Subscriber Discussion

Recommend VMS With No Annual License Fees, Drivers For Most Common Cameras, & Multiple Site Support

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Joseph Marotta
Oct 18, 2017
IPVMU Certified

Reoccurring annual license fees are killing some of my clients' budgets.  Is there a VMS system that meets the following requirements?

a) no annual camera licence fee

b) has drivers for most common manufacturer's cameras

c) enterprise level (multi site)

 

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Christopher Uiterwyk
Oct 18, 2017
IPConfigure

IPConfigure - The Orchid VMS family meets your listed requirements and does not require an annual license renewal, it's optional if you want upgrades to the software after the 1st year.

 

http://www.ipconfigure.com/products

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UE
Undisclosed End User #9
Oct 27, 2017

http://www.ipconfigure.com/products/orchid

"Orchid supports over 2,500 IP cameras through the ONVIF Profile S specification."

 

 

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Parvinder Singh
Oct 18, 2017

www.avigilon.com 

 

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Oct 18, 2017

I am a huge proponent of Avigilon but I will say that their drivers for third party cameras are weak, at best.  Their driver testing is out of date constantly and is almost wholly reliant on ONVIF.  They hit all of the other points but I do feel it is necessary to point out that their drivers for 3rd party cameras are not as robust and current as something like Milestone or Genetec.

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Undisclosed Integrator #11
Oct 31, 2017

Avigilon also hammers you with upgrade costs when going from major version to version.  While upgrading from 5.1 - 5.9 is free, going to 6.0 will cost you a small fortune. 

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Michael Miller
Oct 31, 2017

Hammers you is a little over kill.  The price is very minimal for the upgrade license and you get some major new features for the minimum upgrade price.

 

Also if your running CORE it's free.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #11
Oct 31, 2017

Running Enterprise and well over 1,000 channels at a single location.  At $30 a license to upgrade, I wouldn't call that minimal.

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Michael Miller
Oct 31, 2017

$30 is the MSRP price of a single license it gets much cheaper if you buy them in packs.    Plus dealers can discount the cost even more.    Last time I sent a quote to upgrade 400 camera system the customer responded "is that it? It seams very reasonable compared to my other systems"

 

 

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #11
Oct 31, 2017

I've had customer that didn't flinch at Genetec's AoL/SSA pricing either, even at the $100k plus a year it cost them (yes Avigilon is cheaper than Genetec).  Just because someone doesn't think it's a lot, doesn't make it true for everyone.  I think most would find this as a cost they need to plan for.  As for as the MSRP, even if I received 50 off of that (which I do not) even at $15 a license, and myself not taking a point of margin (which I wouldn't do) is still not minimal.  While I do still use Avigilon and recommend it to customers, I still think enterprise level customers or anyone using enterprise should know what costs to expect.

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Michael Miller
Oct 31, 2017

In your example, Genetec is $100K per year where Avigilon even for a 1000 camera system at full MSRP price is $30K once every 3-5 years.  So that is $30K vs $500K how is that getting hammered by Avigilon?  

As for the $30 per channel cost if you use the bulk license pack they are $20 MSRP per channel so you can sell it for $15 and still make money if you know what you're doing.  

 

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #11
Nov 01, 2017

No in my real life example, that was different customer with even more channels.  Not 1,000 channels to 1,000 channels.  But yes, as I said Genetec is more expensive.  Not the company you would want to be with.  And for my other customer with over 1,000 channels at 1 site with Avigilon.  They have multiple sites across the country.  It adds up fast.  I'm not arguing against the cost of SSA's, or even saying they shouldn't be there.  All I've stated from the first post is the fact that Avigilon has them and they can be quite costly.  And yes we used the 24 license pack, and it's still expensive.  The cost literally hit them like a hammer because people like you told them "it's minimal".

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Michael Miller
Nov 04, 2017

The cost literally hit them like a hammer because people like you told them "it's minimal".

