Dedicated Micros Collapses, CEO Says Shut Up, Debates IPVM

Everybody's first reaction:

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There is a lot of credence to the contention that they suffered from a lack of innovation, but their ruin was the day they started to negotiate with customers directly.

Dealers wrote them off. I will not represent your product and then stand by while you sell direct. There is no motivation for me to market for you.

It has been a downhill slide ever since.

I'm guessing government agencies, whose sales I suspect have been propping them up for years now, finally updated their RFP's and someone asked, "Why are we still using this?"

It is sad. There are/were very good people at DM and Mike is not a bad guy personally, but living in a box is unsustainable.

I hadn't heard of the direct sales, though. Mark, do you know what areas those were? Did they ever do it with your customers?

I remember seeing a DM talk at ifsec. DM waxing lyrical about the dangers of ip and how bad it was and analog so great, bandwidth will destroy your networks and blah blah..

Both me and a colleague got up and walked out laughing. Both saying the same thing - they are screwed.. They later released some IP cameras which appear to look like prototypes but they weren't, we got one in and it was terrible and sent it back! It seemed that's it was a year out of date before it was released.

Again I thought this company must be nuts, the world is passing them by!

Sad day and it's the day to day worker who will lose not the management who thought putting your head in the sand is the best route forward..

Mike Newton here in person.

Well yet again we see this website peddling rumor and false information without substance or verification. But that is what most people expect from this site.

So what is the truth? Let's look at the official statement from a credible source -

NetVu Ltd Statement

On 18 March 2016, a newly formed company Aghoco 1389 Ltd ( to be renamed NV Ltd)
acquired all of AD Holdings indebtedness of some £4.7m to Barclays Bank and Mike Newton.

NV is jointly owned by private investors, Mike Newton and Maghsoud Einollahi.

Today, 15th April , NV acquired all of the business and assets of AD excluding UK operation of Dedicated Micros in the UK which has entered Administration.

NetVu Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of NVL. NetVu Ltd will operate out of its two premises in Cheshire, England, being the technology centre at the previous location in Appleton Thorn with an established team of developers, and the newly completed premises near Northwich, Cheshire providing for Sales and Support.

NetVu Ltd will be undertaking all future warranty and support activities for all UK and European customers of Dedicated Microcomputers Ltd in the UK.

Mike Newton commented

“The video security market has been very challenging in particular in the ‘desktop recording’ sector, and while DM enjoyed exponential growth in the mid 2000’s, the aggressive commoditization of that sector by low cost foreign imports has resulted in significant declines in those areas. We have however continued to develop innovative and powerful technology, with our NetVu Connected Virtual NVR solutions, FireVu visual smoke and flame detection, and TransVu, one of the worlds leading mobile recording and vehicle data processing solutions.

Key back office support software leverages the maximum return for our users, and allows for critical value added solutions, regardless of whether it is a ‘desktop’ solution or a fully virtualised solution.

With NetVu we believe we have created a fresh and vibrant structure which can take these products forward, while also serving the remaining ‘desktop’ recorder market, which while significantly reduced from its peak, still remains a significant element in the new operation.

We see this now as an opportunity to focus not just on the traditional recording sector, and combine it with the innovative and evolving technologies”

April 15th 2016, Cheshire, England

So yet again John has followed the description of someone no longer involved and swallowed it all up. He is listening to people who think that the right market is selling desktop DVR's in volume through distributors - while supporting high end integration and support services costs.

This restructuring process has reduced our legacy costs immediately by over $5m per year, that were setup to service a 'one size fits all' distribution channel market.

In the meantime we have developed areas of the business where we can add value by applying technology. Since the mid 90's our ISO Mission statement has been "To use the maximum technology to exceed our customers expectations and deliver exceptional ROI".

When we innovated the DVR, with the most user friendly interface, it added huge value and ROI over previous solutions. Of course with all innovations it didn't take too many years for others to follow.

The DVR market was inflated for several years by the margin on storage - but Samsung pricing increments less than European and US cost soon changed that.

So while John H has been spreading his negativity, we have been minding our own business and developing areas where we can fulfill our mission. Chasing the basic DVR price down was not one of them.

We have already received huge support from many of our key customers. One in particular has just taken delivery of a fully virtualised 800 IP camera warehouse system for their new distribution, to complement there existing 250 IP camera warehouse system.

This integrates into their control room which receives through the same infrastructure and UI regardless of whether it is a 10 year old analogue DVR, NVR with IP cameras, or the Virtual NVR to centralised raid storage, with redundant edge recording.

So what we have been doing is dismantling the old infrastructure - it's called change and renewal. The process was briefly disrupted by an aggressive ex landlord as a creditor, but other than that all functions have remained fully operational - just now in a restructured and profitable environment.

I repeat the statement, Dedicated Micros Inc. and Dedicated Micros (Malta) Ltd., the manufacturing base, have no change, apart from a new parent company.

For those with 'green eyed' envy, which is one of the less attractive sins, all the race cars I raced I owned personally. Dedicated Micros was certainly a key sponsor - and used this effectively as a development tool with many customers.

