Dedicated Micros Collapses, CEO Says Shut Up, Debates IPVM
By: John Honovich, Published on Apr 18, 2016
No one exemplifies arrogance and bad strategy quite like Dedicated Micros CEO Mike Newton.
When he was not busy running around the racetrack, he was running his company into the ground.
In this note, we examine the collapse and what this means for the industry. Plus, we include detailed response and counterclaims from their CEO.
Long Steep Fall
As we examined in The Fall of Dedicated Micros, DM's decline started a decade ago and never recovered.
From their ~$135 million peak, the company's revenue declined to ~$45 million in 2013.
He bet against IP while betting on race car driving.
Here is DM's CEO 'theories' about IP:
And here is DM's CEO racing:
Defiant To the End
Dedicated Micros, as it was, is being shut down / restructured, with UK employees being laid off and a new 'company' being formed.
Here is how DM's CEO explained it on Facebook:
For those that may be aware of the big changes at AD Holdings, and have sent their support by various means, may I express my thanks on behalf of everyone. The team moving forward appreciates this support, as we build a new future together as NetVu, along with our good colleagues in Dedicated Micros Malta, Dedicated Micros USA, and AD Aerospace. We share our sympathies for those that are unable or unwilling to come on the next stage of the journey with us.
For those that have nothing nice to say, the best advice is to just shut .. up.
Chinese Impact?
It would be easy but unfair to blame the Chinese here. DM was destroying itself, long before the Chinese entered. When you bet big bad (think IQinVision / H.264), this is what happens.
That noted, price decline certainly did not help and we think that there will be many more companies folding in the next few years, as even companies with decent plans are undermined.
UPDATE: DM CEO Responds
Mike Newton, DM CEO, has posted multiple long responses in the comments below. We encourage you to scan through them and read it in full. We have copied the official announcement he shared in the comments, explaining the administration / insolvency and the subsequent restructuring:
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
1 report cite this report:
Comments (75)
Everybody's first reaction:
View post on imgur.com
Posted on IPVM earlier this morning:
I'm hearing from former colleagues within Dedicated Micros that on Friday it was announced the company was closing.
A sad day for the employees still there and that a company which was once so innovate and a market leader could fall so far. The UK security industry comprises many people formerly from DM and all have many interesting, funny or head shaking stories to tell on the culture and the people behind it. It's a sad day, and it goes to show that you need to adapt to survive and listen to other people - your customers and your employees.
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.
Do we know the 2015 revenues? Just trying to judge the slope curve.
I checked CompanyHouse, the UK listing and could not find anything more recent than 2013.
I guess that says a lot. Total income = sale of race car ;)
Actually, found another document, 12 months revenue through June 2014 was 24 million GBP or ~$34 million USD.
2013 revenue was ~$27.6 GBP, so a further fall of 13% in the most recent reported year.
That's crazy that its even that high! I actually thought they shut down years ago and didn't know they were still in business. And they still did over $30m? Way better than I would have thought. But considering the context of my comment, I guess that's not really a compliment.
I wish there was some way of telling how much of that revenue was from customers locked into DM's proprietary systems and how much of that revenue was new business. Knowing that is probably the only way of figuring out if DM was/is as bad off as they seem. Too bad the only people with access to that data is probably DM themselves.
As a general trend, enterprise customers tend to change infrequently. Look at most manufacturers that are now aging, whether it is AD, Verint, NICE, March, 3VR, etc., and they still have a good proportion of their old enterprise accounts. Even though they may not be winning much new business, they can stay afloat from the replacement and extension sales typical of such users.
It is simply hard / costly for enterprise customers to switch platforms often. It does happen but once an enterprise customer widely deploys a video platform, they generally keep it for around a decade before switching.
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?
They absolutely did it to a regional customer of mine. 5 states. I sold my last DM product that day.
The ridiculous part was there was no need to do it. Everyone was content and making money. The customer picked up the phone and asked to go direct and they said yes. All they had to do was say "no". "Dance with the one that brung ya" is very good advice!
- Everyone was content and making money.
- The customer picked up the phone and asked to go direct
- Define everyone
Funny, but a client can be happy and still consider it their fiduciary duty to save money by trying to cut out the middle-person, even if they like them.
