Genetec's Verint Nextiva Support Examined

JH
John Honovich
•Published Oct 07, 2011 00:00 AM
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Generally, VMS competitors rarely support one another. As such, VMS systems typically lack support for third-party recorders. That noted, in a rare move, Genetec has added support for connecting to Verint Nextiva VMS servers. In this update we will examine how this works and what functionality it brings.

Integration Details

The Verint Nextiva integration allows viewing of live video from cameras, as well as PTZ control. Viewing of recorded video is not supported.

PTZ control is deeply integrated. For example, locking and unlocking a PTZ in the Security Center client not only locks the camera out for Security Center users, but for Nextiva users, as well.

Each camera to be viewed on the Nextiva system requires a camera license in Security Center (~$175-250 MSRP). On the Verint end, this connection is made through a Nextiva Master Server web service.

This integration is not the first DVR/NVR integration for Genetec. Omnicast has supported GE's DVMRe, StoreSafe, and SymSafe recorders for years. Others are rumored or in development, including support for Hikvision's 9000 series DVRs, accomplished through custom firmware. Still other DVR integrations have been developed under professional services contracts, though they remain confidential and proprietary. We suspect that this integration was driven by customer request, as well, as normally rival companies would not integrate like this.

Limitations

Lack of access to archived video is a drawback. If the system is mainly used for live monitoring, and archived video is only used to investigate occasional incidents, we do not see it as much of a drawback. However, if the user relies on archived video a lot, having to switch to a separate interface on the fly could be inefficient. It should be noted that once added to Security Center, these cameras can be recorded to the SC Archiver like any other camera.

The other major limitation is cost as licensing this integration is almost as expensive as 'base' VMS camera licenses themselves. For even a moderate number of cameras, this could quickly result in $10,000 of new costs.

Use Cases

We see two major use cases for this integration:

  • First, if an existing Nextiva customer were switching to Genetec, especially across multiple sites, but could logistically could not monitor two systems, this would be of benefit. It would potentially allow a reduction in monitors required, since all cameras could be displayed in one interface. The main drawback being that staff would need to learn a separate user interface to retrieve video.
  • Second, if a "top-tier" entity, such as a city police department, wanted to view a Nextiva system, this would be of obvious benefit. Typically, since these are not the department's cameras, live monitoring is more important than archived video. Situational awareness during an incident is key, while investigation can be done on the third-party system later.