That is a tricky question. First, Hikvision lists it both as a VMS and CMS on their website. Second, from an overall user interface standpoint, using the software it seems to be designed more as a CMS than a pure VMS. This is in comparison to the Hikvision predecessors of iVMS-4200/5200. HikCentral does not seem to be as video-centric of an interface as those, with its focus on data analytics integration, access control integration, etc.

As of version 1.2 there also isn't recording functionality in the base server application itself. The system can interface with recordings directly on a Hikvision NVR, or recorded directly to a camera or "encoding device", and you can record to a Hybrid SAN or Cloud Storage Server. There are limitations to recording using the Hybrid SAN or Cloud Storage options such as no 360 panoramic cameras support, no analytic data playback, no server recording status, etc.

We will be releasing a full test report of HikCentral V1.2 highlighting its strengths, capabilities, and limitations (primarily from a VMS point-of-view).

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(2)

Undisclosed #1

•Jul 06, 2018

IPVMU Certified

In reply to Sean Patton

Thanks Sean for the research.

To be clear, you are saying that there is no recording to local (non SAN) drive arrays, right?

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Sean Patton

•Jul 06, 2018

In reply to Undisclosed #1

That appears to be the case. We have not gone through testing of the full software at this point, just conversations with HikCentral support and information from HikCentral v1.2 documentation:

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Sean Patton

•Jul 06, 2018

In reply to Undisclosed #1

Also just to note the Blazer Pro system they list on their website is HikCentral prepackaged in a single chassis, 2 PC board housing. Even the Blazer Pro software download is just a HikCentral installer package.

So you can buy one box that is both the Server and the Storage, but they are 2 separate servers in the housing:

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Undisclosed #1

•Jul 06, 2018

IPVMU Certified

In reply to Sean Patton

IMHO, the Hikvision Hybrid SAN appears to be an NVR as well as a SAN. And it doesn’t appear as if Hik Central supports a generic SAN.

I think the idea is to make you buy hardware or cloud.

So, besides iVMS 4200, Hik doesn’t seem to offer a software only VMS, in the U.S. at least.

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Sean Nicholas

•Jul 13, 2018

When you test their iVMS can you touch upon multi monitor setup. We have a client that has 8 NVRs connected to 8 TV's. We were looking at the iVMS as a potential solution. The idea is to get a powerful server machine with multi monitor setup.

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Sean Patton

•Jul 13, 2018

In reply to Sean Nicholas

We have tested iVMS previously (iVMS-4200 Tested, iVMS-4200 Load Testing), but I don't see anything specifically about multi-monitor setups, but I believe we have tested it. I will check on this today.

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