Absolutely.
If you do it "right" though, i.e. fair prices, outstanding workmanship AND by one-to-one customer bonding, you can end up with your customer being more loyal to you than your vendor would ever be.
Then you can take your customer 'to the dance' instead of the vendor.
DM had two customers. Then they had one. Now they have none.
That customer actually did make that deal with DM and then asked me to continue to do their work. I think our work did speak for itself.
So you in fact confirm our policy - which is to promote direct to the channel and their customers, and engage with them. However we do not, and never have install, and will only supply direct to bona fide self installers with an established capability in exceptional circumstances.
We always attempted to direct the user to the existing integrator - as I believe was explained to you at the time, and yes the customer stayed with you.
But you chose to take offence that we dared to update the customer direct about emerging technology - and took the business away.
Others criticize us for not changing - channel partners such as you stifle that change.
All they had to say was no. In this case, I stopped selling DM to that customer and every other customer.
Here is a little nugget. When Hikvision was trying to enter the US market back in 2005 with their embedded DVRs, the most common complaint was that their user interface was terrible. Even Dahua, which was sold under the Mace brand in US had a better interface, along with mouse functions. When meeting with Hikvision's senior management team at the time, they were stumped at what to do. This is when their annual revenue was less than $50M a year.
Hikvision had a dealer in UK that was doing several million dollars in sales, which was by far their biggest international account then. Since the dealer in UK was doing well, Hikvision management was more than willing to listen to their opinions. Both the dealer and Hikvision looked up DM as a company they wanted to learn from, so why not learn from DM's user interface?
From their early experiences of learning from the likes of DM to hiring US product managers and industrial designers, Hikvision has shown far more willingness than their former idols in the industry to be open-minded and dogged persistence to reach their goals. No one should be surprised at the demise of DM. Unfortunately there will be more disappearing in the next few years.
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..
5, they nearly almost made it to the HD analog though :)
Agreed. While there are other compelling reasons for IP-based video, the biggest one for me at the time was the ability to jump to HD. Had AHD come along sooner, I think it would have slowed down the migration to IP.
Watching this Old Dog of a Security Industry being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, I am definitely certain AHD coming out a lot sooner would have slowed down the migration to IP.
That's the irony. It's own slowness to innovation (analog video) pushed forward more advanced technologies (IP/megapixel). The security industry is a case study for some business university class.
[Poster is NetVu / DM CEO]
It's a shame people neither understand the history, or listen to what we have been saying.
I have stood by for too long while this site has peddled rubbish that we couldn't develop IP and didn't understand it.
For the record, we won awards in 1992 for DVST ( Digital Video Storage and Transmission ) being a full ISO seven layer model, developed completely in house. As commercial IP hardware became available, in 1997 we updated from our bespoke protocol to a TCP/IP based solution, being probably one of the first remote video monitoring solutions over IP.
In the same year we also created an aircraft grade video server, recording to hard disk ( and even a prototype to crash proof memory ) which communicated over TCP and a wireless link that was in fact a precursor before 802.11 was even defined.
This was while I was outside the DM business between 1997 and 2001 as part of a private placement, during which I was excluded from static CCTV.
It was the introduction of this technology within the DM DVR in 2001 having re-acquired that interest after parties who believed chasing the old innovation down had failed, that started the most stupendous growth - earning the business an award for three year compound growth of 1100%. This was because of the vacuum I had left in 1997, that competitors failed to fill, and so I introduced another key innovation building on the previously successful Uniplex range, giving a familiar user interface but leveraging the latest innovation.
A few years later, IP camera manufacturers were peddling the lie "You can't remotely monitor CCTV over IP without an IP camera" - but like the bumble bee being told it can't fly, they ignored what we had been doing for many years.
So having been one of the FIRST parties to apply IP to CCTV, with the greatest previous experience in digital video, we understood the installation challenges and the security risks involved.
Others are welcome to hold different opinions - but please be aware that we have many IP based solutions, analogue IP capable DVR solution for both standard and Hi def, NVR's with IP cameras, and now fully distributed Virtual NVR's for large enterprise solutions with both centralised and edge recording - for which examples are cited below.
So what we have always said is that there are 'horses for courses' and different solutions for different requirements. Anyone that claims only one technology is suitable for everything has an exceedingly limited view.
