I just saw they are both ONSSI companies. What are the differences between the two VMS'?
Subscriber Discussion
See-Tec Vs Ocularis
JH
John Honovich
Apr 26, 2016OnSSI bought Seetec in 2015. OnSSI uses Seetec's 'engine' / 'VMS' / 'recorder' in their VMS. Seetec still sells / uses their own front end for their own customers.
OnSSI is North America focused, Seetec is European focused.
I've asked OnSSI to comment on this.
UE
Undisclosed End User #1
Apr 26, 2016So... is Seetec the platform that ONSSI is using in lieu of Milestone on their 5.x systems?
Edit to add: Yes... ok I heard this story before.
A better question.. when will ONSSI develop a "wizard" of some type so users on the previous Milestone version can update to the latest and greatest without rebuilding the whole system from scratch?
JH
John Honovich
Apr 26, 2016U
Undisclosed #2
Apr 26, 2016How about just a wizard to tell you what devices in your old ONSSI are not supported with the new one?
UE
Undisclosed End User #1
Apr 26, 2016To be fair, you can look this up on their site, model by model. And whenever I've not found a model, they've always been quick in responding to my email questions about specific models.
U
Undisclosed #2
Apr 26, 2016...model by model.
Ok, in that case, how about them just normalizing the model# between the lists, so that there is a 1:1 correspondence between matching devices, instead of differing formats and various wild-card substitutions.
Btw, this is a software company, they could do it easily. The question is why haven't they?
UE
Undisclosed End User #1
Apr 26, 2016If they wanted to get away from Milestone as fast as possible, seems like they would make it as easy as possible.
I do hope they respond.
U
Undisclosed #2
Apr 26, 2016If they wanted to get away from Milestone as fast as possible, seems like they would make it as easy as possible.
IMHO, the reason for the lack of tools is (or was before the legal action) to slow down the number of people attempting such migrations, even though they ultimately want everyone to complete the migration to SeeTec.
Because the migrations are currently quite messy, often requiring a lot of expensive compatibility support, (meaning not level 1 RTFM support)
And every day that they delay someone migrating, is another day of new drivers for SeeTec that get written, which will ultimately make the transition far easier.
So, I ask you, if you're head of engineering, swamped with new driver requests, and you have to decide whether to put a programmer on writing some Hik interfaces or writing an automated tool that will just lead to more demands, which would you choose?
Because the tool won't fix the underlying problem, it just exposes it.
IMHO
Mike Dotson
Apr 27, 2016One thing they did along these lines was to write 'generic vendor drivers' for the camera. Conceptually like a 'vendor specific' ONVIF. The idea was that if a cam from VendorA is not in the supported list....the generic driver can be used instead.
Mike Dotson
Apr 26, 2016In the new scheme of things, you do not have to quit using the older MS engine (for now)....and you can even install the OCC5 version on the same server...and be running BOTH at the same time. The installer is smart enough to see this. They demonstrated this in a couple of their recent webinars.
Of course...the system will need to be able to handle the extra tasks (start with a lot more memory before adding CPU)
UE
Undisclosed End User #1
Apr 27, 2016Correct, but you don't get any of the new features of 5.x on the "Core" platform if running the milestone recorders.
JH
John Honovich
Apr 27, 2016OnSSI feedback on contrast:
[OnSSI] Ocularis is an enterprise VMS and PSIM that focuses primarily on tactical operations and advanced alerting. [Seetec] Cayuga is also an enterprise VMS with more of a focus on business processes. Additionally, there are some feature sets and technology partner integrations that are unique to each product based upon local market requirements. There is also significant market segmentation, as Ocularis and Cayuga are not typically available in the same local markets.
OnSSI on migrating to Seetec engine and more migration tools in 5.2:
Equally as important, incorporating the See Tec recording engine has provided many advantages and new features for Ocularis users including full encryption, higher security for the recorded video database, direct recording to a NAS, the ability to use lower cost SATA hard drives and Manufacturer specific Smart Camera Drivers. These Smart Drivers allow customers to use newly released cameras, right out of the box, for most major manufacturers without waiting for driver pack releases. Ocularis 5.2, being released shortly, will also have new tools to make migration much simpler and faster.
U
Undisclosed #2
Apr 28, 2016Cayuga is also an enterprise VMS with more of a focus on business processes.
So I guess they still plan to sell Cayuga as well?
Smart camera drivers are great and all, but they are just what many low-end recorders have; an amalgamation of manufacturer specific things to try based on the knowledge that came from integrating previous models. So a new Axis camera has a good chance of working, on the other hand the smart driver has little chance of picking up any new feature or access method not seen before.
UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #3
Apr 28, 2016Wow. That is a mouthful from OnSSI.
Here, in my simplistic approach I thought one was the database and one was the GUI!
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