iPhone sells CCTV

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40K CCTV system.

I Recently spoke to sales guy who had a fantastic result in selling a £40 k CCTV system to one of his existing clients based up in London. He retold me the storey of how he had managed to upgrade a customer who’s system was actually less than 3 years old! Quite an achievement in this day of austerity and generally making do when it comes to CCTV and security.

A unique selling point.

His main objective of course was to offer the customer something new, something he had not seen before and try to convince him to part with his money. He had two major aces up his sleeve. He knew his customer was a gadget man. He also knew that his customer was extremely intelligent and was nobody’s fool when he was purchasing any kind of product. He started by talking about the benefits of IR dome cameras specifically Black hawk domes. If you have ever done a dem with this unit at night you will know that the product sells itself. This is down to the picture quality and the stunning difference between a grainy integrated colour picture and the clarity of a mono picture enhanced with IR. To say he was impressed was an understatement. He wanted them and was now only interested in how much this was going to cost him. Well this is where my acquaintance found himself up against it.

Benefits.

Although the benefits were obvious , justifying ripping out cameras that were less than 3 years old was difficult. It was now he played his trump card. He offered the customer the ability to connect to these new cameras using just his iPhone and App he would let him have if he agreed to the upgrade. He knew the DVR was capable of this and the app had just become available. Well the guy could not sign up quick enough, this was the clincher, the deal sealer and my friend could not have been happier.

iPhone sells CCTV.

So what does this tell us about the iPhone  and the remote connection app. It would seem to us that if you buy a DVR you would be well advised to ensure it is iPhone compatible but more than this, it tells us that gadgets sell CCTV and we see this happening more and more. Searches on this site are often looking for CCTV iPhone apps as this form of remote connection goes from a popular feature to what some may now consider essential. We love the iPhone!

CCTV Suppliers – Are there too many?

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Pick up any trade magazine and they are awash with literally hundreds of CCTV Suppliers……..all professing to offer ex-stock supply of the latest and greatest products at the best possible priced!

But is this influx of supply simply diluting the industry and causing end user and integrator confusion?

I recall many years ago that there were 2 or 3 mainline suppliers – if you wanted CCTV you went to Norbain or CCTV Warehouse……….. and a couple of other more regional companies…………even the electrical wholesalers sold products that were sourced, in bulk, from companies such as Norbain.

Now, pick up a Farnell, or RS, or Maplin brochure and observe the availability of seemingly good quality cctv kit………visit B&Q and there, in the electrical section, you’ll find an external cctv camera complete with wireless connectivity to a regular TV!

Not to mention the huge amount of eBay stores now popping up offering Hong Kong and China’s latest number one DVR!

So, where does this leave the industry?

We think confused – how is it really possible to justify a £10k professionally installed system when the end user has ‘found’ a ‘perceivably’ equivalent system online?

We hear stories of end users buying cheap(er) kit and then ringing installers to ask for a price to install !!  As if it isn’t bad enough that the installer has to adapt to the ever changing supply of industry supplied kit!!

So, consider this – the distributors and manufacturers of our industry offer not only good quality kit, but provide a level of pre and post sales support that is simply not available from CCTV_Man from eBay, or from China’s number 1 DVR manufacturer……… we urge you to try and get one of their guys out on site on a cold December evening!!

LevelOne Megapixel IP camera

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Level One the networking specialists have launched a new range of megapixel cameras. The new cameras offer a great solution for those who require quality images. However there is now an additional advantage, each IP camera comes with remote monitoring software that supports up to 64 channels. This gives the end user a total IP video solution.

A major benefit of the new LevelOne Megapixel IP cameras is that the CCTV software that comes with the latest camera range allows images to be viewed from you mobile device including an iPhone  or a smart phone. The software is free, supports 64 channels and is called Camsecure. The benefits are obvious and remote viewing is becoming the accepted way to keep your eye on both domestic properties and office enviroments.

The FCS-1121 is one of the new IP cameras in the range and is a H.264, Megapixel PoE Network Camera. It comes with simultaneous dual stream, and a removable Infra-Red cut filter. This allows it to be optimized for true day and night application.

Also in the new levelOne range is the FCS-3061 Day/Night H.264 Megapixel PoE IP Dome Camera with a 3-axis mechanical design and DI/1 DO for external alarm and sensor detection. The new camera series also has the WCS-0030 a wireless camera option that has a built in SD card, PIR detection and two way audible. So with a sound build quality the levelOne Megapixel IP camera range is worth a look.

Honeywell CCTV

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It does not seem to matter where in the world you go, CCTV and Honeywell are inextricably linked. The Honeywell brand is one known to most and no more than in the UK. But when it comes to CCTV and security the brand seems to turn up everywhere. Honeywell India, Honeywell USA, Honeywell UK are huge markets for security and the Fusion DVR is right up there when it comes to recording,web based access and flexibility. With this in mind we suggest you check out the Fusion IV to see if this Hybrid DVR can take care of your security needs.

WV-SC385 Megapixel PTZ dome from Panasonic

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Panasonic PTZ megapixel IP dome

We recently highlighted the New WJ-NV200 network video recorder from Panasonic. The NVR is one way Panasonic hope to bring IP video to the masses. Facial recognition is a key feature of the WJ-NV200 but any recording solution can only be as good as good as the streamed images that are being input into the NVR. That is why Panasonic have released two new cameras to help compliment their recording solution. They are the WV-SP102 and the WV-SP105. In a bid to target small retail, workshop and office environments both the cameras come in both VGA or HD formats both giving 720p definition.

Megapixel PTZ dome camera.


The I-PRO series though also needed a megapixel IP dome camera with fully functional PTZ . This is about to be released by Panasonic and is the WV-SC385. Features include H.264 /MPEG-4JPEG dual streaming up to 30 images per second (IPS). Also megapixel images up to 4VGA . The new WV-SC385 also boasts true day/night and most importantly POE . It is IP 66 rated and ONVIF compliant. The most important point is the Panasonic name that tends to suggest that this fully functional PTZ dome will be both innovative and reliable.