Bosch is one of the most well known brands in the industry and they have combined recently with Sony in video surveillance.
But how has Bosch stood up against the rising wave of Chinese entrants?
In this last entry of our 20 manufacturer favorability series, we examine integrator feedback:
Bosch ************ *******
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Intrusion ****** *****
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their cameras generally have good feedback, their VMS platform is not very popular with integrators.
I have not used Bosch since 2005 but I always felt their cameras were superb. I was never impressed with their DVRs (DIVAR, DiBOS, DESA) at the time which underperformed the Pelco equivalents, though they were certainly more stable. Support sounds unchanged. Overall, it looks like the same pros/cons continued forward into the age of IP surveillance.
The Bosch cameras, recorders and software have come a long way in the past few years. Bosch like many other top tier analog companies of the past were slow to get to market with good IP equipment and features. Let me re-phrase that. The cameras were still good but the IP portion lacked in my opinion. Bosch is a company that doesn't just release goods to market just to get their product there. They, as most German companies do, make sure the product they bring to market works. I will say that I hadn't used Bosch for a few years, other than adding to or replacing analog cameras, until our District Sales Manager came by and showed us their latest product offerings. Bosch has made a concerted effort to get to know their dealers again. Not easy to please with new equipment, I was amazed with how their latest analytics worked, both PRE and post recording. They have been releasing new cameras and new recorders to compete with other companies in the low to mid-range markets. We don't always play in those markets but it is nice to be able to when requested by a customer. Bosch is certainly in my opinion trying to make a solid foothold in the market place for years to come. Unlike some video manufacturers, they are leaps and bounds above many other manufactures when it comes to security. I don't want to sell or install equipment that has known vulnerabilities and then those manufactures either refuse or won't fix their swiss cheese equipment to shore up the security of their systems. Systems will always have vulnerabilities at some point but what a manufacturer does to fix those is what matters. One item i will say is Bosch certainly needs to play better with other IP camera manufacturers when it comes to their recorders and VMS system. They are limited on the number of other cameras they support, especially when it comes to motion recording. I don't want to spend a bunch of time trying to get another camera to record on motion through ONVIF. Overall i am extremely happy with Bosch video at this point though.
Surprising that no comments were listed with regard to their "alleged" direct dealings with Amazon. That pretty much killed any life that IQI had left, so I would have expected that to come out here.
We published the Anixter / Bosch Sells Direct to Amazon report in January 2017, but the favorability surveys were done in December 2016, so integrators may not have been as aware of that when responding.
It's not just Bosch equipment Anixter sells direct. We do not use Anixter anymore for this exact reason. They have been doing the end around for years but they will say that they don't. In fact the inside sales rep I used in the past always denied and I believed her and I found out later she was one of the worst selling directly to the end user.
