plate Reader camera with HLC to suppress vehicle headlights at night in order to efficiently capture the number plate of the vehicle. Laser Speed Dome combination of intelligent IR LEDs intensity matching camera focus and original Sony zoom module with 432X zoom. We have the widest CCTV product portfolio in the industry and would be launching more new products in the coming days.

Q. How do you account R&D activity in your company?
Our R&D department in Noida and productions facilities is fully equipped with most advanced technology and devices. Our research and development team works closely with sales and marketing and project management teams to research on technologies and feasibility of the product as requested by our customers. By adopting advanced engineering and production technology, the company can fulfill the needs of customers and provide most reliable products.

Q. Brief us about the quality policy for your business?
At SPARSH, quality is not only a mindset, but also a formalized system. Through strict documentations and procedures, our engineers and operators maintain control of quality throughout every step of production. Our quality management system has been awarded the ISO 9001:2008 accreditation for our compliance with strict international standards. Our division of the quality control process into three separate processes ensures that specialized expertise is applied to each stage of our operation. This system also provides the redundancy necessary to prevent any quality problem from evading detection.

We at Sparsh are:

• Customer Focused
• Satisfy our Customer’s Needs and Expectations
• Make Commitments we fully Understand and believe we can meet
• Meet all Commitments to Customers in time
• Performance Driven

Q. How do you foresee “India” as a potential market, what are the prospects?
With rapidly increasing urbanization and economic liberalization, the criminal activities at different levels of the society have become a common practice in India. Moreover, the growing incidences of terrorist attacks have significantly changed the perception of Indian consumers for better and advanced security needs. The frightening terrorist attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 indicates to a clear need of deploying and upgrading security equipments to modern and hi-tech across the country. Being part of the security industry, it is our duty to develop technologies and products that can help authorities not just analyze events after they happen but also prevent them from happening. It is our mission to improve security for everyone. We continually strive to advance the technology. We are pioneering new security technology in India and contributing to our society by improving standards in security surveillance. Surveillance market has seen a robust growth since last few years and I believe that the trend would continue for another five years, CCTV market seeing the maximum growth.

Q. What are the distinguishing facts of global market as against the Indian market?
In India, customer is very price sensitive but at the same time need best quality in that price bracket. This is a unique requirement which distinguishes the Indian market from the global market. e.g. A simple cost-effective product could be very popular in India rather than a smart high technology costly product. To ensure a healthy growth, the security industry must follow some quality certifications. While standards should be formulated for equipments, suppliers and installers should be certified as per their performance and professionalism. The market is to improve to attain an industry status, the crying need is for self-realization and commencement of accreditation programmers’ sponsored within the industry by brand leaders to bring the skills and maturity levels to world standards”

Q. What are your strategies to improve your company’s position in Indian & global market as well?
The market’s image of a product is based on its features and benefits; our strategy is to focus on more innovative and cost effective products without compromising on the quality. We see this strategy to best address the Indian market and we have been successful in doing so in the past few years. We are aligning ourselves with global technological leaders in order to get access to latest technologies and innovations which have been helpful in addressing the global market with the same strategy and we are exporting to 7 countries as of today and believe that our exports would increase significantly in the coming years.

Q. According to you what are the factors affecting to your business?
We face an acute crisis of quality raw materials and components for electronics manufacturing available locally in India. This has been one of the major factors for the country lagging behind on the manufacturing front. Today, the company imports about 80-90 per cent of its raw materials and components for the electronics industry, pushing the cost of manufacturing to a higher level and ultimately raise the cost of the end products which makes it difficult for the Indian manufacturers to compete with the low quality Chinese products being imported. Another important factor in that the government should increase excise duty on the finished security products so that the cheap Chinese products being dumped in India could be stopped which is major threat to everyone’s security.

Q. What are the key technological trends that are driving the fire safety & protection industry?
The trend from analogue video surveillance to network video surveillance is not as strong in INDIA as in other parts of the world. Although IP-video represents a growing segment in the surveillance industry, analog cameras still occupy a sizable percentage of this overall market. However, the continued commercial success of analog largely rests on the development of new technologies. One such example is higher resolution. Analog resolution is usually measured by TVL, with 540 TVL representing the industry standard. Recently, certain top-shelf manufacturers have developed higher TVL product lines - such as 650TVL - to provide better image quality. Sparsh Bravura 650 TVL Ultra High Resolution Camera Series based on Sony Effio-E is newest example of state-of-the-art analog technology.

Video Content Analysis
The greatest advancement in CCTV technology was the creation of video content analysis, or VCA. VCA translates the images on the screen into data that analyzes them. Video Content Analysis allows users to search for things within the data, thus making it possible to find and identify objects within videos. Greater advancements in computing have turned VCA CCTV technology into a crime solving machine, able to recognize numbers, faces, and even categorize items (like dog, bike, car) based on input criteria.

Multi-Camera Tracking
Another CCTV Security system advancement has been with individual tracking. CCTV Security cameras are limited to the directions they can point, and the visible area within those directions. When a person goes out of the range of the camera, they are no longer visible. But more advanced CCTV technology allows security cameras to pick up where one camera leaves off, following the person as they move from visible area to visible area.

Action Focusing
Finally, CCTV Cameras’ advancements can pick up actions, such as fights or loud noises, and inform security cameras to focus on these actions so that the sound and activity can be more easily viewed. These cameras can be automatically programmed to move and zoom in towards the commotion in order to get a better view of what is happening.

Q. What is your vision for your company?
Our vision is to put India on the global map for designing and manufacturing high quality and technologically advanced electronic security equipments and to be a globally respected corporation providing state- of- the- art security solutions for a safer and greener world. Recently Sparsh marked its presence in CPSE, world’s biggest security show which happened in China from 29th October till 1st November, 2011 on Sony Electronics booth where Sony displayed logos of top few companies around the globe manufacturing the latest cameras based on Sony Effio technology. Sparsh was the only Indian company listed alongside the top security companies of the world.

Q. What are the issues you need to address that are related to your industry?
Import of cheap non reliable Chinese products should be addressed. More focus should be put on manufacturing.
Import Duty should be increased on the import of complete product and special incentive should be given for local manufacturing. As per various surveys the import of Electronic products would be more than oil import by 2020. This is an alarming situation and an opportunity for Indian Electronics manufacturing industry. There are no standardizations for the security equipment’s and so product standardization is one of the key issues. Legislations and government policies are required to make CCTV and other security devices installations compulsory for all.