So we have promoted the pros and cons of all the technologies - unlike others however we never have been blind to all but one.
You witnessed one presentation putting forward one perspective. Depending on the needs of the customer, we put forward different positions, and will continue to do so. Our unique benefit is offering all formats through a common interface, with key value added features evolved over 25 years, not sacrificing capability because of the limited transport capabilities of RTSP, unless that is the only limited and inferior source available.
Alternatively we could have followed the commoditized rush to the bottom with ONVIF compliance, where true value added differentiation is typically denied.
Equally when a manufacturer such as Samsung seems to profess that their ONVIF compatible cameras and recorders are the only combinations supported as working together, doesn't this miss the point somewhat?
So we now see chipsets for 2K cameras for sub $30, and even 4K solutions for sub $50 - it's interesting to see that AXIS and Milestone have already rushed for the security and balance sheet security of Canon. Perhaps they can see that the day of the $200+ , or even $100+ IP camera, is becoming limited, and where will these organisations go to maintain maintain value and profits when there is no differentiation - with the chase for just more pixels beginning to pale.
We will continue to invest in IP, analogue HD, and whatever other technology delivers our customers needs, and we are not locked into a single mantra.
Rest assured that the employees that share the companies goals and visions continue to have a good future - those that have resisted change will be able to look elsewhere. They have worked in an environment where the highest standards of operation are, and have always been promoted, even if they have not always followed them, so we wish them well in their future opportunities that are awaiting them.
I always felt that the reason Dedicated Micros attracts so much disappointment and frustration is because of how amazing and innovative the company was, right up until the point where DM decided to embrace proprietary standards at a time when the industry was moving towards openness and intercompatibility.
Thanks, It is good to hear there is a positive plan. It was frustrating to see the direction, having install lots of 2060 dome and Sprites. I hope DM can bounce back with innovative technology and I wish you the best of luck.
I have stood by for too long while this site has peddled rubbish that we couldn't develop IP and didn't understand it.
It is not that you could not develop it or didn't understand it technically, it is that you made the wrong strategic choice at the wrong time. While you were rolling out and promoting Closed IPTV, Axis and Milestone were crushing it selling IP cameras and VMS software. During the 2007+ time period when DM was collapsing, Axis and Milestone were having great years.
it's interesting to see that AXIS and Milestone have already rushed for the security and balance sheet security of Canon.
And, ironically, they bet right twice. The first time by focusing on IP during its great growth phase of 2009 - 2014 and, again, once they realized the tide turned.
If you would have went full force on IP cameras and VMS software and then dumped it on the Japanese, like Axis and Milestone, you would be a billionaire now.
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.
...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.
You sure found the time to drive the company into the ground.
Mike,
Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it.
A few thoughts on the announcement:
AD Holdings indebtedness of some £4.7m
UK operation of Dedicated Micros in the UK which has entered Administration
That underscores my main point - the core business entering 'administration' / insolvency / bankruptcy. Your company has collapsed, however you want to frame it, as shown by both the massive 2006 - present revenue drop and your actions this month.
He is listening to people who think that the right market is selling desktop DVR's in volume through distributors
I have no idea who such people are or if they exist. My point here is that like the many other manufacturers whose revenue has not collapsed 75%, you could have embraced IP cameras, NVRs, etc. and avoided the collapse.
For those with 'green eyed' envy, which is one of the less attractive sins, all the race cars I raced I owned personally.
Perhaps you are projecting here. Personally, I have no interest in driving, for work, for pleasure, for sport, for anything.
My point here is the juxtaposition of your company's steep decline versus your hobby. The whole 'fiddling while Rome burns' thing.
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" ?
Telling people to shut up after you were forced to 'restructure' your company / go 'into administration' and lay off people, is not prudent. Are you the only one not to understand that marketing 101 point?
Mike, I genuinely wish you well. If DM/AD/NetVu rebounds and becomes a market leader, terrific. If you win more races, great.
But none of that changes the reality of the last 10 years, which is that you personally failed leading DM.
Well John, your analysis is flawed as ever, based on poor research and any sense of journalistic verification.
