Has Pelco Reemerged As A Major Player In The Video Surveillance Space? (NO)

JH
John Honovich
Apr 21, 2017
IPVM

From SIW's newsletter:

Money quote:

The reemergence of Pelco began in 2015 when Sharad Shekhar joined the company directing its global video business and reconnecting the brand with the system integrators with which it had lost favor.

So, vote / comment inside:

Related IPVM posts:

JH
John Honovich
Apr 21, 2017
IPVM

Such a claim is, to put it lightly, optimistic.

There's 2 parts to it:

  • Do industry people care about Pelco?
  • How strong competitively is Pelco?

For (1), industry interest in Pelco is at an all time low and continuing to decline, based on our reader stats and input we get from members. I am not saying most people hate or dislike Pelco but just that Pelco has become irrelevant generally. However, Pelco's integrator favorability ratings were one of the worst:

(2) On the camera side, Pelco just does not have the range and the functionalities to compete, even leaving price out of it. We just finished testing Pelco Surevision 3 and it was ok overall. The multi-imagers are competitively stronger (e.g., see our 180 test and 270 corner test) but that's a niche. On the VMS side, they have a new VMS which we have not tested yet, though it's hard to bring a new VMS to market in 2016 / 2017.

Pelco has nice, good people but it does not appear that Schneider is willing to provide the resources to fight against strong competitors like Avigilon, Axis, Hikvision, Milestone, Genetec, etc.

Agree/disagree?

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MC
Marty Calhoun
Apr 21, 2017
IPVMU Certified

I have sold and installed thousands of Spectra domes like the rest of the Universe but once the IP Camera revolution took hold, Pelco went into hibernation. Where are they? 

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Avatar
Ross Vander Klok
Apr 24, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Yup, they totally missed the boat when it came to IP.  In fact it seems like it took them about three or four years to finally respond which was about three or four years too late....

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EP
Eddie Perry
Apr 24, 2017

Pelco has two options

1 die and go into the history books

2 get someone in leadership with resources and want to make Pelco great again.

 

Sadly even HIKVISON wouldnt buy them

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JH
John Honovich
Apr 24, 2017
IPVM

Sadly even HIKVISON wouldnt buy them

To provide some context, Hikvision did evaluate buying Pelco ~4 years ago but it feel through. 4 years ago, things were a lot different - both in terms of Pelco falling further and even more so Hikvision's rapid North American expansion.

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JH
John Honovich
Apr 24, 2017
IPVM

With 100+ votes, unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly, people vote no, with 85% no.

PC
Pete Castellana
Apr 25, 2017

Your testing of Pelco Surevision 3 was great except it was not the most current firmware that has the Smart Compression (aka..Zip Stream)...You should get the current firmware and run the bit rate test again.

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Apr 25, 2017
IPVM

Pete,

That is incorrect. We checked with Pelco's Director of Product Management and he said the day we released the Surevision 3 test:

We will have Smart Compression on Sarix Enhnaced Next Gen shortly via a firmware upgrade and will make that available to you when it is ready.

That's the last communication I have from him. When they provide it to us, we will add that to the test.

PC
Pete Castellana
Apr 25, 2017

Here is the link to the firmware with the Smart Compression 2.8.09:

 

https://www.pelco.com/search?documentUUID=2f268d34-e73a-4d85-b5fa-e2f6e587e742&title=Optera%20IMM%2012MP%20--%20Firmware%20Release%20Notes%20v2.8.0.9

JH
John Honovich
Apr 27, 2017
IPVM

Pete, the link you provided is to Optera firmware. Our test that we just did that you referred to is Surevision 3. Do you have a link to Surevision 3 firmware with smart codec support?

PC
Pete Castellana
Apr 28, 2017

What is the model of the camera that you have and need the Smart Compression firmware for?

JH
John Honovich
Apr 28, 2017
IPVM

Pete, Let's take this offline. I will email you and Pelco product management in a moment.

U
Undisclosed #1
Apr 25, 2017
IPVMU Certified

The reemergence of Pelco began in 2015 when Sharad Shekhar joined the company directing its global video business and reconnecting the brand with the system integrators with which it had lost favor.

They might have a better shot connecting with fresh integrators than pursuing burned ones.

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AT
Andrew Tierney
Apr 25, 2017

Pelco would have to pull off a miracle to recover their image. It's worse than Hikvision, and they don't have low price on their side.

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Avatar
Ross Vander Klok
Apr 26, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Worse than Hikvision!?!?!?  That is impossible.

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DP
Darron Parker
May 10, 2017

The buzz is real - and I encourage you to reach out to your local Pelco team to have a real discussion about not only our product line, but our take to market strategy for 2017.  These are both very different than the Pelco that struggled through the last decade, and has not happened overnight.  It is clear we made an impression at ISC this year - so come with an open mind and give us a chance, we will not disappoint you.

 

PS.  To be clear - we have never shy'd away from our history, good bad or otherwise.  But we also want to be just as clear that it is just that, history - it is not the Pelco of 2017.

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JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2017
IPVM

Darron, to be clear, I see zero buzz around Pelco. It's just your marketing campaign.

And what impression at ISC? I passed the booth a few times and it was fairly empty. The fact that the Pelco booth was on the far side of the show floor certainly contributed to that, but again not seeing any buzz or real momentum.

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DP
Darron Parker
May 10, 2017

Luck of the irish John :).  I can assure you, our booth was very busy for the majority of the show.  Sorry you missed the fun!  And I agree our marketing team is doing a great job, but their job is being supported by the work our teams have done on our line-up, messaging, strategy and more.  I can also assure you we were getting very positive feedback from our peers and competitors at the show.  You need to be a believer my friend! :)

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JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2017
IPVM

Darron,

See the survey above - 163 votes, 87% say Pelco has not re-emerged as a major player.

Your marketing team got a couple of fluff pieces posted in trade magazines but that does not mean Pelco is back in any real way.

Ultimately, it's a product and pricing issue, it's hard to message / market around those issues.

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UE
Undisclosed End User #2
May 10, 2017

Unfortunately we did meet with our local Pelco team and saw some of the new products.  Well, meeting with them was not the unfortunate part.  The unfortunate part was when we tried some of the newer products, liked one of the newer multi imager models and expressed interest in getting one (optera I think?) to put in for a long term trial.  Quote from Monfort came back at over $4,000.  

Ummm say what?  Before taxes too huh?  So same one I can get online for less than half that?  Hmmmm OK.  Oh you will cut that quote in half now?  How generous of you.  Still about $400-$500 more than online, but thanks for playing.......

I am afraid that unless your take to market strategy involves selling for a whole lot less and telling your sales reps not to be greedy idiots who quote like the internet doesn't exist you will be out of luck.

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Avatar
Christopher Freeman
May 10, 2017

in this market it is very hard to regain with out redesign and restructure of product line. 

You cannot follow the same old strategies and expect to survive. 

cutting edge , and Integration with others , very important 

customer loyalty today is like a magazine , read, and throw out if does not meet or exceed your expectations. 

once a customer always a customer is only as good as the performance level of today. 

Pelco lost the credibility line 

If you work with old products and try to integrate new , you will understand this concept. 

 

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
May 10, 2017

Other than a regional HVAC company installing Pelco, there's no else leading with them in my area (OH). After 34 years of doing business with them, I can't see us doing much more with them other than niche products. The Optera was ok but nothing groundbreaking.  I am kind of curious how many dealers/integrators are still using them. 

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
May 15, 2017

Guess they are still having Roadshows. Very spread out though. Not in every market.

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