Subscriber Discussion

Did This Unknown Chinese Company Make My Camera?

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Greg M. Ray
Sep 10, 2013

I am using a 2mp camera with IR that looks identical to one I found by Howen Technologies. Does anyone have any knowledge of this company good bad or indifferent?

I was told my current camera internal components may not be OEM and other companies just buy the housings and build there own components?

JH
John Honovich
Sep 10, 2013
IPVM

Greg, they report having 500+ employees. That said, I have never heard of them, can find little information on them online and no references in cctv discussion groups online. This does not mean they are bad. However, it strongly implies that they sell only to other companies who then rebrand / package their products.

I do not know who your current camera company is but, in general, the 'we just buy the housing' argument is a lie. Your current camera company may very well be a phony manufacturer.

If you can share more details about the model or company, we can be more specific.

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Greg M. Ray
Sep 10, 2013

John, I have this camera and really like the image, and so did my client. I have sold 7 for home security to him an IT guru who did some comparisons with some of his own cameras at 2mp. Could this possibly be a manufacture you test if I was to provide you cameras at some point?

I enjoy reading and learning about this industry from your site. I would like to entertain buying direct and doing some distribution however not being educated yet on all the manufacturing process I will have to wait.

JH
John Honovich
Sep 10, 2013
IPVM

Greg, we are ramping up do a 'no name' Chinese IP camera shootout to see how well they compare against Dahua, Hikvision, Axis, etc.

I have not thought through the details yet about which manufacturers to select.

KL
Keefe Lovgren
Sep 11, 2013
IPVMU Certified

greg digimerge/flir also uses a similar camera...

DND13TL2

JH
John Honovich
Sep 11, 2013
IPVM

You either just outed Flir's source or Flir just 'buys the housing' from them :)

JD
Jim Daly
Sep 15, 2013

Hi John,

Have you ever been to China to see how the sourcing of CCTV equipment is done over there?

There are companies that just make camera housings for sale to other companies to fit whatever combination of internal components you specify.

You can work with them to design your own housing and have them make it exclusively for. They usually have some sort of regular minimum quantity order. If you do not maintain the regular orders they often reserve the right to sell the housing to others.

The camera in the picture is also made by Sunell one of the better Chinese CCTV camera manufacturers and I can guarantee you they are a real manufacturer not just a trading company. I am also pretty sure they will not entertain small orders and will only deal with established CCTV companies.

Regards

Jim

JH
John Honovich
Sep 15, 2013
IPVM

'Real' manufacturers typically do not buy housings that have very distinguishing features that look just like rival's. Indeed, even big OEMs try to make cosmetic changes to try to fool people into thinking that the camera is not a rebrand. If digimerge has the same very distinct housing as 2 chinese companies, I am going to bet that they buy from one of those two companies. Indeed, in China and Taiwan, it's not unusual for these companies to OEM to each other.

Lastly, I agree with your statement, "You can work with them to design your own housing and have them make it exclusively for." Since digimerge evidently has the same exact housing as others, it gives weight to the opposing point - that they are not simply buying a housing and designing / building the rest themselves.

U
Undisclosed #1
Sep 16, 2013

At least Howen Technologies is not listed when searching on Search - MAC or OUI address lookup - What is my IP address?" target="_blank">HW Address directory: Search - MAC or OUI address lookup - What is my IP address? . On the other hand Digimerge, Sunell and Flir do appear, so youl´ll have to search using the camera mac address and see results.

Remember that a search result doens´t mean that this would be the "real" manufacturer because anyway MAC addresses are programmable on Ethernet interfaces, so they can put "whatever" address the manufacturer wants there.

Also remember that a brand name is made on many things besides the HW, the brand great values resides on its support, representation, ... It´s probably that Hower Technologies or whatever company names gives a better support than the "real" camera manufacturer

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