I formed DM in 1982. I started racing in 1984 - the same your I invented the CamPlex - and continued in Formula Ford, running in up to 20 race weekends until about 1997, finishing in the top three in at least one championship each of the latter years.
At that time the business was valued at $100m - so clearly the racing detracted from my success at that point.
Four years later, with others at the helm, I returned to the business in 2001 when it was then valued at $10m. I continued racing during the following years, but I raced in c. 18 International races in 2003, about 24 in 2004, and then started to focus on about 8 long distance major key events from then until 2011.
From your own data, the business peaked in 2006 - so any adverse relationship between my racing career and the business performance is solely in the heads of the little minded with no basis to form a view, or any understanding of my own work ethic.
You focus on the £4.7m debt - being what remains of over £14m incurred due to the expansion plans of others, and I have managed the business successfully to repay £10m of that debt during difficult trading times, and create the platform to negotiate the settlement of the remaining debt.
As there has been substantial amounts of new money invested by a highly respected corporate financier, it would seem unlikely that this would proceed if my efforts were viewed as a failure.
By ensuring that the manufacturing organisation was transferred before the administration, impact on supplier creditors will be negligible, and the ability to clear past balances greatly enhanced.
What exactly have you achieved with your life, other than this sad organ which sits and criticizes anyone who doesn't confirm with your ill informed view of life.
As there has been substantial amounts of new money invested by a highly respected corporate financier...
Mike, I hate to be the one to break it to you but your "respected corporate financier" got banned for three years from his profession, for his part in the demise of MG Rover.
Mike,
We both agree that the business collapsed between 2006 and today. We both agree you continued racing during that time.
I am willing to accept that the collapse had more to do with your faulty strategic decisions than racing. That said, you obviously knew in the past 10 years of the business ongoing collapse, so racing during it, in the best interpretation, was not the most prudent move.
As there has been substantial amounts of new money invested by a highly respected corporate financier
As for Maghsoud Einollahi being 'highly respected', please explain the severe reprimands and fine issued to Einollahi for his role in the collapse of MG Rogers?
In my experience, having an outside interest outside of your main business can often benefit the main business, rather than detracting from it. It exercises different portions of the mind (or, in the case of racing, the body), and can help renew a person to tackle the main concern.
Obviously destructive outside interests are not desirable, but racing isn't necessarily a destructive outside interest unless you crash a lot.
That is encouraging to hear. I was beginning to think that combining a passion and being successful with it, while still working well over conventional hours had somehow become a point of criticism, in particular by those that hide behind anonymity.
This forum would have far greater credence if the majority of respondents held the belief and self confidence as you have to make a comment and stand behind it.
It is a sad reflection on the modern world, that despicable people on the internet can spew vile statements as trolls behind anonymity, on subjects they have little basis to comment, with no regard for the hurt or consequences of their 'lynch mob' style actions.
John,
It is reassuring to know, that some things in a world of change are a constant.
Again you and others think that responsible reporting is based on unverified casual internet surfing, which qualifies you to present yourself as having informed conclusions.
The appeal was a significant climbdown for the regulator - and in fact as referred at the end of the article, has opened up a long debate between professionals on the implied requirement for an adviser to consider the Public interest as well of that of the client,which currently has no formal basis in regulation.
The original complaint was driven by howls from the 'Public Court of Discontent' seeking to blame the individuals willing to try and take MG Rover forward after decades of internal destruction by the unions, and lacking in resource and investment to fight on an international stage.
Sort of know how they may have felt.
So now all the major accountancy firms are reviewing just where they stand, even as in this case where prior approval for forms of engagement had been granted by the regulator - but retrospectively challenged based on public outcry.
I respect someone brave enough to stand up to the system and be counted - and in the eyes of many the remaining 'severe reprimand' represented complete exoneration. To have pursued further would have been a diminishing return, and a Corporate Finance person will always treasure ROI.
Mike,
You can certainly respect the man who put "substantial amounts of new money" to get your company out of administration / insolvency.
That said, you brought him into this conversation, calling him "a highly respected corporate financier."
Your 'highly respected' partner was found to have engaged in misconduct by the UK's government independent regular, the FRC, and was given "a fine of £175,000" and "a severe reprimand". Readers may see the full UK government report, including appeal here.
