I want us to do some fundamental research to better understand how specific VMS features work. I am throwing this out to gather feedback from members on what they think and what they would like to see.
Here's a few examples:
- Video export - What's the process of video exporting? What options are available? How is video played back once exported?
- Camera discovery / addition - How does camera discovery work? What options does it provide? How about manual addition?
- Digital zoom - How do you enable digital zoom? How do you digitally zoom, pan and tilt? How do you return to the 'full' view?
I imagine there being a few dozen of these, including how do I review an alert, how do I search for video at a specific time, how do I create a view, etc.
My rationale is that I want a clear understanding of tradeoffs - are there major variances? is someone doing something really wrong? is someone missing something fundamental? etc.
VMSes to Use
The plan is to use 5 VMSes (in alphabetical order):
- Avigilon
- Exacq
- Genetec
- Milestone
- OnSSI
We'd like to use VMSes that are broadly used so that readers can maximize value from looking at their own (or likely alternatives). On the other hand, the VMS market is deeply fragmented and there are numerous other VMSes that are widely used.
We certainly plan to test other VMSes in the future and, when we do so, we can compare them to this initial group test as a baseline (e.g., Seetec's camera discovery is better/worse/different than those 5).
Publication Schedule
My idea is to publish one such comparison each week - Week 1, video export, Week 2 camera discovery, Week 3 - motion based search, Week 4 - recording setup, etc.
Let me know if you have feedback or questions.