Subscriber Discussion

Ipcorder - Better Than Axis CC Or Milestone Arcus?

BH
Bohan Huang
Apr 10, 2013

Hi Guys,

What do you think of the Koukam IPCorder - the UI looks pretty nicely thought out (much more powerful then ACC) - and the power consumption and compactness is pretty nice too.

The 8 channel model is only $600 MSRP, add 3TB AV-GP/SV35 HDD for $850 MSRP - beats buying 8 x 64GB SD cards ($119 MSRP I think for Sandisk Ultra 64GB SDXC microSD), with much easier remote viewing router config (only a couple of ports), official, free mobiles apps for every platform, multi channel playback, a full month of recording, etc...

Anybody seen anything like it?

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Apr 10, 2013
Nelly's Security

That is a Taiwanese manufactured NVR. I cant remember the manufacturer off of my head, but I do remember seeing that specific model along my travels at one time.

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Sean Nelson
Apr 10, 2013
Nelly's Security

If I remember correctly, I was going to buy a sample at one time, but it did not offer server based motion detection recording so with (most) Onvif cameras, you wont get motion detection. Could be different now though, i havent touched base in a while.

BH
Bohan Huang
Apr 10, 2013

Sean: Are you saying IPCorder/Koukaam (Tainwanese company) is not the original developer/manufacturer of this device? The Website smells pretty original...

Regarding server side motion detection: its not going to happen with these devices as they use ~3W CPUs (total system board draw is only 7.5W which includes RAM, flash, LAN controller, etc...) that has nowhere near enough resources to decode and analyze 16 channels (most channels KNR-200 series) of even 7fps CIF H264 video. you would need at least a 10W Atom D2700 for that.

The actual processing hardware performance of this thing is not worth that much - its is the form factor, power consumption and the nice software that sells it for me.

It would be great if they started licensing that software.

What prompted me to open this thread was what I perceived to be low value in:

1. The LenovoEMC Arcus Solution ($1100 for 4CH with extra channels likely to cost ~$40 like Xprotect Essential).

2. Axis Camera Companion (not enough storage, cost of SD cards, lots of ports to forward, lack of multi channel playback...)

Now I assume that when a huge resourceful company like LenovoEMC/Axis make something, that they will research what they are going against and deliver value/cost effectiveness (for example although Axis cameras are not cheap they have advanced API/processing power and an app ecosystem for analytics/LPR/etc that is unique and valuable, Lenovo's ThinkPad T series are some of the most expensive notebooks but are known to feature heavily reinforced but lightweight chassis that withstand drops where as most competitors will break). I just don't see the value with the LenovoEMC Arcus Solution and Axis ACC - how is the LenovoEMC Arcus NAS cost effective/deliver value and how does Axis expect customer to deal with the 64GB limitation that only stores 3 days of continuous video at 2MP/12FPS/1.8Mbps (okay so you nerviously try to convince the customer that motion only occurs 25% of the time [must be a pretty unprofitable retail store with no customers...] but that still only gets you 12 days - which is going backwards - every integrator we have surveyed always gave at least a full month with DVRs and analogue cameras).

Is it really like some people say - that these products are just meant to "test the waters" and gauge interest? But what about reputation of the company - isn't it bad to be in the news and reviews for having crippled solutions or low value hardware products?

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Sean Nelson
Apr 10, 2013
Nelly's Security

No I am pretty sure they are not the original manufacturer. That rectangular design with the web graphics on the front is unmistakable, I am almost 100% positive I have seen that before and inquired about it. For the life of me I cannot find any info on it now though.

BH
Bohan Huang
Apr 10, 2013
Avatar
Sean Nelson
Apr 10, 2013
Nelly's Security

There it is

BH
Bohan Huang
Apr 10, 2013

But I have a feeling the IPCorder has got exclusive with it or something - because the newer KNR-5xx models do not show up on Lynstan's website.

Also - this is weird - Lynstan's other products including cameras/DVRs/etc... all look like they are from the 1990s (old, beige and ugly) - but this thing looks like a designer piece of equipment - and the software looks really polished for a small company in-house developed solution.

