Chinese OEM Avycon Gets ADI Push

The only thing Korean about Avycon is their employees... and of course you know the rest of the story.

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Undisclosed Integrator #2

TVT makes good products. They were LTS's OEM before they switched to HIK about 3-4 years ago. Wonder if LTS will consider switching back to them?

The LTS/HIK relationship is very close now; like literally...

LTS: 18738 San Jose Ave, City of Industry, CA 91748

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Paul Shah

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2

Longse is around the corner from them too

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Undisclosed #5

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2

In reply to Paul Shah

I guess that depends on your definition of "around the corner"

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Undisclosed Distributor #9

•Sep 07, 2018

While TVT is on the high end in terms of quality when it comes to Shenzhen manufacturers, they have had a serious repeating issue with most of their DVRs and some of their NVRs.

It is known by TVT customers as the 'freeze problem'.

As the name suggests, the device gets stuck on the startup screen. The only way to fix it is using a dev kit TVT gives you that connects to your PCs RS233 port to the DVR mainboard.

The same problem is reported on at least one model with every batch since 2010. It is the reason TVT lost LTS and some of their European OEM customers.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #3

KCE- Korea Communication Electronics

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Undisclosed Integrator #4

Thank you John

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Larry Tracy

In reply to Abaas Mahroos

I think your right John only plausible explanation is to diversify away from Hikvision and Dahua. Or someone personally at ADi/Honeywell is getting a kickback or both, wouldn't be the first time.

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Abaas Mahroos

•Sep 07, 2018

Al Aswar Trading Group • IPVMU Certified

In reply to Larry Tracy

Our company first made contact with TVT in 2006 in the Hong Kong electronics fair. I still have their catalogue!

I've been personally in contact with them since 2009.

I can tell you that they are dying to promote their own TVT brand instead of relying on their OEM costumers, especially in the US and UK markets.

This news is so strange.

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John Honovich

•Sep 07, 2018

IPVM

Abaas, thanks for sharing. I don't know why TVT is not promoting their own brand in the US but, from speaking with different Chinese manufacturers, the main considerations seem to be (1) how expensive sales and marketing in the US is and (2) lack of company personnel from China with the language / cultural expertise to come over.

I am thinking about what Chinese video surveillance companies have pushed their own brand in the US. Maybe just 5 total - Hikvision, Dahua obviously; Uniview but with only small distributors and no real local employee presence; Milesight but still very rarely hear about them; and Longse with a minor presence. All in all, still seems like a hard go for Chinese manufacturers selling their own brand in the US.

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Abaas Mahroos

Al Aswar Trading Group • IPVMU Certified

"Milesight but still very rarely hear about them" - that's a shame. I was hoping they would succeed in the US. They deserve it. I love their hardware.

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David Pilchick

Brooklyn Low Voltage Supply

Thanks for another informative article

What I am trying to understand is

Why is ADI not going direct to TVT

This move makes no sense to me at all

Unless Avycon is simply a front for TVT

What would be the point of this open secret, as you mentioned

We are in 2018 there are no secrets

A company with 4 employees selling to ADI, a billion dollar global distributor

There has to be infrastructure behind them, sales, logistics, tech support etc etc

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John Honovich

In reply to David Pilchick

IPVM

Why is ADI not going direct to TVT

TVT has no real US sales and support infrastructure. The advantage of Avycon is that they at least have 4 (or however many) people who are actually in the US, speak fluent English, go to ADI expos, etc.

This is the same problem for Uniview. I could understand why ADI would not carry them given that they have no permanent US local presence.

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Undisclosed Integrator #7

Exactly, Why would ADI go direct with TVT? Because it's cheaper? But what about added cost of offering their own Techsupport, Warranty and possibility of getting sued if something goes wrong?

Passing this onto to so called manufacturer "Avycon" is wiser choice in my opinion from ADI.

By the way, John Lee from Avycon, real nice guy, works hard. He's not a newbie to this industry. At least 10+ experiences. Used to work at C&B USA, then VP @ CRC Video Solutions, then started this venture with David @ Big Cart about 5 years ago. And yes, John & David, they are both Korean. Actually import products from Korea as well but due to cost, TVT is popular.

Big Cart also OEM Uniview as well.

It's interesting to point out that IPVM is talking about Avyon though. Real small player compared to big boys like Hik, Dahua, and etc.

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John Honovich

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #7

IPVM

#7, good feedback, informative!

