Favorite VMS Manufacturers 2016

By John Honovich, Published Feb 16, 2016, 12:00am EST

With the Favorite Camera Manufacturers 2016 and Worst Camera Manufacturers 2016 identified, we now turn to the VMS manufacturers.

150 integrators from 20 countries answered the following open ended question:

4 manufacturer stood out.

Since the 2014 edition, the top spot has changed..

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Rankings

*** ***** *** * integrator ******* ******** *** same, ******* * ** them *** ******* *****.

******, * ************* *********** 'tied' *** *** *****, with *****, ******* *** Milestone **** *** ****:

  • *****, *** *** ******** #* ** ****, **** *******, **** the **** ****** ****** being ****'* *********.
  • *********, *** *** ********** #2, ******** ********** ******, with ** ****** ***** from *** ***** ***********.
  • ******* ******, ********** #*, their ******* ********* ********, moving **** * ***** way *** **** ***** and *********.
  • ********, ***** ******, ****** the *** ** *** 'big *', ***** ****** than ****. ******, ******** had **** ********** ******* for ***** *** **** for ***** *******.

*****

*** ******* *********** ******** Exacq ******** *******, **** ease ** ***, ********* and ***** *** **** common ************:

  • "***** ******** *** **** to ***"
  • "*****, **** ***** ** integrations *** ******** ****** of ****** *******"
  • "***** ****, ****** ***********, scalable, ****"
  • "** ** ****** ** use *** *** *** users *** *** **** features **** *** ******** of ********* *** ******* for. *** ******** **** out ** * ******* basis *** ** *****'* had *** **********."
  • "*****. ***** **** * lot ** ******* *** ease ** *** *** setup"
  • "*****, **** ** *****, works *** ** *** box, ***** ** ****"
  • "**** ** ***, ***** with "****" *******. ****** ability *** ****** *******. inexpensive *** ********"
  • "***********. ********* *******, **** to ***, ****** *****. Had **** *** ******* than *********"
  • "***** ** *** **** favorite, ******* ** **'* simplicity, ****, *** *********** to ********* **** ***** systems"
  • "*********** ** * ***** balance ** *********, ******* set *** **** ** use"
  • "*****. *** *** **** experience ********* ** ** the ******* ***** *** us ***** ***** *** to ****"
  • "***** **** ******* ** is ********* ****** *** cost ***********"
  • "***** - **** ** use *** **** *****"

*******, *** ***** ** objections ** ****'* *********** of **** *** *** impact ** **** *********:

  • "*****, ****** ** ***********"
  • "*** **** *********** *** made *** ******* (*****) challenging ** ****."
  • "*****, ***** ****** ** Tyco ** ** *** have ****** ** ******* or ********* ********* - Tyco ****** ** ** make * **** ********** in ***** ***** ** could *** ******"
  • "***** ******** **********? ** has ** ** *** the ******* ***** **** at *****, ***** *** already **** **********. ******* Illustra *******, ********* (** at ***** **-************) *** reseller ******, ****** *** whole ***** ** **** inertia..."
  • "*'* *** *** ******* problem ******* *** **** Exacq. *** ******* ** still *****, *** *** status / ******* ******* of *** ******* *** become ***-********. **'* *** to *** **** * great ******* ************** ********** by ****."
  • "*********** - (********, **** it ****'* - ***** it **** *** ***** - ****)"
  • "* ***** *********** ***** until **** **** **** over."

** *** ******** ****, Exacq ********* ** ******* its ******* *** ********, including **** ****** *** features. ** *** ***** hand, **** ** ***** releases **** ******* ** integrating **** ***** **** products ******* ** **** popular ***** ******* (*.*.,***** **** ****** *** Intrusion ***********).

