Avigilon are a proactive company. As a result Avigilon resellers have major advantages over their opposition because of the high quality of this progressive Canadian companies IP surveillance portfolio. NVMS, Avigilon’s video management software solution is one of the best on the market and Avigilon boast the 16 megapixel HD professional IP camera in its formidable range.This camera has been designed to integrate with NVMS and High Definition NVRs by using network equipment and delivers an unmatched performance, it is easy to install and uses network switches to give it power over the Ethernet.
Avigilon CCTV
Avigilon resellers are backed with unrivalled support from the company. We interviewed Rick Ramsey of Avigilon to find out why resellers should be so confident about their future and the IP surveillance systems they are selling.
As far back as 2003 commentators have been asking the question whether IP CCTV will be the domain of security installers or IT integrators. The question has dragged on and to their credit security installers have been fighting hard to maintain their market share of newly installed IP CCTV systems. The biggest problem they face is that the decision making process as to who decides to install an IP surveillance system has shifted very much into the hands of the IT director. This is because anything that runs on a company network almost always gets thrust into the hands of the IT department. They protect their network with a passion and will not let anyone touch it who does not have a prestigious background in IT . This has meant that security installers inexperienced in the ways of IP have been struggling to talk to the IT departments of big companies on their level. The result, the IT director would almost always prefer to talk to IT integrators and so the business slips away.
Now however we have HD SDI CCTV cameras and HD SDI DVR’s. This suddenly tips the scales back in the favour of the security installer. He suddenly finds that he can provide HD solutions with quality images to his customers and the technology is just simple plug and play.
The most important factor though in this whole battle is the security installers database. This database is full of customers many naive to the benefits of IP CCTV or HD CCTV who already have analogue CCTV installed. So what is the security installer sales department going to sell when it comes to the time to upgrade? Well it seems obvious he will push the customer in the direction of HD CCTV . No IT departments to deal with , no laptops to provide , no software to worry about , no extra training. Best of all HD images with no compression or latency. In the UK we have hundreds of thousands of CCTV systems in desperate need of upgrade and IP CCTV is quite simply not an option for the vast majority of these. HD CCTV is about to come of age and the market place is primed and ready for it .
There are many commentators about who are still asking the question where is IP CCTV going in the future? Most are still undecided on how things will develop and there seems to be a three way split on opinion.
1) The first chain of thought and one that holds most weight is that IP CCTV will grow a little more slowly than previously thought. However it will still grow and many feel that it is inevitable that it IP surveillance systems will become the norm for Image related security and management solutions. The idea behind this thinking is down to TCO or total cost of ownership. Based on the fact that IP CCTV can provide unquestionable flexibility and image quality it seems like a no brainer that this technology will come out number 1 over its two other main rivals, but as yet a slow start despite huge investment from the big boys such as Axis, Panasonic ,Samsumg, Arecont and Sony has suddenly shed a little doubt on just how much this technology can really dominate the market place within the next five years.
2) The reason for this doubt is analogue CCTV. Obvious weakness in this type of CCTV recording and image quality has been tempered by the ever decreasing cost of the products. It was originally thought that IP CCTV cameras would be mass produced bringing an very sharpe end to analogue CCTV dominance and see it disappear faster than the VCR did at the turn of this century. However big manufacturers such as March networks have decided to continue production of some high end analogue DVR products and analogue cameras keep being produced in the far east with endless relentlessness. So when will we see the demise of analogue, at the moment no one is sure but eventually it must be surpassed by IP CCTV solutions, its just when that is now in doubt. We could see analogue persist for another ten years!
CCTV cameras
3) Finally there is there is a new kid on the block. HDCCTV. This consists of HD SDI products that can transmit uncompressed HD images over coax. Suddenly this technology has huge appeal for existing CCTV companies who’s engineers are struggling to get to grips with IP. Its not that the engineers are not clever enough to make the shift to IP . It seems the cost of tooling up the engineers and giving training is holding them back. When the engineer sees 80 analogue CCTV systems to every 20 IP then even with training he will rarely get to apply newly learned skills and this then can easily cause his knowledge to fade. This is now where the HDCCTV plug and play concept becomes so attractive to CCTV installers. They are finding IP cameras and NVRs prohibitively expensive, difficult to deploy and expensive to maintain . Some are having to rely on third party IT support to commission systems or having to go to the extra cost of actually creating thier own IT departments to cope. A very costly overhead indeed. So HDCCTV with all the benefits of HD images suddenly becomes a very attractive option.
HD SDI DVR
It is difficult to see where it will go in the end. Will it be the flexibility and superior image quality attainable by IP CCTV? The tried and tested analogue CCTV solution? Or the new kid on the block, HDCCTV? The jury is out….. but we do think we know!
Avigilon is a Canadian based company who specialize in the design of high performance megapixel IP cameras. Their cameras have been deployed in over 50 countries and their Video management system called Control Centre is one of the first open HD network management systems on the market. HD CCTV is Avigilon’s forte and their megapixel cameras are outstanding in their delivery of actionable image detail.
So what makes Avigilon the company they are? Well at IFSEC this year their staff were helpful and knowledgeable , but most of all the images actually spoke for themselves , they were quite simply stunning and the build quality is superb. In an effort to get installers to upgrade from analogue to IP their codecs are the most competitively priced units on the market.
Avigilon CCTV
We look more deeply into Avigilon’s operation and see why they are one of the most successful IP camera manufacturers in the market place.
I recently fielded a call from a very enthusiastic “customer” who was desperate to employ my skills to install an Access control and CCTV system for him. Was i excited by the prospect ? Well at first yes until that is the chap went on to explain that he had managed to buy all the kit he wanted to install off eBay and expected my “very best price” to put this kit on the wall. He had acquired cameras and what should have been a very expensive piece of recording equipment for peanuts. I had to admire the fact that he knew so much about the kit and what he should have paid for it.
He sounded most disappointed though when i refused his custom .Why you may ask would i do this. Well firstly the investment involved to be able to buy and install CCTV equipment is huge. There is the vans on the roads, the engineers, wages the investment in IT equipment not to mention getting affiliation to a respected inspectorate! Profit is made by both mark up on the kit as well as labour provided and what about a service agreement?
Its my bet the kit is cheap because it is faulty, second hand or stolen. The minute i touch this kit who then gets the blame when it does not work? Iam thinking probably me! Worse still when i give my price is my new customer going to pay extra as i struggle to get his eBay acquired equipment to work .The answer is no. Most people who go DIY do so to save money. The very nature of this potential customer means that they are unlikely to want to pay for the right kit at the right price or take others advice. So would i turn this DIY CCTV business down? Definitely!
Ultimately who ever takes on this work will get their fingers burned and i doubt the customer will end up with a good job. The secret of a successful install is you must pay for what you get and then you can demand and expect value for money. So for all those eBayer’s out there if you want to do it yourself then do the whole job cheap and don’t expect someone else to supply the labour and knowledge for you!