Subscriber Discussion

Lenel Enterprise Integration With Genetec And Exacq?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Nov 04, 2016

 I have a large corporate client that is looking to integrate their Lenel Enterprise (5 Regions) with an Enterprise Level VMS.  Specifically, they would like events in Lenel to pop video in the VMS such a door propped, door forced, etc..  While this seems very straightforward, and many VMS manufacturers claim to have integrations with Lenel, it has been my experience that they do not integrate with Lenel Enterprise, especially with multiple regions and multiple databases.  

Currently Milestone cannot integrate with Lenel Enterprise, nor can ONSSI in this fashion.  Can anyone tell me if Genetec or Exacqvision has this capability?

 

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Ryan Hulse
Nov 04, 2016

exacqVision does not provide an integration with Lenel that will pull Lenel events into exacqVision. The integration we have goes the other direction: Lenel pulls video from exacqVision to display in their interface.

U
Undisclosed #2
Nov 04, 2016

First, the direct answer to your question is yes, Genetec can integrate to Lenel enterprise. There are some catches to that and it will be very important to consult with Lenel on how you want the integration to occur, but it can happen.

With that said, I would highly, strongly suggest that you and your customer review the option of using Genetec SecurityCenter as the security management/alarm monitoring platform in lieu of importing Genetec events into Lenel. The Genetec OnGuard plugin allows Lenel events to be viewed AND acknowledged in SecurityCenter via a DataConduIT integration, and it makes for a much, much cleaner and smoother end result for the customer.

I don't work for Lenel, Genetec, or Exacq, but I have direct experience with the scenario you describe. The end result of using SecurityCenter to manage alarms is far superior to the alternative.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Nov 07, 2016

Thank you. Actually what we want to do is just as you suggest, pull Lenel events into Genetec. The big question is, can Genetec actually pull events from Lenel Enterprise with regional databases. That seems to be the trouble spot. Pulling events from Lenel ADV or PRO with a single database into Milestone is not an issue, but pulling the same from Lenel Enterprise with regional databases is not currently supported. Do you know if it is supported on Genetec SecurityCenter?

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Brian Rhodes
Nov 07, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Hello, I asked Genetec this, and here is the response:

Genetec does natively support a Mercury based multiregion/multidatabase environment. There are different ways you can deploy such a system. First you can decide to centrally manage all the information from one central server (or multiple for redundancy) and then we would typically use the partition to separate the management of the individual sites. On the other hand, we could manage multiple regional server that are federated, you can also add the global cardholder management if you wish to share cardholders, cardholders group and credentials through the sites.

Additionally, I'll PM you a Genetec contact who would like to ask specific questions.

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Ross Vander Klok
Nov 11, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Why not use the Lenel VMS? Granted it stinks and is obscenely expensive, but it will do the integration you are asking for natively. We use Lenel OnGuard VMS and it does everything you are after it just does not have the advanced functionality of the strictly VMS only type products. Maybe that is all they want though? If that is the case then Lenel's own enterprise VMS will do the trick.

U
Undisclosed #2
Nov 11, 2016

Didn't you answer your own question? :)

Lenel Video is horrible. Just truly horrible. It's not just that it doesn't have "advanced functionality," it's that it doesn't have "basic functionality" either. The list of supported cameras is minimal and seems to be shrinking with every new release, the compression they have to use to be able to handle the video causes significant quality issues compared to a Genetec or Avigilon that can handle large amounts of video without compression, and the search functions are truly putrid, to the point where any company that does even semi-frequent investigations, I can almost generate an ROI calculation off of their video searches alone and how long it takes them to review, consolidate, and export video.

I have said this before and will say it again (much to the chagrin of manufacturers on both sides) -- I have yet to see an access control manufacturer produce a truly top-tier video product, and I have yet to see a video manufacturer produce a truly top-tier access control product. Lenel has it's issues and frustrations, but as an access control platform, there is a reason they are where they are in the access control pecking order (same with CCure, same with S2). Similarly, Genetec isn't perfect on the video side, but their product is so far superior to Lenel Video that it's almost painful to discuss once you've worked on both of them. Unfortunately, Lenel sucks at video, and while Genetec doesn't suck at access control, it's nowhere near a top-tier product...yet. Maybe it will be. But not right now.

I have no hope for Lenel video though. Lenel clearly threw that out as a "oh hey, we can do that too" type thing, and have never developed it. Prism is awful too.

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Ross Vander Klok
Nov 14, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Agree for the most part, but if all they are looking for is video to pop on held/forced/propped doors Lenel video handles that just fine. If they do want more than that or need to conduct extensive searches than yeah Lenel would not work for them.

Our largest issue is the cameras written in like you mentioned. Even some of the newer AXIS models takes 18-24 months to be written in and then only at the firmware level of what the camera was at when it was released. Truly awful in pretty much every sense of the word.

I would never go so far as to recommend Lenel video but I also wouldn't say avoid it at all cost. For the right situation it works just fine.

RH
Richard Hennigan
Nov 14, 2016

The Lenel to Milestone was working about 2 or 3 years ago. You could license the Data Conduit in Lenel and the Access Module in Milestone and do exactly what you described.

In the Milestone Admin you cold read in the Lenel device tree and associate up to three cameras with each Lenel device.

The Lenel events (I think last 3000) we logged to the Milestone database in the Alarm/Event log.

Check with https://www.linkedin.com/in/reiniertuinzing

Richard

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