I'll address some of your concerns that I know first hand about, and I'll certainly stay out of the gossip and rumor sect that some of this thread has ventured into.
1) They use some of the same components as Dahua and Hik, but they don't use some of the same cheaper chips that caused the whole V1/V2/S2 RMA/quality fiasco of the previous year. They're certainly not trying to purchase Grain Media and become a chip manufacturer. They trust in HiSilicon's micro processors. Currently trusting in OV sensors, which used to be Japanese but was purchased by a Chinese company recently.
2) UNV, at least last year, was the "Official Strategy Partner for HiSilicon in CCTV", many of the UNV engineers used to work at HiSilicon (I personally met a few of them in Hangzhou). UNV has no problem with acquiring chipsets. I don't want to say they have better engineers than Dahua or Hik, but they have less engineers on staff doing just as much work. They hold over 600+ patents and a large percent of them are "inventions" in new technology, like hydrophobic glass or visible spectrum blocking glass that enhances IR. You decide.
3) We've never had better support from a manufacturer than we've had with UNV. However, in America as an installer/integrator you should be getting support from your distributor. UNV will help us if we ever need it, but we haven't needed it yet.
4) It is up to someone else to compare products side by side, I'm not doing it here.
5) Bain capital has $76 Billion under their management. While all of that isn't available to UNV, some of it is, as well as western financial advisors. Whatever one may feel about venture capitalists, for the time being they have the weight of Bain Capital behind them, being an American company that means that UNV will follow more of the American values/business strategies.
6) Not American operated, just American owned with American consulting. They've adopted many of the same Quality Control standards that IBM uses/teaches (ISO9000), and they're CMMI5 which is the highest level of any CCTV Manufacturer. Last year anyway, not sure if Dahua and Hik have managed to get up to level 5 yet, last I checked they were CMMI3. I've not met an American or western employee of UNV, I do believe only the ownership is American.
7) The Huawei heritage can be a concern for many, I like to look at it this way; they left Huawei and went independent. They learned superior communications engineering from Huawei and 3COM, and took what they learned and made a dedicated CCTV company out of it. I believe it's been 5+ years since they left the joint venture, plenty of time for a culture change.
I'm only addressing your questions, I am absolutely not trying to use IPVM as a platform to sell or market products. I would never disclose my company on these forums, and in fact I didn't, Dahua did. I like to let facts do the work. I prefer to talk on IPVM about the macro picture of our industry rather than comparing individual products to each other. I really don't want to be miscontstrued on here, so please don't take me the wrong way.