John,
I invite you to step out of your world on a small island in the middle of the ocean, and come and visit us.
I can introduce you to dozens of members of the business community who do hold him in high regard.
In fact, even make it as far as the US mainland - I am sure there is a queue of people who would be eager to meet you!
I can introduce you to dozens of members of the business community who do hold him in high regard.
Mike, I am sure you can. It does not change the fact and the position of the UK government. You are reckless to bring him into the conversation given those facts.
even make it as far as the US mainland
I am in the US mainland.
Anyone caring to know about someone "brave enough to stand up to the system and be counted" is encouraged to read the NY times article detailing Mr. Einollahi unorthodox dealings, and charter membership in the infamous "Phoenix Four".
...all the race cars I raced I owned personally. Dedicated Micros was certainly a key sponsor...
So Dedicated Micros paid you to own them?
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" ?
You clearly didn't listen to them, as many people who have worked with you will account to, and people reading this thread.
You skip over the fact that if it wasn't for those hard working employees at DM supporting your business you wouldn't have had the profit to take out to spend on racing.
You forget those that gave up their weekends to follow you round Europe supporting your events effectively unpaid, part of their job requirements, to support customers at said events.
You forget hiring professional race drivers to keep the lap times up and keep you in the running.
You won? Racing is a team effort Mike. Even before you came on the scene.
We can sling insults around all day. You can project what image you wish of yourself. Everyone that's worked for you and the fellow board members knows the real story through their own experiences, good and bad of what you and they are really like to work with.
Those that have worked at DM have an amazing camaraderie. It's what one might refer to as a blitz spirit, or having been in trench warfare.
So you are ignoring the fact that the my initial GT Racing in 2002, FIA GT Championship in 2003 and Le Mans in 2003 were entirely funded out of my own pocket.
I provided access at no cost, and carried company sponsorship at no cost or contribution such that the business could try the sponsorship experience at no charge to evaluate the return.
The sad thing was that the employees and salesmen that resented being at the events, completely missed what a great experience and response it created for the customers.
Hand up out there how many salesmen would value the opportunity to take your clients to a major sporting event, and have unprecedented behind the scenes exposure, which is denied the public, and typically even corporate clients of other sponsors.
Instead the 'coffee and doughnut' order takers resented the time and effort it took to invest in their customer relationship.
The bond created with those loyal customers with core projects remain to this day - long after the order takers left when they had to work for the sale, instead of "the DM product sells itself"
It is well known that the LMP2 class at the time was a Pro/Am pairing. The records state that I always delivered against my fellow Am competitors, and virtually without exception brought the car back in the same overall position or higher thna it was given to me, barring mechanical failure.
You only win in Motor Racing, especially Endurance racing, working as a team. Strange that in Motor Racing and in other ventures I enjoy a great team spirit. It was sad when I re-inherited DM in 2001, that many of the morals and spirit of the business I handed over in 1997 had deteriorated, and been replaced by order takers showing arrogance over a product that 'sold itself' - which is a term I have always despised.
Equally the collective opinion of the views on this forum is that sponsorship and promotion are a bad thing, and lead a business to ruin, which is contrary to the views of many businesses. Interestingly having reviewed the records once I was fully executive again from around 2005 onwards, despite allowing for the days I took racing and testing, I still didn't fully utilise my holiday allowance, and was virtually always the last to leave, and also was 100% on call at events other than when actually driving the car - so I feel no shred of rightful criticism of my work ethic.
There are about 150 good people that have expressed their wish to follow my leadership, and remain loyal to the goals. I am glad to say there is no one now just along for the ride because they feel they can hold the business to ransom. So again, as per my statement that start all of this, I thank all of those that have expressed their support in one form or another.
The others who felt aggrieved because the gravy train has stopped probably are aware of my views by now. Regardless I continue to express my sympathy for any that have lost their jobs under these circumstances, even if it just accelerated a redundancy program already in place.
A little lighthearted moment to share on what to do about the 'cheese' pile
Perhaps the new company should be Dedicated Mice ..............
I have stayed out of this back and forth and I probably will wish I had never gotten involved going forward, but Sir, seriously?
You need to go to the doctor. I presume you are in good physical health, but your need to have your levels checked; maybe a dipstick installed.
