Subscriber Discussion

Milestone Husky Or Hikvision NVR - What Should I Pick?

U
Undisclosed #1
Mar 16, 2017

Please help, I have narrowed my selection to Milestone Husky or Hikvision NVR. Which one would you pick? Not sure I can justify the premium of going with Milestone. Any advice?

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Josh Hendricks
Mar 16, 2017
Milestone Systems

All depends on what you think the customer needs, or might need in the future.

Price and feature/extensibility-wise, these are opposite ends of the spectrum from each other. Can I ask how you narrowed the selection down to these two?

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U
Undisclosed #6
Mar 18, 2017

"Can I ask how you narrowed the selection down to these two?"

This was the first question I had when reading the headline....

What led you to narrow your search to just these two devices?

Seems kind of an odd pairing.  i.e. what excluded other solutions when you were 'narrowing down'?

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Mar 16, 2017

Go Husky/Milestone.  I sell competing products against both manufacturers, and I would consider the Husky to be a more mature product.  The Milestone VMS is pretty solid, while the HIK CMS appears "clunky" (a VERY technical term, I know), plus their (HIK) products are flooded with network security issues (please, see other posts on IPVM).  If customer is a "penny-pincher", then the HIK is an option, but I'd protect YOUR backside with some type of "not responsible for your network security" waiver.  That one piece, might make the customer strongly consider the higher end option.  Thoughts?  

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MC
Marty Calhoun
Mar 18, 2017
IPVMU Certified

If you have the time and money BUY BOTH and compare them side by side not only for this project but also for future jobs. There will always be another client where you could use either. Ask yourself (or the client) what are the features you will need? Do you prefer licensing charges? Don't waste money on options that sound 'futuristic' but really are of no use and costly.

Consider the 'flood of security issues' to be exactly what it is a "network security" issue not to be confused with any component (such as a recorder) parked on a network. Network security (generally speaking) is the obligation of the IT department, not the consumer.TV's are assumed to be 'venerable', are you going to stop watching one because someone else said it could call home?

Make a clear decision on your purchase by what you investigate and understand and not on the opinion of "undisclosed" commentators that may have an ax to grind.

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U
Undisclosed #3
Mar 16, 2017

I think Milestone is a convoluted nightmare. If you are doing 64 or less cameras, go with Hikvision. If you are doing a large amount of cameras and you really want a VMS, consider something other than milestone.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #4
Mar 17, 2017

While yes, Milestone Expert and above can be daunting the lower tier products such as that on most of the Husky product line is so simple.  It has like 4 wizards that guide you through key steps.

I view it like this:

If you want cheap, plug and play use Hikvision.  If you want features, performance, and not to show up on every hackers radar choose Husky.

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U
Undisclosed #3
Mar 17, 2017

my comment wasnt really based on complication or being daunting. It was more based on bloated software. This is gonna hurt but I think Milestone is way more clunky than a Hik Standalone. As far as features, I cant name one feature that one would really need that Milestone has that Hik doesnt.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #4
Mar 17, 2017

Fair enough statement.  "Good enough" may be what the original poster is looking for as I am not certain the scale of the system.  I am also not familiar enough with the Hik NVRs to compare/contrast feature sets.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #8
Mar 21, 2017

I'll have to disagree with you on that one. I've deployed both and the Hik was way more of a pain to setup than the Husky. 

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
Mar 18, 2017

[Milestone Employee]

The Husky M20 is a great value and a really solid NVR with very high-performance. It is limited by Milestone to 24 cameras, but the performance specs would allow sizable cameras since it has 200 mbps throughput.

If that is too expensive, but you still have dollars you must spend, buy (or build) a low cost PC with 64-bit Windows and use Milestone Express software.

If that is still to expensive, then buy a really cheap Windows CPU (64-bit) and put a free copy of Milestone Essentials on it (up to 8-cameras). It uses the same Same Smart Client, Web Client, and Mobile Clients that the paid products do and it is not restricted in any manner except being limited to 8-cameras.

