Troubles At Arecont Vision

Well done report. 

These industry awards are mostly bogus. Arecont isn't going to win any awards for how much I spend with other manufactures to replace poor performing or dead Arecont cameras.   

It's amazing Arecont has lasted this long. Any time I've installed an Arecont product, I tell myself 'Never Again'. Their products are highly overpriced, and performance is poor. Currently have a 180 degree camera on my own office that sporadically decides not to function at night or do motion detection. Can't image if I installed this piece of garbage for a customer.

Maybe a surge in demand for "Made in the USA" cameras, unintentionally provided by IPVM's strong stance regarding certain offshore mfrs, could improve their outlook?

Stopped using Arecont 2013 because of major quality issues but they win the price in being the most arrogant company in the Cctv industry go away Arecont

For those wanting to get a sense of Arecont's approach to the 'truth', recall our post on Axis Boasts Kicking Arecont Out of Google, money quote:

Arecont's EVP Scott Schafer told IPVM flatly:

We do not normally address queries like this one. Your information is factually incorrect. We recommend that you check your sources more fully. Consider getting a real quote from a reliable source from Google or Axis Communications vs. street talk and rumors.

After we emphasized that we did have a 'real' quote, Schafer refused further comment and demanded his response not be published.

Ahh, Arecont... we used to have some of their cameras many years ago, but the only word to describe those things is 'shoddy', and that's saying a lot in that environment. I seem to recall some units had problems with even saving their settings and the web interface on them was godawful to begin with.

Honest question: What would it take for Arecont to revive their reputation?

I haven't seen an Arecont in three years and even the ones I saw back then dated to 2012.  As such, is there a chance these issues have been rectified and we're still harping on legacy issues?  if not, what would it take for them to resolve these issues and why have they not refocused on doing so?  Is it a lack of technical proficiency, manufacturing capabilities, or something else?

Ex-Arecont Joe Bryon is now VP Americas for Mobotix as disclosed in a Mobotix press release October 4th:

He evidently enjoys challenges...

Campion dropped Arecont to pickup Sony. 

I'm not going to cast too many stones here. I've been exposed to, worked with, or competed against Arecont most of my career. The reasons for their current failures have already been well-documented and well-discussed for a decade or longer. I have more anecdotal examples than I'd even care to admit of interactions with the Arecont team, going all the way back to their earliest days.

But I'll say this, I was at ASIS last week and passed their booth many times. Even though the show was only lightly attended and nobody's booth was boasting standing room only, the Arecont booth seemed particularly lonely. As Arecont typically does at these shows, they hosted a beer/wine service in the afternoons of the show, but I never saw more than 10-20 people there (many of which were presumably Arecont employees) taking advantage of the free booze. 

Contrast this with past years where their booth beer events were very well-attended. It's anecdotal of course, but it's a data point that supports this article.

I used to have a couple Arecont cameras at the office at my old company.  They worked ok (some mishaps)  The reason we had them at the office was not ok, we were forced to replace them with something that the customer wasn't going to bitch about.

Interesting timing....  Axis has been lacking stock on the 3707's and pendant kits so I quoted a ARECONT VI AV12276DN-28 a couple months ago.  It was more money but I thought I'd try them again since it had been years since the last Arecont install bit us, forgive and forget right? 

Well the ghosting is amazing unless you want to get rid of it, then you have to try their beta fix.  Haven't done it yet, asked for a refund.  Still waiting.....  Customer is pissed I think I will have to order the 3707 on my dime to please them.  If anyone wants recorded video "Tron" style, look me up, I can make you a good deal.

The only good thing about the Arecont that I can tell is the Rep.  But I didn't get a call back, my guess is they are getting hammered by these types of issues, so I can't blame him.

Bye Bye Arecont. So dumped you 3 Years ago. Tried your multi imagers...sorry...good concept with no attributes to build on.

Losing key employees, rep firms resigning, and a general lack of innovative and competitive products make for a troubled outlook for Arecont Vision.

The company needs a reset button more than their cameras...

As an integrator we stopped using Arecont Cameras about 18 months ago. In the engineering department we stopped using them about 3 years ago (but sales kept sneaky them onto job after our review and tried to justify the switch because of price competition.) Eventually I was able to prove using data from our service department that Arecont cameras were costing us 3-4 times the actual price because our techs had to service them so often during the warranty period. With that data we were allowed to deactivate all their part numbers from our quoting/ordering system. Beyond the service issue the biggest issue I had with them is their Web Interface. It has to be the worst in the industry.

Sometime last year Arecont reached out to us, and to their credit were very forthright about previous problems. But assured us they were working on them and things would be different. We got tired of waiting and didn't see much improvement so we dropped the line completely. We had only been using the multi-imagers for the past several years anyways as that was their only real differentiator. But now they're plenty of alternative choices.

Major Arecont management change today - story on Monday.

I have several projects where the Omniview 2 cameras are failing all the time.

No worries, at least they say they've solved the cybersecurity problem in a just released whitepaper which has some gems:

• Arecont  Vision  addresses  this  challenge  with  user  IDs/passwords  and  our  own  in-house  designed architecture. Arecont Vision cameras feature the ability to set user IDs and 16 digit ASCII passwords

• Arecont Vision megapixel cameras do not have these vulnerabilities.

• Should a hacker illicitly gain access to an Arecont Vision camera or obtain the user ID and 16-digit ASCII password to log in
  to a camera, the attack effort would be extremely limited in its success. The attacker would be able to view the camera’s internal web browser, and the camera’s settings could be modified.

• A hacker would not be able to repurpose an Arecont Vision camera for a cyberattack

Yada yada...

I gotta give it to Arecont that there's probably a huge bunch of smart people there who can make their fairly unorthodox approach work as it does in the context of IP cameras. There are some advantages in their FPGA approach - their devices can be reprogrammed in a more wholesome way, licensing is simpler when you build it all yourself, surely, and it tickles the geek bone generally with all the special stuff they're doing in-house.

On the other hand, it's like there's a faint stench of MS-DOS or other legacy experiences there... something that gives you raw, uninhibited access, but is more for messing in a lab, not connecting to a network these days.

Since the FPGA can be reprogrammed with a firmware update, are there any limits to what it can be programmed to do? Could it just fry itself with an incorrect configuration?

The update is applied with their software, right? How is that protected, it probably just talks some binary to the camera? What would actually stop anyone who accesses the camera from completely reprogramming the FPGA to act as a very dedicated spambot, a never before seen kind of network disruptor, or just a fancy toy that beeps and overheats?

I haven't really worked with FPGAs, but should this company's firmware update protocol be breached, couldn't that mean that anyone can turn these things into toasters?

Is this a "news"? Their products are not stable (frame rate keep swinging, out of control bitrate, poor picture quality, more than 50% RMA in one year, 80% camera failed firmware upgrades, 20 plus recommended firmware upgrade in 6 months without fixing the problems....).

Arrogant support team ("every problem is not an arecont problem" altitude, VMS problem, network problem, installation problem, sunshine problem...), AND, irresponsible sales team (I didn't commit this kind of performance, while the required performance is just a stable product that can stand by itself without disconnecting itself....).

It is a surprise that, they still manage to have ANY business in this competitive industry. Good luck to anyone who still want to give this hopeless brand a chance.

Good luck to anyone who still want to give this hopeless brand a chance.

So you're telling me there's a chance?