It's interesting to point out that IPVM is talking about Avyon though. Real small player compared to big boys like Hik, Dahua, and etc.

Lol, it was definitely the ADI promotions for Avycon. It is a testament to ADI's power.

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Undisclosed Integrator #8

Starting to see Avycon locally at AlarMax as well. Should be interesting to see how this develops over the next couple of months.

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Undisclosed #10

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #7

"Exactly, Why would ADI go direct with TVT? Because it's cheaper? But what about added cost of offering their own Techsupport, Warranty and possibility of getting sued if something goes wrong?

Passing this onto to so called manufacturer "Avycon" is wiser choice in my opinion from ADI."

So, you are saying that 'the infrastucture' of just FOUR people at Avycon can handle all the back-end inherent to being a national supplier to ADI?

Not to mention - those same FOUR people have to also handle all the front-end stuff and run around the U.S. attending ADI expos?.

Seems implausible.

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John Honovich

In reply to Undisclosed #10

IPVM

So, you are saying that 'the infrastucture' of just FOUR people at Avycon can handle all the back-end inherent to being a national supplier to ADI?

Maybe. That's 4 people listed on LinkedIn, let's say they have a few more junior people who don't have LinkedIn profiles.

They don't manufacturer. They don't develop software. Inventory is sent to ADI who handles shipping, etc. How many people do you really need in that case? A couple of people in sales, a couple in support, done.

As for being a 'national' supplier, not sure how much they are actually selling at this point, but reasonable that it is far less than other 'national' companies.

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Undisclosed #10

i agree with you that 'cut out' firms like Avycon limit their need for human capital for the reasons you mention - since they are not actually manufacturers of anything beyond marketing copy with their logo on it.

However, back-end support for anyone with national distribution will not be able to be handled by a 'couple of guys in support'.

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Undisclosed Manufacturer #6

Clearly they are going the LTS route of confusing the customers and deferring real answers to just make the sale. The benefit here is that in my history with using TVT OEM'd equipment (typically NVRs and IP cams) that the quality to price point ratio was great for your basic 16 cameras or less installations.

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Vincent Tong

So i guess this means no smart codecs on this one as well.

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Undisclosed End User #11

As a state government, we are overprotective to our networks. We have standardized on a Milestone environment with multiple integrators. The issue that we have in some state agencies have gone to their local telco for cameras. There is a company that continues to push this camera manufacturer and I have provided information back using the information in this article. Attached is the form letter that they sent back. Basically stating the exact points above.

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Undisclosed #5

In reply to Undisclosed End User #11

It would be fair to ask them specifically:

Which SoC is used in the cameras

Where are the cameras are manufactured (eg: what country)

Who owns the manufacturing facility

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Undisclosed End User #11

In reply to Undisclosed #5

This is the actual body of the email that form letter was attached too.

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Undisclosed #5

•Jul 24, 2019

In reply to Undisclosed End User #11

I think much of it comes down to how you interpret the purpose of the ban.

My interpretation is that it is centered around cyber security, and concerns that the products could be used at some point for any kind of cyber attack (eg: internal network infiltration, external DDoS botnet, etc.).

There are two core risks with Chinese cameras, if you are of a similar mindset:

1) Firmware developed in China, running general device functions, which could contain any kind of malware

2) Firmware developed in China, running internally on the SoC (eg: Huawei/HiSilicon parts).

Item #1 is *somewhat* manageable via firmware decryption/decompilation and review or analysis.

Item #2 is effectively impossible to fully analyze, as the code is in the chip, and generally not delivered via firmware upgrades or external files that can be independently analyzed in any way.

Even though Item #1 is technically able to be analyzed, vendors makes it difficult to do so (for both legitimate, and illegitimate purposes, IMO). Hikvision's "firmware lab" is an attempt to address Item #1, though they put the onus fully on the analyst to do this and it is somewhat analogous to an easter egg hunt in a swamp, at night.

The easy, and prudent, choice is to avoid cameras with Chinese SoC's (this would mostly be Huawei, but there are likely some other smaller players), regardless of point of manufacture. Technically, a camera with firmware developed in the US, and manufactured in the US, but with a Huawei SoC that also handles network communications, could pose a high cyber security risk.

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John Honovich

In reply to Undisclosed End User #11

IPVM

#11, thanks for sharing! That's technically true, their supplier is not on the list. However, I am not sure TVT is really a step up, all things considered...

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Undisclosed End User #11