About eight years ago, one of my customers turned me on to GeoVision. Another integrator was using it and he wanted me to take over the service of the systems previously installed. Since then, I did quite a bit of research on the product. I've used the internet for general searching. I joined IPVM to learn more about the IP products in general.
It turns out that previous integrator actually placed quite a bit of GeoVision product. Many people in my market are aware of it. The police say it is heavily used - they are familiar with it. My understanding the company got started by making those analog digitizing cards. Now the DVR software comes with any digitizing card or IP camera you buy from them. If you are into building your own boxes, buy the best digitizing card and you can get 16 analog cameras, full D1 resolution at 30 fps. The software supports up to 32 cameras - in any mix of analog or IP.
In the customer I talked about, I've been replacing all of their old 16 channel analog DVRs with new 24TB, 16 channel analog, 16 channel IP devices. This directly supports their existing cameras and allows new IP cameras to be added or replaced as needed. I tend to use GeoVision IP cameras where possible with them - up to 5MP at full frame rate - normally 10-15 fps.
They have a full line of software - most of it pretty clutzy compared to other manufacturers. However, it is extremely feature rich when you take the time to learn it. This customer has taken the time to learn and understand it, they love it - especially for the price. For the most part, all of the analytics are included free, all done at the DVR.
GeoVision has announced a complete update to their software platform. It is in the early stages, but it has the look and feel of everyone else - many windows conventions, pretty intuitive.