*********

*********** ******** ** ****** Milestone's '**** ********' ************:

  • "********* *** **** *** most ******** *** *** allowed ** ** **** from *** ****** ***** to ******* *** ***** keep **** ** ** existing ********* **** * maintenance *** ******* ****"
  • "*********, ** ** *** most ****** *** *** money. ** *** * broad ****** ******* ******** to *********** ********* *** of *** ********* **** with ****** ** ***** and *************. ** ** user ********, *** ******* is ********* *** ** just *****'* *****"
  • "* **** ********* ** a *******. * **** the **** **** **'** do ****** **** ******** that's ********, **** * huge ***** ** ******** systems *** ***** ***** devices"
  • "* **** *********. ****'** got ***** ******* *** different ****** ******* *** they **** * ***** point **** **** ****** my ********'* ******* ******* that ** ***, ******, or ****"
  • "*********, ******* ** *** acquired ** ***** *** open ****** ************, **** make ** ****** ** implement **** *** ****** or ***** *** **** different ****** ************, **** is *** **** ****** scenario"
  • "********* ** ** ********* works **** *** *** all ** *** ************* that *** ********* *****. We **** **** *** fact **** **** **** regular ****** ******* *** support **** ****** *** models ** *******. ********* usually *** ******* ** support **** ** *** brand *** ****** **** as **** *** ********"

**** ** * ******** endorsement ** *********. ****** Tyco / *****, *********** did *** ******* ******* about*****'* *********** ** *************** * ***** ***.

****** *** **** ********, integrators ***** * ******* of ******** *********** **** Milestone.

  • "*********. ********* ***** *** the **** *********** *** made *** ******* *********** to ****."
  • "********* - **** ** use *** ******* *** are ****** ********"
  • "********* *****. * **** worked **** ********* ***** they **** ** *** US ** ***** *** have *** ***** ******* with ***** ********"
  • "** **** **** **** happy **** ********* **** the **** *** *****. The ******* ** ********, feature ****, *** *** client ******** ** **** to *****"
  • "********* - *** ***** enterprise- **** *** ** the ******. *** **** expensive"
  • "********* ******* ** **** good, ********** **** ** install"
  • "*********: **** *** ****** product, ***** *** *****, good *******"
  • "********* ******** - ****** because *** **** ** use (*** *******), ********, highly ********** *** ********"

*** ******** (** ** least *** ********) *** that *********** ******** ********* did *** ******* ***** NVRs, ***** *** **** their **** '***********' ****** over *** **** * years.

*******

*********** ********* ******* **** the **** ****** ** call ** *** **** or *** ********* ***:

  • "*******, **** ******** *** integrated ********"
  • "******* ******* ** **** powerful *** ***** **** well *** ******* ************."
  • "*******. **** ** ****** the **** **** ******** system *** *****. **** continue ** ******** *** advance ***** ******** ** meet *** ***** ** the ***********."
  • "*******. ******* ***********. *********** support. ***** *********** *** customer **********."
  • "******* ******* ** ** capable ** ***** **** about ******** * ******** could ****. **** ****** manufacturers ********* **** **** Genetec. ***** ****** *** phone ****-*******"
  • "*******, ******* ** *** reliability, *********** *** ***** range ** ********* ********"
  • "******* ******* ** *** versatility"
  • "*******. ** *** * modern ********* **** ******* like *** ** **** to ***. **** *** dealer **** ** *** ease ** ***** *** wide ******* ** ******** and ******* ********* ****** support"
  • "******* **** ************"
  • "**** *** ****** ******* integration **** ******* ******** Center ********."
  • "*******. ** ** ********** and ******** ***** ******** of *** ******** ****** from ****** *** **** software *******. ** ** costly, *** ******** *** best ****** ***** ********** that ** **** ****"
  • "******* ******** ****** ****** all *** ******** ******** systems ****** *** ** very **** ******** **** both * ********* *** customer ***********. **** **** provide ********* ********* ******* as ******."
  • "******* *** **** ** installation/deployment *** ******* ***."
  • "******* ***** *** * very **** **** ********* and ***** *** ****** expansion *** *********** **** 3rd ***** *******."
  • "******* *** ** **** expanding *********** *******."
  • "*******. ***** *******. ****** expandable *** *******. ****** easy ** ***."

** ***** ** **** feature ******* *** ***** of ***********, **** *** rival ******* *** **** match ***** ****** ***** on******** ********** ***** *** functionalities. **** ** **** as *******'* ********* *********** helps, ** ******* *** shifting *** ********* **** rivals ***** ******** *** helped ******* ****** **** attractive.