Maybe IPCorder/Koukaam had a hand in the software? At the end of the day it is the VMS that makes/breaks the product.

Something smells very fishly here...

Anyone know more about this? on similar products? (a note that typical NVRs with local HDMI video output have fairly inflexible FPS limits due to the decoder capabilities and also fairly horrible web interface/remote think clients - where as this software actually looks like its is worth using)

BH
Bohan Huang
Apr 10, 2013

Whats funny is I have noticed all the OEMs seem to have lots of spelling/grammar mistakes/formatting nightmares all over the the place where as the rebranders look like the real deal (well some rebranders anyway...).

You could almost use this charateristic as a classifier for dividing OEMs and rebranders!

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Sean Nelson
Apr 10, 2013
Nelly's Security

Maybe so. Could be that IPcoder is the manufacturer. Or it could be that another company manufacturers it and these guys are just re-selling it.

At any rate, Taiwan has some pretty slick NVR's for decent prices. The Taiwan GUI's are much better than the Chinee GUI's but have similar pricing as Chinese NVR's. Aver is another good manufacturer out of Taiwan that has pretty decent pricing on Hybrids and they are soon to release some standalone NVR's that could shake the market up.

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Vincent Tong
Apr 12, 2013

Security Cameras Direct sells the same product.

JH
John Honovich
Apr 14, 2013
IPVM

As does Supercircuits, who markets it under the Solstice brand.

VB
Vivek Bagri
Apr 14, 2013

I have used ipcorder in India. We distribute here. They are a prague based company and they manufacture the hardware in taiwan but it is designed in their headoffice in prague/they have a dedicated hw and sw development team there. Koukaam is also one of the largest distributors of vivotek in europe and hence the company has some experience in dealing with ip cameras. Since i represent them in India i would not like to advertise on this forum. But personally i really like the product and have sold a few hundred units.

JH
John Honovich
Apr 14, 2013
IPVM

Note, Vivek's comment is a good example of a useful comment from a vendor/re-seller. He actually provided new facts and appropriate disclosure. Thanks.

SC
Sergio Coimbra
Apr 14, 2013

I know this company since the beginning. We are selling in Brazil. It is reliable easy to use and very good price. Excellent option now they just need to realease an CMS to control these NVR

Sergio Menke / Brazil

KB
Keith Becker
Apr 15, 2013

I manage the Solstice OEM version of this product for the US market. We have offered it at SC and SCD for about 8 months now. Koukaam is the original manufacturer and all development is done in Prague. They manufacturer final products in Taiwan as Vivek mentioned. In comparing to the Lenovo Arcus solution, no licensing is required with Solstice/IPcorder as the units are produced with fixed camera counts based on the hardware performance. Each system has a resource bank based on bit rate. For example, the 16 channel unit has a 64Mbps incoming bit rate limit that can be split any which way among the channels. It is similar though to the ACC solution as you do need to port forward for every camera so set up does take a little time. Customer feedback has been good as the client is 100% web based and uses a Java plugin so any browser can be used.

KB
Keith Becker
Apr 15, 2013

Also, Sergio is correct to mention this system doesn't currently offer a CMS so it is a single site solution from a management point of view.

BH
Bohan Huang
Apr 15, 2013

"It is similar though to the ACC solution as you do need to port forward for every camera so set up does take a little time" - Surely this is not true? As in to do remtoe access you just need to port forward only the one port for the IPCorder web server right?

Purhaps you have not used ACC - with ACC you have to forward at least N ports for N cameras connected to the system: like 554 for cam 1, 555 for cam 2, etc...

KB
Keith Becker
Apr 15, 2013

You have to forward 2 ports for the IPcorder unit and then 2 ports for each camera. Live video is passed directly from each camera which is partially why costs on these units can be kept so low. So for a 4 channel system, you must forward a total of 10 ports. The unit does offer UPnP automatic fowarding and NAT if your router supports this. We have found that it is easier to manually set up the forwarding rules in most routers though.

KB
Keith Becker
Apr 15, 2013

Also Bohan, I am working with Koukaam on changing how they handle remote access so I do see us getting down to 2 primary ports per system in the future. It is just going to take a little time to accomplish.

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