A high level executive came to me to say that our choice in Video Surveillance is too complicated and expensive. It takes trained people to install and maintain. He suggested that the system should be based on licencing, low cost mobile support (iPhone, iPad, android), ease of use, ease of setup, ease of maintenance. He also suggested that we should look closer to producs such as Zoneminder , Eyezm and iSpyConnect as examples of simple and easy products.
Given that the first set of requirements is always at the top of the list the other requirements I look for is, scalability across the enterprise, the impact of network bandwidth for streaming, impact on client application due to network latency, the need to garantee recording cability and playback, the need to have strong control over authentication and authorization and many more items.
The question is, how should be differentiate commercial consumer based products such as those in the links above versus known surveillance VMS systems that provide all that and the additional requirements for company use knowing the the price is different. What are the dangers of moving to consumer products, or inversly the benefits if they can prove to be solid.
A lot of times what we face continuously is the company executives who sit in the airport executive lounges and read managment publications that advertise products that do a great sales picth with nothing else behind it.