Hikvision's first Western acquisition was a mid-size UK alarm manufacturer, which is a small deal given Hikvision's mega size and ambitions.
One site, Memoori, expected them to buy an access control manufacturer.
What do you think? Should Hikvision buy an access control manufacturer? Vote:
It depends ........ since their largest market is still China, there's a good chance that the product/feature set that suits the Chinese market may not align well with the product/feature sets required for, say, North America. This is assuming they buy an Asia-based access control company.
If they buy an established player in Europe or North America, would it then be like what Avigilon and Video Insight are doing by offering a pre-integrated access control solution to go with their VMS?
With all of the concerns about Hikvision being owned by the Chinese government, would a customer literally be turning over the "keys to the kingdom" by deploying an access control product that Hikvision has firmware-level coding incorporating into it?
My initial thought is that Hikvision would have difficulty growing an access control product line ... in the U.S. there is still a stigma attached to access control solutions from China -- I know this is not the case with video since the camera side is so cost-sensitive. In access control, the cost of the controller is just a small part of the overall cost of a controlled door system, where in VMS, the cost of the camera is right out there in front and the main piece.
Leading with price (hardware) in access control has so far not proven to be a disruptive advantage ... other considerations such as labor savings, faster programming and deployment, and easier provisioning/scalability are still the main features. And let's not even talk about cloud access control with Hikvision ... where would the servers be that host those readers?!?
Ask questions and get answers to your physical security questions from IPVM team members and fellow subscribers.