Top CCTV camera technology trends for 2025

What is CCTV technology?

Closed-circuit Television (CCTV) is a video security technology designed to transmit signals within a closed network to specific locations for viewing. CCTV technology is a collective term for the main components of a CCTV security system, including cameras, video recorders, operating software, video management systems and smart video analytics solutions.

Security camera technology provides property owners and security teams with live footage of key locations to help protect people and assets from security threats and secure evidence of suspicious activities to aid investigations. CCTV tech can also deter crime by showing intruders that a site is actively monitored.

AI smart analytics technology transforms footage into big data

The use of AI continues to be one of the 2025 video security trends. Thanks to AI, it is possible to turn hours of previously redundant footage into data, which can then be analyzed for video security trends and patterns. Previously, security teams learned from manually identified incidents. Now, they can learn more from hours of untapped video that were previously skipped over. Because of this technology’s valuable insight, more businesses are seeing the need to adopt AI video analytics and are budgeting accordingly. 

One of this year’s most significant commercial security camera trends is leveraging video analytics technology to generate big data. Below are some of the factors driving its growth.

Deep learning and analytics 

Deep learning is a relatively new security camera technology and one of the latest security camera trends to be adopted by mainstream manufacturers across the commercial security camera industry.

AI video analytics uses advanced software to understand what’s happening in video footage. It can automatically identify things like people, objects, and vehicles in real-time, similar to how our brains recognize familiar sights. This technology allows modern security cameras to go beyond simply recording video; they can now analyze it to detect potential problems and provide valuable insights.

When imbued with deep learning capabilities, CCTV tech can gradually become better at spotting stimuli in specific locations. The longer a system analyzes a target area, the more accustomed it becomes to regular activity and the more consistently it can detect anomalies.

To understand why deep learning and video analytics are major 2025 video security trend, it can help to define their key benefits:

• Improved decision making: Insights from deep learning CCTV technology can help human teams confirm or deny theories about security events, acting as a data-backed reference to inform the performance of event responses and system enhancements.
• Increased efficiency: Deep learning analytics software can continuously monitor a target area indefinitely with no drop in detection accuracy, enabling teams to focus on more complex issues and make more efficient use of resources.
• Enhanced detection accuracy: As AI analytics tools discern threats based on hard data and provable behavior patterns, their accuracy is not impacted by distractions or inconclusive evidence, allowing for consistently accurate security operations.
• Integration and automation opportunities: AI-powered CCTV tech can be linked to wider security devices like sensors, alarms and access readers to support automated responses, enabling entire security installations to benefit from deep learning technology.

While advanced video surveillance technology for 2025 will benefit from video security trends like deep learning and AI analytics, security professionals and CCTV monitoring aren’t likely to be replaced by such tools. AI is more appropriately viewed as a supportive technology, providing human teams an extra opportunity to accurately analyze and gain insights into security events.

Edge computing

The growth of edge computing is a major technological shift in the security camera industry and a key 2025 CCTV trend. Edge computing refers to systems that perform functions at the device rather than at a separate server, enabling high-quality insights to be generated with less latency.

In terms of surveillance camera technology, edge systems leverage video camera analytics to process video data at the point of recording, the benefit being that security personnel can better understand real-time events via advanced analytical processing quickly, accurately and reliably.

Below are some key benefits of this latest trend in CCTV technology:

• Reduced latency: Edge systems process video at the camera, using analytics tools to identify footage that may require human review. This workflow means less data needs to be sent to separate systems, improving transfer speeds and reducing latency. 
• Improved bandwidth efficiency: As edge CCTV technology processes data locally, the data that is transferred is more efficiently packaged, helping to reduce bandwidth usage.
• Faster incident responses: At-device analysis via edge computing enables alerts and automated responses to be triggered much faster, helping to improve response times. 
• Enhanced data privacy: The more data that’s processed at the device, the less needs to be sent elsewhere, removing avenues for sensitive information to be intercepted. 

Edge computing stands at the forefront of the latest CCTV camera technology trends, with the benefits of at-device processing supporting innovation in wider surveillance technologies. As seen with CCTV’s role in reducing crime in the UK, edge analysis is likely to inform future CCTV innovations as it becomes more common.

Cloud technology is changing how businesses manage video security

One of the 2025 security camera trends is the rise of cloud technology in security, particularly with video surveillance. The move to cloud technology empowers businesses to grow flexibly and scalably in almost every area, such as finance, hiring and distribution. In terms of commercial security, camera trends are also heavily influenced by the cloud.