********

********'* *** ******* ****, with *********** ******** *** ease ** ***, *** to *** ***** *** strong *******:

  • "********. ***-**-*** (*.*., ******* integrated) ***** *** ***** completely ***********, **** ** hell ** ***, ** recurring ****, *** *** best **** *** ***** support *'** **** ***** with."
  • "********, **** ******* ** the ********"
  • "******** - **/* *******"
  • "********, **** ******** *******"
  • "********. ********* ******* *** responsiveness ** *****. ********* like ** ********* *** or ******** ******* *****"
  • ********. **** *** *** hardest *******, **** ********** company ** **** ****. We **** *** **** quality ****** ** * plus *****."
  • "********. * **** *** firmware ********** *** **** of ***"
  • "** ****** ******** *** end ** *** ******** and **** ** ***** and ***. ** *** their ******** **** **** very ******** **** * years ** ********** ***** cameras *** ***/***"
  • "******** **** *** - easy ** *** **** fast"
  • "********. **** ** *** and *****. **** *** GUI *** ******* **** of *** ******"
  • "******** ******* ** **** to *** *** **** reliable"
  • "********. ****. * ****** to *****. ******* ************"
  • "******** *** ** ***** easy *** ****** ** install/setup"
  • "******** ******* ******. *** clients **** *** **** interface, *** ** ** our ********* ** *** monitoring ******. ** ** extremely ****** ** ******* and *********, ** **** as ** ********"

******** ** **** ***** for *** *******, *** in ********, **** **** market ***** *******. *******, their *** ** ***** strong (********** ******** *** * VMS) *** *****, ***** the ******** *********** ********, are ****** ** *********** than ********. ** ******* Avigilon's *** ** * 'hidden' ******** *** *** company. ****** **** ********, though '****' ******* ******* using ***** *** ******* over *****'*.

Size ** ****** ************

**** ** ***** ****, there *** ********** *********** in ********** *** *********** by **** ** ******* job.

  • ***** *** ******** **** integrators ************ ** * to ** ****** ******* jobs *** ****** ** those ***** ****** ****.
  • ********* *** ****** **** across *** ******** ** integrators, ******* ******* **** in *** ******* *** smallest **********.
  • ******** *** **** ************ on *** *** **** segments, **** **** ******* for **** ***** *** large ******* ***********.
  • ******* *** ******* *** strongest ** *** ** large ********, *** *********** shut *** ** *** low ***.

Geographic ********** - ***** *******

*** *** ****** ***** to ** **** ************** impacted **** *******, **** likely ******* ** ************ challenges *** **** *** local *******.

** **** ******, ~**% of *********** **** **** North *******, ** *** results *** ******* ****** to *** ***** ******** market. ** *** *** not ** ***** *******, keep **** ** ****.

Comments (32)

J v E

IPVMU Certified | 02/16/16 02:07pm

I would like to see a top 10 or 20..

Avatar

Luis Carmona

IPVMU Certified | In reply to J v E | 02/16/16 02:11pm

I think top 20 might be stretching it a bit, especially in this predominant North Am market, but a top 5 or top 10 list would be good and keeping with all the YouTube "top" lists we've gotten used to.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to J v E | 02/16/16 02:36pm

There was not enough votes for anyone else to make a clear 10. About 20 VMS vendors got a vote, but most of them were only 1 or 2 votes total.

Basically, the 'big' 4 got 2/3rds of the votes, everyone else got the remainder.

J v E

IPVMU Certified | 02/16/16 02:28pm

Maybe a list for Non-USA market?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to J v E | 02/16/16 02:36pm

But which non-USA market? Europe? Asia? Middle East?

The challenge for surveys there are language issues. We only publish in English so that's our fundamental limitation.

J v E

IPVMU Certified | In reply to John Honovich | 02/16/16 03:09pm

John,

As I am in Europe, I would like to see those results. Wondering if they would be different from the US market, however.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to J v E | 02/16/16 03:13pm

Frank, we simply do not have enough Europe responses to be confident that it is accurate. Indeed, even with the 30 or so we do, that's only those who speak English and most of Europe does not speak English. Ergo, the geographic disclaimer we ran at the bottom of the report.