I also have more than one facet to my life outside CCTV - which involves developing key technology for Motorsport ( a key part of the team to deliver the first all electric race lap of Le Mans as an example ) and also different areas such as hybrid aircraft power plants.

So how many people have been a lead innovator in an industry over 34 years, and also won one of the worlds major iconic races twice on consecutive years? Why would someone resent me pursuing a successful motor racing career while working at least as many hours as anyone else in this business. Very sad and very small minded and unworthy.

With regards to my comment quoted above, am I the only one around who was brought up by his or her parents "If you haven't got anything nice to say, then shut up" ?

I will admit to adding the .. between shut & up in response to embittered diehards who failed to have any vision beyond chasing the last innovation because it was all that they understood, and were trying to drag down good people that have lived through the recovery from their excesses - which we have now achieved, which has upset them even more.

Our customers and ourselves are confident in the good work we are doing - it doesn't have to be in the public glare to justify this. We have endured two previous product cycles where all our competitors fell away, and we fully expect to be there in the next cycle and further ones to come by adapting and change - which now we are seeing the initial commoditzation of the IP camera, may be sooner than some think.

Mike Newton

Director, NetVu Ltd
President, Dedicated Micros Inc.

Well, I know of 2 Christmas cards that aren't getting mailed this year. There seems to be an impasse here and everyone has their own viewpoint.

But what about the future?

Mr. Newton, I would not expect you to necessarily disclose it here, but is there currently, or will there be soon, a technically orientated plan, a roadmap per se, for dealers and integrators, on what the forthcoming solutions will be? What are the expected capabilities, what will the technologies be based on, what standards will be embraced and/or which will be considered unimportant or not worth incorporating, and what integrations will be available (or not...)?

In short, where does NetVu plan on going from here.....

P.S. I noticed your first post came right after mine talking about the "old dog industry". I hope you did not think that was directed solely at you or DM/AD! My comment was meant for the Security industry overall, and is my own subjective opinion from the viewpoint of someone who started their career in IT technologies. Thank you.

I'd like to hear less about the racing now and more about DM's plan to move forward. It was a legitimate point to bring up in the article, it was the Founder's right to respond- but now there's been a lot of back and forth with little progress.

I cut my teeth on DM when I first entered the Security world and I did see a lot of competitive innovation at that time when comparing to other type products. How many systems can you say today that provided you had Internet access to it, you could totally wipe the operating system, re-download and reinstall the OS, all from a Telnet session to the machine remotely. I'd be willing to listen to anything new the company is doing to bring competitive innovation to this market that overall has and is still lagging in many ways, provided there is a plan.

Sal,

I will apologize unreservedly for such actions by people I probably removed from office some time ago. I am guessing this is somewhere between four and seven years ago? In the end we removed the entire senior management team, bar one who has continued to develop transport / mobile projects very effectively.

I was probably 'stiffed' at the same time for big escalators on bonus payments - as subsequent review seemed to show such a correlation.

Avoiding such activities in a remote to HQ office is partly why we have rationalized the business around more project oriented 'value add' rather than distribution channels.

The balance between delegation and control has vexed many others with an overseas business in addition to myself over the years.

As someone who has spent many years in the industry I have seen brands and products come and go for many reasons. I think those that remember DM in its leadership position over all the big incumbents are emotionally tied to its demise or fall, whatever you would call it.

It was more than just putting a hard drive in a multiplexor instead of using an external tape deck. Today we talk of frames per second and before we talked about seconds per frame with 16 channels on a 960 Gyyr recorder.

Being able to "loop" DVR's and control them with a keyboard while having a single multiple tile screen and a spot monitor was unique.

I also remember the constant debate proliferated and pontificated by DM Reps about MJPEG being the "only" encoding method that would be accepted by courts. That message started somewhere.

Having to Telnet into a unit to change a user or passcode was a nightmare for security dealers at that time.

PC based DVR's were easier to use and less expensive but MS Windows proved itself not ready for 24/7 constant writing. I still see units offering "timed restarts" to fix the issues even on non-windows units! I guess it makes people feel better.

Whike I have enjoyed the banter, similar to our current US elections cycle I would say I would bet John has spent less time in Hawaii over the last few years than Mike, but a cursory search and rumor would place him there.

... we are in the non reliance on ONVIF camp.

You're not alone...

I have great respect for Mr Newton. He accomplished so much that very few men even dream about.

If you have never hit the wall, you don't have any respect for it. He will be back soon and "will be trading paint with the big boys."

CAESAR

Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.

ANTONY

Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
He is a noble Roman and well given.

CAESAR

Would he were fatter! But I fear him not:
Yet if my name were liable to fear,
I do not know the man I should avoid
So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much;
He is a great observer and he looks
Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays,
As thou dost, Antony; he hears no music;
Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himself and scorn'd his spirit
That could be moved to smile at any thing.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves,
And therefore are they very dangerous.
I rather tell thee what is to be fear'd
Than what I fear; for always I am Caesar.
Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf,
And tell me truly what thou think'st of him.

A person claiming to be an ex-DM employee emailed us [REMOVED]

Well, this tune immediately ran through my head with the announcement.

This link has to be the most appropriate for Mike.

I’m back at NASCAR