Cloud servers and ​“As a Service software” 

Moving surveillance services to the cloud continues to be a popular security camera industry trend, enabling companies to develop flexible, reliable and affordable IT infrastructure. As cloud services have grown more popular, so too has the As a Service (AaS) model, allowing organizations to outsource time-intensive processes to trusted and reliable service providers.

How do cloud services and AaS models factor into the latest trends in CCTV technology and new surveillance camera technologies? The answers lie in the key benefits of these solutions: 

• Improved flexibility: AaS packages can be freely adjusted at any time to best-meet evolving business demands, enabling teams to strengthen or scale-back various key aspects of surveillance systems in response to current needs and relevant data insights.
• Simplified scaling: The actual act of scaling CCTV technology infrastructure is also simplified within cloud-based AaS models, with service providers able to adjust the parameters of active systems as and when required in relation to business demands.
• Automatic updates: Businesses can ensure the latest technology in CCTV cameras and cybersecurity are leveraged within their workflows thanks to automatic updates performed by service providers, reducing the workload shouldered by internal teams.
• Streamlined costs: Under an AaS model, businesses only pay for what they need, with ongoing costs related to updates and maintenance included in the main subscription fee.

Internet of Things networks

Internet of Things (IoT) installations, networks of physical devices linked via the internet, have been involved in many security systems and CCTV technology trends in recent years, one of the latest being a migration of security operations to Wi-Fi and cloud-based services.

By removing some of the restrictions associated with wired security infrastructure, teams can set up cameras in a wider range of locations quickly and efficiently, providing key benefits like: 

• Streamlined management: CCTV technology installed across multiple sites can be viewed and analyzed from a centralized cloud management platform, providing a holistic view of security events across a business’ entire security network.
• Remote access: Modern IoT networks support fast, HD data transfers sent over the internet, with many service providers offering bespoke mobile applications that enable users to view and adjust active devices remotely at any time.
• Real-time insights: The ability to access camera feeds via the cloud supports the collection and analysis of real-time data insights, with customizable security alerts sent to users’ smart devices to help ensure prompt incident responses ²⁴⁄₇.

By merging security, building management and video surveillance technology together within a bespoke IoT installation, business leaders can help ensure a company-wide view of key security operations is made available to relevant stakeholders consistently, reliably and securely.

Physical security and cybersecurity convergence

While migrating to cloud-based services can bring many benefits, the linking of important security systems can expose new vulnerabilities. If cloud-based infrastructure isn’t reliably secured, a breach in one system could spread across multiple networks. To mitigate this risk, many businesses are prioritizing physical security and cybersecurity convergence practices. 

Some major benefits of physical and cybersecurity convergence in 2025 include: 

• Better cloud security: By converging physical and cybersecurity systems, teams can better-protect physical security camera technology from cyber-attacks administered over the cloud, reducing the risk of cameras being hacked remotely.
• Enhanced data security: Securing all systems behind physical and cybersecurity protections helps businesses to remove vectors for data breaches, with this practice especially important in systems where data is regularly transferred between devices.
• Reliable system updates: Converging physical and cybersecurity practices provides IT teams a clearer picture of the current state of all security devices, enabling them to ensure all solutions receive regular updates to help combat novel security threats.
• Holistic threat responses: Combining physical and cybersecurity information within converged infrastructure enables teams to analyze insights across both practices, improving their abilities to spot anomalies in one system that could later impact others.

Physical and cybersecurity convergence will likely continue to be a major video surveillance trend in 2025 and beyond, especially for organizations adopting IP security devices. Remote-accessible devices like internet protocol cameras require both physical and cybersecurity protections to work safely and effectively, meaning they must be overseen by converged teams.

Continued demand for IP cameras over analog

As businesses in the security camera industry and CCTV technology move their operations to the cloud and invest in new technologies like AI, it is logical that they will choose devices that fit into this new ecosystem. Analog cameras, a CCTV camera that can transmit raw video signals over a coaxial cable, simply don’t integrate as easily. While it is possible to enhance legacy analog cameras with newer video analytics technology, many businesses are upgrading to IP security cameras. 

In a side-by-side comparison, the advantages of IP over analog become clear. For example, video quality is far superior. Image resolution in an IP camera can be from 6 to 20 times higher than an analog camera, enabling wider viewing areas and much more detail when zooming in. 

IP cameras transmit video as a digital signal, which is usually better quality. The risk of degrading over long distances is significantly reduced if the signal is transmitted over Wi-Fi rather than cables. The latest CCTV camera technology is focused on improving CCTV cameras, such as IP pan-tilt-zoom cameras, to make them even smarter in various ways.