My bad... I never thought the "your gonna get hammered" sales pitch worked.  Guess I was wrong.  

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Oct 18, 2017

Express+ and Professional+ from Milestone do not require any annual fees. Customer still gets hotfixes and bug patches, and can get a new Device Pack with over 6000 cameras drivers every two months for free.

I work at Milestone.

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Josh Hendricks
Oct 18, 2017
Milestone Systems

The only Milestone products requiring annual fees are XProtect Corporate and XProtect Expert. For these you do need Care Plus for the first year, but it is not required to renew, so there are no recurring fees as the first year of Care Plus is paid for up front. Then at the end of the year you can upgrade at no additional cost, even if you opt out of renewing Care Plus. Future upgrades can be purchased if wanted/needed via different methods including trade-in or Care program renewal.

All other Milestone VMS versions have neither annual fees, or a requirement for one year of Care Plus.

XProtect Professional, Professional+, Expert and Corporate are all multi-site as well, and as mentioned above, Device Pack upgrades are always free and come around every 2 months.

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CH
Chad Huggins
Oct 30, 2017
IPVMU Certified

But there is a license fee for every camera and that is a yearly cost. Correct 

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Oct 30, 2017

There is no annual license fee. You buy the license you own it. You also get the new device packs for free every two months.

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Josh Hendricks
Oct 30, 2017
Milestone Systems

That is not correct. As I said, there are absolutely no annual fees unless you want to keep the VMS up to date. If you want to buy the software, use that version indefinitely, and have the ability to upgrade your cameras over time to new versions as the drivers are released by Milestone, you need only pay once when you buy any version of our software. After that, there is absolutely no obligation to pay another penny.

If you opt-in to Care Plus or Care Premium, the pricing is determined based on the number of cameras, just as the initial purchase price. Care Plus enables access to upgrades, and features like Customer Dashboard and Smart Connect. Care Premium adds 24x7x365 technical support accessible to the customer and anyone who represents them (reseller/distributor).

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Undisclosed Integrator #2
Oct 18, 2017

Video Insight offers a competitive upgrade program where for a 1 time fee of about $75 per camera you get a lifetime license for servers and cameras, with free U.S based tech support and upgrades.  Just have to provide proof of existing competitive VMS.

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Undisclosed Integrator #6
Oct 20, 2017

Also if bought licenses recently , you get lifetime support with no fees for upgrades . 

You do have to buy new licenses at a premium though . 

Great Product 

LB
Lee Brown
Oct 18, 2017

DW-Spectrum from Digital Watchdog

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TOMISLAV GOLUB
Oct 18, 2017

Also AxxonNext up to 4 channels for free. If you want more, one time payment per channel or remote site (cannot confirm for remote sites) and no  fees for support or upgrade.

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Harald Lutz
Oct 30, 2017
Kronfelder Videoloesungen • IPVMU Certified

No fee for remote site. No fee for Clients. Multi-Site no problem. Just one time per-channel. DriversPack monthly free available. Upgrades free. We are using Axxon Next (as well as Milestone XProtect and Axxon Intellect) now for a couple of years. No reason to change this.

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Vincent Tong
Oct 18, 2017

Hanwha Wave ?

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Undisclosed #4
Oct 18, 2017

I would kind of like to say there's another one that starts with the letters "M" and "I" that is not Milestone, but in technical terms somewhat fulfills the requirements written as they are. Don't go there.

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Joseph Marotta
Oct 20, 2017
IPVMU Certified

You all have been very helpful. Thank you for the great responses. 

