Subscriber Discussion

Experience With Cisco VMS And IP Cameras

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Dec 03, 2014

Has anyone had any exposure to the Cisco VMS and Cisco branded IP Cameras ?

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JH
John Honovich
Dec 03, 2014
IPVM

There are a handful of members who have commented recently about Cisco surveillance products.

Summary is:

VMS much improved, however watch out for problems integrating with 3rd party IP cameras. Their own IP cameras are fairly pedestrian.

What type of application are you looking for Cisco products?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Dec 03, 2014

One of our clients IT department went alone and purchased the add on VMS software and cameras as they had Cisco running the backbone of all the IT.

The VMS and also the camera qualitity seems very poor and over priced compared with main stream products.

The cameras they have purchased are the Cisco 3530,6030,7030,6400,6000 and the 6930.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Dec 03, 2014

Our limited experiance has been replacing Cisco VMS with our own offerings for two customers because they were unhappy with Cisco. They didn't like the interface or the cameras. Last one was 3rd quarter of last year. We have done several quotes that involved replacing Cisco for other potential customers that we did not win the jobs. I don't have specific details on why they wanted to replace Cisco at those locations.

SP
Sean Patton
Dec 04, 2014

We just replaced a Cisco system recently, the customer was very unhappy with the performance. They had a mix of models from the pure Cisco models to the Pelco-rebrands. The happy Cisco customers and supports are certainly not very vocal out there... take that for what its worth. There must be some(?)

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km
kenneth macphee
Dec 07, 2014

It seems once the security department completes their learning curve which has to happen with any VMS I dont hear many complaints. This is the newer 7.+ version of course. The biggest issue I see so far is the cooperation and coordination between security and the IT Department. I think there is a discussion on it somewhere on this site but I barely have the time to get this far.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Dec 08, 2014

Hi

FWIW, We looked at some Cisco cameras and to put it plainly, they are not worth the price. Cisco (and many others) must raise the picture quality to compete with the Hikvision and Dahua of this world. One picture at a Hikvision ( almost any of them ) and the Cisco "equivalent" will have most people convinced of that point. Their VMS is Ok not great IMO. There again Exacq, OnSSI, Milestone, Genetec, etc seem to provide much better solution. Their IT infrastructure is their forte but even there I wouldn't automatically go for Cisco although IT department love them (for good reasons , I must add).

I would like to see a discussion on IT and Security Departments cooperation. Classic Turf Wars but Cooperation is a necessity for smooth system operation and integration.

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