[Note: This was sent to IPVM this week. This is not from IPVM.]

As you know, things are changing in the industry, Hikvision and Dahua are trashing the market around the world, and as such there are no margins left for anyone.

It's been interesting here to listen to the integrators, who all thought that cheap cameras from China was going to be a good thing, now they are realising that everyone gets that price therefore there is no margin. So, then it becomes a price war on install, and now that has got so low that it's not worth doing, currently here we have people offering a deal on 4 x 3mp hikvision cameras, NVR, installed for $1995, not even sure how they are making money.

I also believe that nobody is really looking at the chinese cameras, there are too many "backdoors" being discovered, Hikvision here actually told, and convinced, a consultant, that all they needed to do was ensure that the password was changed to stop these issues. I had to explain to him the reason it was called a backdoor.

I have been trying to work on solutions, using cameras in security for marketing purposes, lets face it, they have all the money. So we have been showing how they can be used to show ROI on a marketing campaign in a retail environment, or, in the case of a bank, have it recognise age and gender, approximately, to change the adverts on the screens in front of the customers as they walk in, but still, people want cheap.

Anyways, if you have got this far into reading my rant, then thanks, the real reason I am writing to you is because I am leaving this industry as of the end of this month, as its just become too depressing.