Pros And Cons For Avigilon Vs Pelco Vs Milestone System?

No much of experience with Avigilon but had both Pelco and Milestone installed by my integrators and both systems performed well even on difficult locations. I would give an advantage to Milestone due to its reliability and customer support we had. Milestone we used on truly large projects that included casinos,hotels and other areas.

How important are video analytics to you?

I would try and stay away from Pelco. They have had so many different versions of software, recorders and cameras I eventually gave up on them. I saw their latest software and it looked cool but I have heard it really isn't all that good other than it has eye candy. Milestone is really good and gives you flexibility to work with about any camera out there with a true integration to the camera instead of just through ONVIF. Avigilon is really easy to install and operate and their cameras are good as well but they don't have the solid integration to other camera manufacturers that Milestone does to my knowledge. 

Kyaw,

That's a loaded question.

Outside of viewing live and recording, the system features and operation can be very different based on your business requirements.

What is the business case & requirements? What is the industry? Will it be used for security, process monitoring, or other? Do you require analytics or just live view and recorded history? What are you trying to capture? Does the system need to be scalable? Do I need centralized management? What are your expectations for ongoing licensing, etc.

The point is there are a lot of things to consider.

I would start with building an RFP surrounding the business requirements then add detailed questions for each vendor. Based on the responses, select the two best vendors and go to proof of concept. Then perform testing with administrators and end users to see if any of the vendors meet your business requirements.

I've tested most of the top vendors including Avigilon and Milestone.
Avigilon was a great system but Milestone came out on top based on my requirements.

Pelco was not considered based on previous experience.

Good luck!
Dwayne

Kyaw, both Milestone and Avigilon are valid choices depending upon your needs. In my opinion selecting Pelco is essentially selecting based upon dated brand recognition.  The product line has been neutered and quality is not longer what it was in 2006.

Milestone is great for its “open” capbilities and supports nearly every camera under.  It can be fairly complicated on larger systems but generally works great.  Vendor support used to be tedious with 1-2 hour wait times but the last time I called in was 2015... I certainly hope it has improved.  The drawback to Milestone is the licensing model with recurring software maintenance agreements.  I never had any issues with maintenance agreements but some clients did.

Avigilon is generally easier to use and less costly... if using Avigilon cameras.  Avigilon support for third party cameras is weak at best and IMO appallingly bad.  When Axis cameras are not supported fully that is really poor third party cam support.  

So if you want to be in a fairly easy, well supported product ecosystem Avigilon is the way to go.  If you have no fear of some IT challenges, want to have free reign to use or mix/match any brands of cameras, and are not averse to software maintenance agreements Milestone is an excellent choice.

UI1,

Good point on ports. Avigilon lists 9 ports in their documentation and Milestone lists 21. That could present a challenge as IT departments tighten up security.

My point on licensing is actually the opposite of implying Milestone had a myriad of licenses.

In fact there are only three Milestone support licenses. In general terms, they are:

- Care Basic (included)
- Care Plus and Care Premium (full version updates and 100% trade-in credit)
- Care Premium (Direct support 24/7/365 and prioritized handling)

The point of my reply was that most just don't understand what is required... and I mean their employees and integration partners. I feel that is where the problem starts.

When the integrators, reps and support are delivering mixed messaging on licenses, it makes it very confusing for all.

Many times the confusion relates to the questing of when is Care licensing required. Such as with Huskys, customer owned servers with XProtect, devices, interconnected cameras, etc.

For example, one rep or integrator could say that you MUST have Care Plus license on a device and another Care plus license on the interconnect. Another could tell you that neither is required.

Some may imply that all are literally REQUIRED while others tell you it's a choice.

It's really only a requirement if you require the support, upgrades, etc. The question is, how much support do you need?

As I mentioned, I spend a lot of time sorting these things out on every video project. It could be easier if Milestone looked into the internal confusion.

If my choice was between setting myself on fire while running through a fireworks factory or installing Pelco, id choose the fire. In my experience they have traditionally been really tough to use when using any non pelco cameras.

Avigilon and Milestone are different animals though. Both have excellent tech support! Milestone does alot of things Avigilon does not, many of those things are what tools are available to live operators, but Avigilon’s cameras and VmS are so easy to setup and manage. Their analytics are really good.better than any others that i have seen.

You are forgetting DvTel, didn’t they convince you with the sighing Elvis at GSX.  No really run far away.  

Serious look at what integrates with your access control and IDS as a starting point. The three VMS you provided seem like a wired combination to ask. Why these three?

Avigilon end to end.  No question.  Everything works the way is supposed to work.

Any one can post a detailed comparison between Milestone and Avigilon in terms of features, systems setup, support and price? Let us assume that the customer wants the best - Many 3rd party cameras support, integration with 3rd party NVRs/Access Control Systems/IDS/ANPR/Facial Recognition, AI, easy to setup, stable and reliable whether it is for 50 cameras or 1000s of cameras, good support, good value for money and so on.