Your ego, humility and humbleness levels are terribly askew.
And by the way, given all I have read here, a good bit of it from your own hand as it were, I would think you would have more to do than this.
Enjoy
You've got the benefit of being in control of the facts. It's pointless arguing with you when you can paint whatever picture you wish to support your case.
I'm also not going to put myself in a difficult position by disclosing the knowledge I have from working at DM about the goings on.
Racing. Great in the glory days of huge profits. Less appealing when your dwindling numbers of clients feed back they are sick of hearing about racing and just want their products to work.
LMP made an awful lot of sense as a formula given the global reach of DM and the ability to host customers in a sexy formula without the insane cost of F1. But hey, one heck of an aspirational formula to be driving in too right, coincidence ?
Regardless of how you paint the financials you know there must have been financial structures in place to support the racing hobby under the guise of sponsorship. How about return on investment analysis, right up to the point you stopped doing it ?
If you had done a better job of keeping those "loyal" customers though product development aligned with their needs, they would still all be your customers. But after the DS2 came a bunch of products that no one really wanted. Your vision, no one else's.
DM was never a gravy train. It was hard work for shit pay.
When you're taking the biggest pay check, expect to put in the most work and when you own the company you never get a holiday. Many other people put in massive hours and they rarely got any noticed or appreciation @ DM. Your attitude is that you did more than anyone else, so what a surprise that no one got recognition for what they were doing when you felt they weren't doing as much as you.
Unless they were on an AD contract of course. Yes Mike, us and them. A toxic culture you unfortunately created and left to fester.
Those that left very rarely came back and when they did they tended to regret it. Plenty of high flyers doing far more successfully elsewhere in the industry, with the support and appreciation of their new companies.
Amazing what you can achieve (and earn) when you're not being held back by poor management, unwillingness to listen and a lack of vision.
I'm sure DMs situation has not been helped by a below average sole distribution model in Australia that push analog at outrageous prices. Locking customers in to the propriety equipment then following up with poor service. I'm sure it's a great product, but it won't go anywhere here with the current model. I know of more customers ripping it out than putting it in.
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.
Usually anytime "old-dog" is mentioned, it is about me, sadly.
Luis,
Thank you indeed for directing us back to more relevant points.
This is probably not an ideal forum to promote our plans in detail, however we will be publishing those, updating websites etc over the coming weeks.
We won't be changing our position on proprietary protocols ( a collective groan from most on this site ) - and that will be decried as stupid before people read on as to why that is the case.
Our products for many years have supported standard TCP/UDP, using MIME and RTSP protocols, and interoperate with the majority of other cameras in the market. Like a number of other manufacturers, we haven't focused on ONVIF compliance as a priority - as such interoperability still seems to be more aspiration than fact. Many people have different views on this, right or wrong which should be respected in either case and we are in the non reliance on ONVIF camp.
In addition to the standard and open protocols, we also have a much more sophisticated protocol, NetVu Connected, which allows for dynamic format switching, rich embedded meta data, and far out performs 'fire and forget' RTSP streaming over a wide range of mediums, self managing without reliance on QoS and other capabilities. It is also low latency, and error correcting. Blocky 'splats' and double images are never displayed or allowed through, even on lossy links to moving vehicles.
The Closed IP Layer, contrary to many misinterpretations, is not a 'closed protocol' and in fact does not represent the protocol layer at all. It is an additional layer providing a discovery and configuration, running as a service in addition to whatever protocol is used - be it RTSP or NetVu Connected - and if you don't wish to leverage it, just configure the IP addresses by DHCP or Static as you wish, and hopefully remember to configure your firewall. Alternatively let the CIP management layer do it for you, reliably and automatically securing the ports with multiple layers of defence.
For a number of years, all our camera and recording products have supported scripting to allow customer specific extensions. These empower our customers to adapt to meet specific detection criteria, for example in the ever changing world of EPOS loss prevention. We can of course do this for you, but with the tools provided it isn't 'rocket science' and we like to let our customers have the control and freedom to adapt to their own needs, while being able to carry forward their adaptations as future firmware evolves.