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
Oct 20, 2017

http://www.aimetis.com/Symphony

Disclaimer: I work for Aimetis

a) no annual camera licence fee
-While we do have Maintenance and Support on our licenses, its not required. You can buy licenses without it.

b) has drivers for most common manufacturer's cameras
-Yes, see: http://www.aimetis.com/Support/supported-video-devices.aspx

c) enterprise level (multi site)
-Yes, We have many multi-site customers, see: http://www.aimetis.com/Solutions/customers.aspx

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #7
Oct 24, 2017

Try Video Insight, No annual license fees even no Camera channel fee if you are buying Panasonic Cameras, and it meets all you requirements,

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GT
Glynn Thomas
Oct 24, 2017

Nx Witness 

 

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UD
Undisclosed Distributor #8
Oct 27, 2017

Eocortex (www.eocortex.com) offers lifetime upgrades and updates

MI
Matt Ion
Oct 28, 2017

We're using 3xLogic Vigil for a client with 30+ sites. No recurring fees, support for every camera I've thrown at it, and the ability to enter custom URLs if you run into something it doesn't have included. 

To this client, one of the best features is their VCM "Vigil Central Management", which gives you an at-a-glance look at the health and status of all your sites, including video loss, retention goals, CPU and memory usage, free disk space, etc., as well as centralized user and version management.

 

 

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #10
Oct 30, 2017

http://www.vicon-security.com/products/valerus-vms/

 

Thin-client from Vicon

Valerus--works with ONVIF cameras

LP
Lawrence Peters
Oct 30, 2017

NUUO would be another VMS that you could look at.

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Isaac Connor
Oct 31, 2017

Depending on your needs, ZoneMinder is free and Open Source, supports all cameras (if it doesn't currently I will make it support your cameras).  ZoneMinder is also distributed, multi-site.

 

Full disclosure: I'm one of the core devs/support agents.

JH
John Honovich
Oct 31, 2017
IPVM

Isaac, thanks for your first comment on IPVM. I am glad to see / know someone working on ZoneMinder. We will reach out to you privately because we'd like to understand where ZoneMinder is at and where it is going. Thanks.

U
Undisclosed #4
Oct 31, 2017

Props to you for making ZoneMinder, there's a need for an open source VMS. However, unfortunately I've found it quite complex to configure and use and detached from typical VMS use cases, ie. I couldn't really walk someone through configuring it over the phone unless they were highly technical. It's been a few years since I tried it the last time though.

I remember some years ago some scummy company tried to offer their "cloud" solution for camera surveillance. It was a modified ZoneMinder with some logos placed on the page, them claiming it was their own code and whatnot. Needless to say they didn't fare well and I had to tell one of their customers I can see into their pub, because these guys actually gave me a "demo" login (no HTTPS used anywhere, by the way) with access to their customers' cameras, including recordings. Their customers weren't aware, apparently.

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Undisclosed #4
Oct 31, 2017

Actually, since I see no reason not to shame these guys further, here's their website (a small Finnish company): http://fennoturvapalvelut.com/

 

Their "demo" used to be here: http://video.fennoturvapalvelut.com/ (note: no HTTPS)

Four years ago the credentials used to be: 'demo' / 'demo[two digits - can you guess which?]'. Really. I was pretty angry at them, although it was hilarious at the same time.

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Isaac Connor
Oct 31, 2017

Yes ZM can be difficult, however we have made some progress in that department and will continue to do so.  We are also happy to offer support, including pre-installed  hard drives, etc.  Most problems people have have been had thousands of times over and a quick googling will get you to the answers. 

 

We do intend to offer a cloud ZM-based offering, but are short on man-hours as always.

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Tomasz Kalinski
Oct 31, 2017

We have all You need + free CMS HUB ( SQL Server ) for enterprise level multi site support.

www.alnetsystems.com

JM
Jeff Morton
Nov 01, 2017
IPVMU Certified

I am a product manager for March Networks' VMS.

Our Command Professional software comes with no annual camera license fees, drivers for many third-party cameras and integrates fully with our Command Enterprise multisite video management software.

Command Professional is a single-server solution supporting up to 128 channels. You can learn more about it on our website www.marchnetworks.com or try out a slimmed down version for free by downloading our Command Lite software: https://www.marchnetworks.com/products/vms/command-lite/

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John Warehime II
Nov 04, 2017

So much information. Much appreciated! 

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