Favorite Large Scale VMSes 2015

Author: John Honovich, Published on Aug 10, 2015

If you have 100+ cameras in your system, what should you use for recording? What is used for recording?

This report shares the results of IPVM's integrator survey focused on integrators deploying 100+ camera systems and is the counterpart to our Favorite Large System Cameras.

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Comments (27)

Thumbnail img 0859

Scot MacTaggart

08/10/15 12:26pm

I'm kind of surprised at Exacq's strong showing on that list. They always seemed to be after the mid-market and the rising small business.

I'm curious - do you think it's an intentional repositioning by Tyco, or just clients responding better to ExacqVision than the rest of the Tyco video range? Is there any reliable data of their share of large scale projects from before the Tyco takeover?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Scot MacTaggart | 08/10/15 12:37pm

11% is not that strong though I agree historically their core focus / strength was the mid-market.

That said, I don't think their showing is related to Tyco. The two factors I would attribute for this are:

  • Exacq has a lot of dealers and they were the overall favorite in 2014 (across all system sizes). Just having lots of integrators carry your line increases the odds that they are comfortable with it and willing to offer it to larger customers.
  • Exacq has quietly and incrementally gotten better at higher end features over the past few years, making it a fairly solid offering for large-scale users.
Thumbnail profile grad864

Ryan Hulse

In reply to John Honovich | 08/10/15 09:16pm

To put some details to John's statement of incremental large deployment improvements, 12 months ago exacqVision did not have a strong Video Wall solution and offered no server redundancy features. Within the last 12 months we've added:

  • VideoPush for video wall and operator collaboration
  • Server failover via our Enterprise System Manager (ESM) product
  • The concept of hierarchical groups of users and recorders managed from ESM. This allows ESM to keep users' permissions in sync across all the servers in their 'group'.

Disclosure: I am the product manager for exacqVision

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Ryan Hulse | 08/10/15 09:44pm

To provide context, those types of features were elements that Genetec Security Center and Milestone Corporate have had for some time. Exacq is not breaking ground here but is closing the gap on some key elements.

Ulf Eklund

08/11/15 01:02pm

Hi, how many integrators answered and is it mainly US integrators? How many manufacturers in total where mentioned.

Was it the next 6: OnSSI, Pelco, Verint, Aimetis, NICE and DVTel that got ~14% selections?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Ulf Eklund | 08/11/15 01:31pm

90 integrators, roughly 2/3rds from North America.

Yes, the next 6 combined got roughly 14%.

Marc de boer

RRBSecurity | 08/12/15 07:51am

Mirasys.... Anyone????

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Marc de boer | 08/12/15 10:47am

No Mirasys mentions, though that could be a product of (1) lack of strong presence outside of Northern / Central Europe for them and (2) more of a mid-market offering.

Gary Egan

09/02/15 01:27pm

John, have you ever had a look at the Cathexis Software? I am a Milestone user but Cathexis seems to have a few nice features.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Gary Egan | 09/02/15 01:35pm

Gary, you are the first person to ask us about them ever. One of their people emailed us last year, but he did not make a clear case of why they were different / better. I spent 5 minutes scanning through their website and it was not clear what was significantly better about them than the dozen of other better known VMSes.

I obviously don't know enough about them to make a definitive judgement, but given the lack of interest expressed by industry people over the years, it is not something we are likely to cover. That said, if you or anyone can make a clear case of their competitive differentiators, we are happy to look at them further.

Gus Brecher

In reply to John Honovich | 10/02/15 05:47am

Hi John/Gary,

I am one of the directors of Cathexis Technologies. As Gary mentioned, we are a South African based company with offices in the U.K and the Middle East with distribution partners in other regions. We have been around for about 20 years, grew up in the analogue days and have had an I.P software solution for the last 6 years or so. We estimate that we have supplied about 1 million channels of video out there in the Analogue and I.P space. Our biggest installed base is actually in Europe.

We have not placed much focus on the N.A region, which is probably why you have not had many enquiries regarding our product. We do have a small presence in the in the North East, having sold most of our solutions through Intervid Inc. who are based out of Maryland. We also have some clients using our product in the banking sector down South.

The North American market is in my sights for the near future, so I expect you will be hearing more about us in the medium term.

I won't go into a long description on our product in this discussion John, but maybe we can take this off-line if that is acceptable to you. We are very comfortable of where we are against the major players in the industry.

Gary Egan

09/02/15 03:32pm

John, no am not going to make a case for them, as I mentioned I have selected Milestone. From what I can gather their main base is in mining in South Africa.

Given the move by VMS manufacturers into access control as well, have you looked at systems such as Gallagher?

Thumbnail pp 5

Brian Rhodes

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Gary Egan | 09/02/15 05:45pm

Even as an access platform, Gallagher does not come up often. They do not have a substantial dealer channel, which is a big factor for a dealer-only brand.

My impression from speaking with them is they have a niche in high-end government and institutional verticals. They tend to cost more than other platforms and focus integrations on uncommon subsystems like perimeter (fence) intrusion alarms.

I cannot speak directly on the VMS/ video integration, but it appears they do not support ONVIF and all integrations require custom driver support which is a drawback for many potential integrators and customers alike.

Jacques Poulet

10/29/15 02:05pm

Are we so few with IndigoVision?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Jacques Poulet | 10/29/15 02:08pm

Yes, IndigoVision has a solid large scale VMS but they have a relatively limited market share compared to the companies cited here.

Steven Turney

10/29/15 02:39pm

Can someone post the link to the SMB results?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Steven Turney | 10/29/15 02:51pm

SMB Market Video Surveillance Guide

Favorite SMB Video Surveillance Manufacturers

Steven Turney

10/29/15 02:57pm

Thanks John.

Corey Berman

10/29/15 08:13pm

great article ! thx IPVM.

dominic costello

10/29/15 10:10pm

VMSs, I would be very interested in seeing a shoot out features vs cost. Usability, GUI, how well they play with other products. How their LPN and facial recognition, Search Rules, event triggers and practicality compare.

Also keen to see how Axxon Next and Axxon Intellect compare to the bigger name players.

John Martinez

11/04/15 01:03am

Comment, I find usually the mfg determines what large account a sold by thier bus dev people, or in sime cases very large integratgors. I see this driven at the end user- A and E level.

Undisclosed End User #1

11/23/15 05:51pm

Test drove Milestone, Exacq, Avigilon and Salient and for me Salient was tops. Primarily based on the relationship with AMAG but was overall strong.

Undisclosed Integrator #2

In reply to Undisclosed End User #1 | 11/24/15 01:02pm

Probably because AMAG and Salient are owned by the same company, G4S.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 11/24/15 09:09pm

Salient says this is not true. Quote:

"Salient Systems has a strong OEM relationship with AMAG who offers Symmetry CompleteView as their fully integrated, bi-directional video platform with the Symmetry Access Control product. This OEM relationship does not include ownership of Salient Systems by AMAG or their parent company G4S."

Undisclosed Integrator #2

In reply to John Honovich | 11/24/15 10:13pm

The G4S rep I was talking to was mistaken then. Fact checks are always good.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #2 | 11/24/15 10:16pm

Woah, a G4S rep is saying that... Salient better look into that.

Undisclosed Integrator #2

In reply to John Honovich | 11/28/15 04:30pm

Well, sales reps only have to be accurate in meeting their numbers. Everything else is.... negotiable. :)

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