These scripting capabilities are now being extended into Enterprise Observer - a powerful viewing, analysis and download package building on the historically popular NetVu Observer - and also Pick-a-Point, a long established control room suite - to allow retrospective analysis, real time scripted response to events and many tools to display metadata in graphs, dials, numeric and text displays etc.
Pick-a-Point is fully integrated with our AMS ( Archive and Management System ), which provides multi location archiving, retrieval and management, along with automated software upgrade with health check scanning for preventive maintenance on disk drives etc. Although primarily developed for transportation applications, the ability to efficiently handle assets even when the connection is changing or going off line, makes it hugely robust in static multi site environments, regardless of the stability or integrity of the data links available.
These products now have a 'workbook' structure, so the UI is dynamic and configurable whether it is for general viewing, a guard podium, or a very specific analysis task.
We will continue to support any format that has a sustainable place in the sector. In the first part of last year we added HD analogue capability, while also introducing auto focus capability across virtually our entire IP camera range. Both have received great response in the retail sector in particular, where an economic and phased upgrade path is a massive benefit to legacy estates.
All of our platforms are backwards compatible - so even a 10-12 year old estate of Digital Sprite, can be supported and serviced by the same viewing and back office resources, alongside 4K IP cameras, and HD analogue cameras, mobile systems in buses and other vehicles, and even images from commercial airliners.
A lot of our focus is also on our FireVu smoke and flame detection portfolio, providing key detection in the most demanding environments, that 'code' solutions cannot tolerate. This includes waste reprocessing and agricultural products, where the dust, dirt, and outdoor elements make other techniques non viable.
We have been particularly successful in both military and civil aircraft hangars, outperforming triple IR detectors on cost, coverage and false alarm rejection, providing implicit visual verification as well.
All of this fully integrates with the rest of our platforms, so immediately providing a rich suite of remote verification, control room and review platforms, alongside video for conventional security and management roles.
We have DLL's, and publish the numerous interfaces for strategic partners - although we have our own management software to offer as well - which can leverage the full range of metadata, scripting responses, Fire detection and other analytics.
So we have plenty to do - and a strong customer base that is identified by its quality rather than quantity.
We welcome anyone who wants to share what we have to offer, assuming you don't want us to just be the same as the last / next guy but cheaper.
One customer with well over a $1m per year spend is generating over 15 times return per annum. We seek to achieve that exceptional return for those customers, and needless to say, those customers respect what we do for them.
Competing in a crowded space on volume and price, while it served us well 10 years ago, is not part of our current plans, because contrary to the comments of some of the others, we have embraced change - just in a different direction to what they may have noticed.
Our big challenge of course is to now redefine the operational side of the business, in the UK in particular, having completed the restructuring of the business to move forwards from a high volume distribution model, to a value added project infra structure.
Over 34 years, a number of legacies grow within a business, and that has increasingly inhibited change.
Our US, manufacturing and Aerospace businesses were entirely unaffected by the process which regrettably ran somewhat 'off plan' in the UK for reasons outside our immediate control, which are probably too complex to describe in full here ( and would probably only attract negative comment on this forum which adds no value to any of us )
I think this is probably an appropriate time for me to 'close off' on this post, as it has already rambled in many directions.
Regardless of the helpful pyscho analysis by some on this site, I am not embarrassed by my first statement -
For those that may be aware of the big changes at AD Holdings, and have sent their support by various means, may I express my thanks on behalf of everyone. The team moving forward appreciates this support, as we build a new future together as NetVu, along with our good colleagues in Dedicated Micros Malta, Dedicated Micros USA, and AD Aerospace. We share our sympathies for those that are unable or unwilling to come on the next stage of the journey with us.
With regards to the further statement, each will have his or her own view, and those who had made the inaccurate and unhelpful post on Facebook against which it was directed, and subsequently taken down, will know who they are!
So thanks for those that have read any or all of this, and had anything constructive or informed to contribute, and I will return to my past position of leaving John to spout his ill informed positions on this and other companies without challenge or recognition.
Bye.
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.
Mike, I've been thinking about it, and I feel it's a little unfair how it's ok for an employee to drag their company's name thru the mud and disparage the CEO,(personally, at times), and yet if an Executive speaks their mind in a similar manner all hell breaks loose. But CEO's are just people just like anyone else right?
