Subscriber Discussion

Feedback On Geovision?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Mar 14, 2015

Is it OEM made?

Why don't we talk about here?

How does the New 32 and 64 channel VMS stack up next to the big dogs? and Hikvison?

Are they the only manufacture with the aurora color at night sensor on 2 megapixel?

JH
John Honovich
Mar 14, 2015
IPVM

No, to my knowledge, Geovision is not an OEM. However, quite a number of Western companies OEM / relabel them.

We have 3 tests of their products including the Aurora super low lux one:

In terms of people here talking or using them, one factor is that they have comparatively low marketing / sales presence in North America. And since they are not incredibly inexpensive like Dahua, there's less motivation for people to seek them out.

Since we have not tested their VMS, I can't comment one way or another on that.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
Mar 15, 2015

Geovision does come up from time to time but their market presence in the US, where IPVM is based, is meager and limited mostly to the low end of the market. Geovision is being eclipsed by Dahua and Hikvision who rely on distributors for additional marketing support. As far as I am aware Geovision still sells direct to integrators and small online distributors.

I have made use of Geovision extensively in the past, but my information is dated as they have come out with new products in the past couple years. I can tell you their VMS is stable and easy to configure. Nearly any feature that would be desired in a mid range non-enterprise VMS is/was present. More advanced features that products like Milestone or Genetec has are either very basic or not implemented. The VMS tends to be like some of the early VMS where there are many different applications that make up a whole package, but not one tightly integrated product. There is some poor English translation in the software, but not a massive amount, just enough to be embarrassing in demonstrations.

It is not OEM made, Geovision makes their own product. Their go to market strategy is a bit like Avigilon. Geovision has their own card access equipment, makes their own cameras, and support for third party equipment is more and more reliant on ONVIF.

Customer support has classically been poor, but the product is intuitive enough it is rarely needed. When support is needed it was very challenging to acquire as even the California employees were non-native English speakers. Even today, the front line sales staff are Americans but at trade shows the technical questions are answered by technical staff that uses English as a second language. However, Geovision has recently built out a training/certification program, hired US based employees, and have started to build training / demonstration centers in the US. Geovision appears to be making more of a push to actively market stateside, but their efforts appear to be limited to trade shows and email.

(3)
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
Apr 20, 2015

[Note: Poster is a Geovision employee.]

You are correct that GeoVision does not OEM for anyone and manufacturers their own equipment. However, they do not sell direct. They changed their business model a little over 2 years ago to only sell through distribution. And those distributors include every major national brand (ADI, Anixter, Tri-Ed, Graybar, etc). Their product line is certainly not tailored to the low-end market. They did release their 'target series' to compete with Hikvision on price, but for the most part they are competing with the likes of Axis. And to be honest, their quality and features are just as good as Axis, but for 20-40% less. They have recently decided their plan of attack in the U.S. would be to go with more local support, and have opened offices in NY, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Montreal in the last year or so. As far as marketing, they do primarily rely on trade shows and other distributor events, but with regional offices they will be hosting customer events and trainings quite often. .

(2)
(1)
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
Apr 23, 2015

"However, they do not sell direct. They changed their business model a little over 2 years ago to only sell through distribution."

Are you really, really, really sure about that? Because we have a client that we know for a fact, because we do other security related work for them, buys their cameras direct from Geovision, at a price lower than we as an integrator can get them for, confirmed by a Geovision sales manager. So you might want to double check that.

(1)
(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Mar 15, 2015

GEOVISION is NOT an OEM.

Rather a company which is contemporary to a whole bunch of companies founded in Taiwan in the 90's that focused heavily on making better electronics and software user interfaces than PRC (Mainland China).

Also better international sales support from their staff (many studied abroad and could easily speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, etc. that in some cases was not that distinct from a native speaker) than any chinese company could offer at that time and that helped them to gain a huge market share in Europe and Latin America.

AVERMedia (Founded 1990), AVTECH (1996), GEOVISION (1998), VIVOTEK (2000), NUUO (2004). Even though AVERMedia was founded earlier, they where more famous for their PC TV-Tuner cards, rather than security DVR Capture Cards for surveillance. And AVTECH focused more on the classic standalone Linux DVR for any vanilla-flavor analog camera.

GEOVISION and lately NUUO as well, focused more on the Microsoft Windows 98/XP/7 platform: to make security software that would run on most PC desktops and make every PC essentially a DVR and make it "not dirt-cheap so as to keep their quality standard and Very-Well-Made in Taiwan" slogan; but make it affordable to a majority of integrators so that they can still earn a decent margin of profit as well (unlike other American and European more expensive brands). And they've been doing so with their IP Megapixel and FishEye cameras as well.

Now, with HIKVISION, DAHUA and other Chinese OEMs price war pressure, they are launching a cheaper entry level line of IP cameras along with Linux-embedded NVRs to compete.

I think their products are like most Taiwanese brands: targeting in-between a mid-level to high market, not the MOST expensive nor the cheapest choice either, with a decent sales support and profit margin for the installer, and less headaches for the installers than some "chinese OEM piece of electronic junk" that you can buy from a company in Shenzhen or online via Alibaba.

For an analogy in the PC industry, think:
- Linksys/Belkin -versus- CISCO Home Routers.
- Genius -vs- LOGITECH Mouse & Keyboards.
- ASUS/MSI -vs- INTEL Motherboards.
- QNAP/Synology -vs- LaCie/Western Digital NAS Storage.
- AOC -vs- SAMSUNG/SONY LCD monitors.

IMHO: You, as an installer, can save on the extra-premium for the heavy marketing/advertising that other brands spend for brand awareness and still get a decent working electronic surveillance product.

Of course, as I've always said: if the customer is willing to pay premium price for CISCO, just give them CISCO. If not, then offer them BELKIN, TrendNet, D-LINK, TP-LINK, etc. Period !!...

(5)
UD
Undisclosed Distributor #6
Apr 24, 2015

Geovision comes from the analog world and they were very late coming to market with IP solutions to compete with IP only companies like Vivotek and ACTi who were already well entrenched. Tough row to hoe in the current environment without having something which clearly differentiates you.

(1)
New discussion

Ask questions and get answers to your physical security questions from IPVM team members and fellow subscribers.

Newest discussions