Arecont's QA and Reliability Examined

Published Nov 10, 2010 00:00 AM
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While determining accurate failure rates for cameras is difficult, a number of signs point to ongoing issues with Arecont's cameras.

The difficultly in determining failure rates is driven by (a) only the manufacturer knowing the actual number and (b) variances over time and model as hardware changes are made.  Because of this, it's very hard to make conclusions based on small number or short period sample sizes. We receive regular notices of hardware problems but are generally reluctant to do anything as we cannot be confident of the reports being an aberration.

However, in our experience, one IP camera manufacturer stands out for reliability concerns - Arecont Vision. Not only are they the manufacturer our integrator members most regularly report problems on, they are the camera manufacturer we have seen the most issues with in our own testing. We've done two rounds of testing over 2 years and both times we had to return multiple cameras and upgrade to new or beta firmware to fix problems. During this time, we asked Arecont Vision about the issues. Each time, Arecont acknowledged some prior problems but claimed that they had since been resolved. However, just last week, we had to upgrade to a beta firmware to fix an significant imaging problem on a camera available in production for the past 4 months (this problem, though reduced, still exists in the 10MP camera tested).

While Arecont undoubtedly offers low pricing for the resolution they offer and an aggressive new product release schedule, reliability issues are both a tax on integrators and a risk factor in timely and satisfactorily completing projects.

Below, Arecont Vision's CEO has responded addressing these concerns and describing their recently improved QA process.