5G in video security camera technology

The adoption of 5G-enabled cameras is becoming a prominent trend in the security industry. With the ability to send audio and video data over high-speed Wi-Fi networks, these cellular devices promise greater capacity, higher-quality video and more reliable signal strength than comparable legacy technologies.

5G in CCTV technology is set to see increased adoption, in part due to the following benefits:

• Faster transfer speeds: The leap in download and upload speeds between 4G and 5G networks is significant, with the former up to 100x faster and the latter as much as 30% faster, enabling security teams to share and analyze footage more efficiently. 
• Improved video quality: 5G’s faster and more stable connection allows for smooth, low-latency video streaming across multiple remote-access devices.
• Greater network capacity: 5G networks can support as much as 100x more traffic than 4G networks, allowing for stable connections to be secured more consistently.
• Advanced security features: As 5G networks are the newest generation of wireless technology, 5G-enabled devices benefit from the latest security features and updates.

As 5G becomes more widely available, a larger variety of 5G-enabled CCTV cameras, integrations and applications will be developed for commercial installations. As the latest CCTV camera technology is adapted to support 5G compatibility, it’s also highly likely that 5G cameras and mobile applications will become even more effective and user-friendly.

Thermal imaging cameras in CCTV technology

Improvements in thermal security camera technology are enabling more security professionals to benefit from their use. Traditionally, thermal imaging has mainly been used to support fire detection and machine observation practices, but modern devices are being deployed more frequently to capture high-quality security footage in variable light conditions. 

The unique way that thermal cameras capture images can bring many practical benefits, including:

• ²⁴⁄₇ visibility: As thermal cameras detect heat variations rather than visible light, they can be effectively used to capture footage in locations with little to no light, providing ²⁴⁄₇ visibility over high-security environments.
• Clear footage in harsh conditions: Potential obstructions like dust, rain, fog and mist won’t impact the quality of thermal images, supporting effective surveillance in harsh conditions.
• Reliable person detection: Standard CCTV technology may not always capture clear footage of intruders if they try to mask their presence, but thermal cameras, especially those imbued with deep learning tools, can consistently detect human heat signatures.
• Application versatility: Thermal cameras need not only be used for security purposes, with wider potential applications in energy audits for building management and machine maintenance.

Just like standard CCTV bullet or dome cameras, thermal cameras can also be enhanced via integrations with the latest video analytics technology, supporting deep learning and AI-informed threat detection practices in all light conditions.

Integration of security cameras with IT infrastructure

New surveillance technology and 2025 security camera trends suggest many organizations now prioritize multi-functional security systems that offer enhanced flexibility, remote access and user-friendly controls. With many companies moving more core operations online, security teams are also turning towards software and hardware systems with cloud-based synergies. 

To effectively support such goals, integrations between key security devices like cameras, access readers and alarms are being pursued, requiring IT infrastructure to meld seamlessly with surveillance installations. Should commercial security camera installers take the time to plan and implement integrated security systems, significant organizational benefits can be realized:

• Streamlined operations: Integrations between security cameras and wider systems allows for data to be shared across practices, helping teams to streamline operations by channeling real-time information into a single, centralized security management platform.
• Simplified setups: When security and building management systems are configured to support integrated operations, adding new technologies and workflows to foundational infrastructure can be simplified, allowing for agile adjustments to meet evolving needs.
• Enhanced system capabilities: Key functions of security cameras can be automated and enhanced via integrations with wider technologies, for example, cameras can be programmed to automatically record and flag footage in relation to triggered sensors.
• Efficient building management: Security camera systems can offer wider building management benefits as part of an integrated solution, with video analytics deployed to analyze metrics like occupancy to inform the operation of lighting and HVAC systems. 

As companies continue to try out different types and combinations of technologies in line with security and video surveillance trends in 2025, integrated systems are likely to become more commonplace, with the ability to easily-integrate once-disparate technologies being viewed as an invaluable pursuit.

What commercial security camera trends mean for your business

You might read through these 2025 security camera trends and decide to try them out in your own business. Look closely at your video security system and any compliances, such as FIPS compliance requirements, that you may need to keep in mind. In addition, take a wider view of the security technology you currently use. Before implementing the new security camera technology for 2025 to your system, take stock of what you already have to see where enhancements can be made. If you are a contractor working for a government agency, ensure that your security cameras are NDAA-compliant. 

If you think new technology could strengthen a weakness or improve a process, try it out one step at a time. Don’t add video analytics, day-to-night cameras, and cloud servers all at once. Completely overhauling your video security without a proper risk assessment might create more problems than solutions.

These CCTV trends for 2025 and commercial security camera trends are set to continue and become more sophisticated over time. Review them and see what is right for your business, and adopt new technology in a considered way for the best chance of success.