Anyway seeing as you're up for innovation, what do you think about help creating a site made just for CEOs to vent their frustrations anonymously, without fear of backlash? Like maybe:
Modeled after the popular employee centric site with a similar name, it would also allow you to rate your employees en masse by giving them an approval rating as well as categorize them in an efficient and flexible manner:
- Slackers
- Gravy Train Riders
- Coffee and Donut Salesmen
- Aggreived/Resentful
- Anti-hobbyists
What do you think?
Having just got of a plane back from the US, this suggestion certainly brightened my day!
While the prospect is attractive, in addition to the initial comment that caused John to comment, my view has always been - never say anything behind someone's back that you aren't willing to say to their face.
I am sure the armchair PC brigade will probably dislike that as well, but those that know me know that I support honest and openness even to the the risk of causing offence. I am very much 'you get what you see'.
Such a site wouldn't necessarily preclude that and would perhaps harmlessly vent frustration, as I would always being willing to repeat to those involved, and I am sure many others would share the outlet in a world of entitlement without commitment.
I sold a ton of the digital sprites back in the day! Can't say I am in the least bit surprised - the minute they decided to go all in on the DV-IP closed/proprietary solution I knew the company was done for.
I will never forget how they stuffed so much bad inventory on us as "hot selling items" and "must stocks". We were a new distributor for them at the time, so they took advantage of our ignorance. Then they wouldn't let us do a stock rotation once we realized what we could actually sell. Shame, waste of a once well respected brand.
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.
Mike,
Thanks for the response. Yes this was at least 9 years ago. It's water under the bridge, but will forever be noteworthy to me as part of the learning process. I am much more aware now when manufacturers promise us the world (leads, support, etc). Let's just say I fully understand "the business" now.
Best of luck to you.
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.
I'm not going to talk anymore. Never. Did you hear me. I am not speaking to you. I don't care what you do you won't hear from me again.
Hey Mom, what's for dinner?
... we are in the non reliance on ONVIF camp.
You're not alone...
Horsepucky!
We used DM products for a few years. All was fine until their electronics/software had some age on them. Tech support was worthless except to say we needed to "update the software" to correct the current problem-of-the-week.
This update usually resulted in the complete lockup of the DVR requiring the predictable advanced replacement.
After six months of this, we finally changed manufacturers and never looked back.
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."
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.
Fear him not, Caesar; he's not dangerous;
He is a noble Roman and well given.
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.
He will be back soon and "will be trading paint with the big boys".
They'll be ready for him...
*Fair use claimed of B. Rhodes artwork.
A person claiming to be an ex-DM employee emailed us [REMOVED]
Dedicated Micros has stopped support on their NetVu mobile app. It apparently will not work on newer Android systems and we were told development has stopped on it.
Luis is there an official statement on this?
Glad you asked as I should have been more specific: one of my techs was told this over the phone. However, he later found this on their website..
"Due to an issue with Marshmallow, users should downgrade their version of Android to Lollipop. This is due to a well documented issue involving the lack of support for FFMPEG libraries - this also affects many other video and audio apps on the market.
-
A new app is being developed which is not reliant on the FFMPEG libraries and users should check back again soon for updates -
The Android OS code names tend to apply to a family of OS releases. ‘Eclair’ is used to refer to both 2.1 and 2.0 release of the OS. You require version 2.1 or greater of Android."
http://www.dedicatedmicros.com/europe/androidapp.php
I know my guy is pretty smart and probably heard correctly, so maybe tech support was not up on internal developments. Maybe Mike or someone else from DM can reply confirming the app will be updated with a "...by no later than" date.
Having dealings with FFMPEG, I can this it is definitely on DM's side.
Stack overflow Dec 2015 compile work around.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34492583/executable-binary-cannot-run-on-android-marshmallow
there are other fixes as well.
FFMPEG dev's are constantly updating support for just about everything including android.
they also work with google (who owns android OS) every summer at google's summer of code to help integration of FFMPEG with as many platforms as possible.
If DM cant get FFMPEG to work with their app within a month or so its on DM.
I get that marshmallow has been released just recently but DM just like all the rest of the security software companies dont plan for releases on anything for new OS's till after software companies mothball the oldest OS their software will run on. and even then they still try to milk it longer like with win XP.
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