You really don't have anything to lose trying a free, world-class product.

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RS
Robert Shih
Mar 19, 2017
Independent

Okay wait wait wait wait wait.

Everyone needs to hold off on their two cents before having this list of questions answered.

 

  • How many cameras will this job start and potentially end with?
  • What is the physical scope of this project? Campus? Restaurant?
  • Are there existing cameras and who made them and how long ago?
  • Are we mixing brands or are we going to have one uniform platform for everything?
  • Do you need analytics and what kinds?
  • Is video surveillance all you intend to do?
  • What about Video Intercom and Access Control?
  • How much storage do you need and do you need redundancy?
  • What is your personal experience level?
  • What level of priority is cybersecurity for this project?
  • What is the project's budget?

 

Basically, we need details.

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Joseph Trowbridge
Mar 20, 2017

My honest personal opinion - I would never install a HIK anything - security issues asside (and there seems to be many) I have viewed and used the HIK NVR and the unit is very not user friendly and although the Milestone does have a learning curve it is a far better product.

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TB
Tim Ballman
Mar 20, 2017

we just installed 10 cameras on a husky m30. very easy to program and use strongly recommend the package

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Scot MacTaggart
Mar 21, 2017

Husky.  It's not close.  Not only does it support nearly every camera on the market, it offers WAY better user interfaces and overall experience.

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JV
Jorrit Verhoeven
Mar 21, 2017

Hello.

Have you ever heard of PROMISE NVR?
They are an great solution, and Milestone Licensed.

They are fully optimized NVR with an easy to use WEB enabled configuration tool where you can configure EVERYTHING the server needs to do Incl. the RAID (PROMISE is the Mother of all raids)

All sensors are visible there, users can be setup with different configuring and monitoring access levels.

Regards

 

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U
Undisclosed #6
Mar 21, 2017

The Promise Vess A-series is an "NVR storage appliance" - someone else's VMS software (X-Protect, Ocularis, Next, Intellect, etc) must be installed on the box.

Says so right in the intro video at the top of your first link.

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U
Undisclosed #6
Mar 21, 2017

also, even wikipedia dislikes the link you provided to Promise Technology (mother of all RAIDs)

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UD
Undisclosed Distributor #7
Mar 21, 2017

Hello Undisclosed #6.

Why don't you show who you are so we can have a discussion about it?
I have no problem with "aggressive" replies like yours, but why hide your identity.

"Even Wikipedie dislikes" why would YOU dislike something you have not used before?Do you know the VESS? do you know the promise NVR? are we not talking about NVR's! and yes, even if the person asked for the HUSKY or HIKVISION i pointed to a third option.

My post is meant as "Information" i'm not related to PROMISE but very satisfied with the prices and the hardware.
I agree that you have to install a VMS on the server but if you compare prices and options you might find out that the VESS is a good choice.

Of all the replies i've seen here on IPVM your's is the most useless of them all and fully off topic.

Thank you.

(I undisclosed my name i don't want to scare you)
Regards Jorrit

 

 

 

U
Undisclosed #6
Mar 21, 2017

I'm off-topic?

Did the OP ask about other solutions - or just ask about choosing between the two listed solutions?

And your 'information' had nothing to do with the OP - you offered up something entirely different - a storage device.

Hence my aggressive response, which, coupled with my fear of your scathing rebuke, requires me to post undisclosed.

 

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JH
John Honovich
Mar 21, 2017
IPVM

No more about Promise from either one of you. This is off topic of the OP.

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JH
John Honovich
Mar 21, 2017
IPVM

#6 has emailed me protesting about my admin post. 

The point is simple, if a person asks for A or B, then we should focus on helping them decide between A and B, not offering C, D, E.

For example, we could also say 'hey but use Dahua or Exacq or Avigilon or Genetec or Unview or whatever" but that does far more to cause promotional use and confusion than addressing the topic.

If #6 or anyone thinks Promise is a good solution, fine, start a new discussion and talk about it there.

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