Avatar

Murat Altuev

AxxonSoft | In reply to J v E | 07/07/16 09:03pm

In Europe only Milestone has significant share while others from US top 4 not.

Avatar

Brian Anderson, CPP®

IPVMU Certified | 02/16/16 10:50pm

So you're saying Exacq,Genetec and Milestone got the same amount of votes and there wasn't a winner? Who had the most (where's the graph)? Who was #5? Although a big fan of the Exacq software, I believe they're tarnishing their name with pushing Kantech and American Dynamic integrations so heavily.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Brian Anderson, CPP® | 02/16/16 10:59pm

They were within 1.5 favorite votes of each other, offset by a few vote worst margin in the opposite direction. It is really too close to fairly say one was preferred over the two.

I purposely did not include a graph because I want people to focus more on the trends and the integrator commentary then quickly looking at a graph saying company X is #1

There was not a clear #5, Hikvision was 'next' on favorites but was almost as high on 'worsts'. Everyone else had a few votes or one (or obviously none) each.

Avatar

Jon Dillabaugh

Pro Focus LLC
02/17/16 03:19am

Are we the lone installers of DW Spectrum / NX Witness?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Jon Dillabaugh | 02/17/16 12:16pm

Surely there are other DW Spectrum users just not enough compared to their rivals.

The VMS market is so mature and DW has historically been low key in marketing that its hard for a relatively young / new VMS like NX to get broader integrator interest.

Patrick Kelly

In reply to Jon Dillabaugh | 02/17/16 06:47pm

Jon - you are in an exclusive club of `highly intelligent industry leading professionals.

Full Disclosure - I work for Digital Watchdog ( and a member of the club too:)

Avatar

Joseph Parker

In reply to Jon Dillabaugh | 02/17/16 07:09pm

We do! And we love it! We also use 2 of the top 4 finishers depending on job size, but when I am looking for ease of use I go Spectrum.

Patrick Kelly

In reply to Joseph Parker | 02/18/16 04:12pm

Thanks Joseph

Full Disclosure - I work for Digital Watchdog

Avatar

Brian Anderson, CPP®

IPVMU Certified | 02/17/16 03:22am
I'm curious to see how Onssi did compared to 2014 with the SeeTec by out.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Brian Anderson, CPP® | 02/17/16 12:17pm

Regarding OnSSI, that is in our next edition....

Malcolm Rutherford

02/17/16 03:36am
Out here in Asia/APAC, in the Casino market, none of the choices mentioned here gets a look in. It would be interesting to understand why that might be (although sheer size and complexity of Casino CCTV setups would likely be a major factor)

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Malcolm Rutherford | 02/17/16 06:51am

Who does get a look-in, Dallamier, Geuterbreuck, Indigo?

Malcolm Rutherford

In reply to Undisclosed #2 | 02/17/16 07:39pm

Dallmeier and Synectics dominate, there are occasionally other VMS ' but typically they act as the "big two".

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Malcolm Rutherford | 02/17/16 12:13pm

Malcolm,

Yes, the casino market is quite specialized. Thanks for noting that.

Malcolm Rutherford

In reply to John Honovich | 02/17/16 07:43pm

The Casino industry has certain needs, which tends to point it toward certain solutions. Despite the size of individual installations it is something of a niche market. I just wonder if it could adopt a different solution, not that it will, there is too much money involved to risk failure, but could it?

Is it missing out on some developments even?

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Malcolm Rutherford | 02/17/16 07:47pm

The combination of lots of PTZs, lots of analog, matrix switches, strict frame rate requirements, etc., makes the casino market a fairly conservative and restricted market when it comes to picking video surveillance. And it strikes me as rationale.

Exacq may be super easy to use but it's not built for large scale casinos, etc.

Carlos Espinoza

02/17/16 03:55pm

I have tried in the past Milestone and Exacq, before I discovered NUUO. Half the price, great support, ip licences, video analitycs, nas, nvrs, storage solutions and even support for capture cards.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Carlos Espinoza | 02/17/16 04:05pm

NUUO's been around for a long time but evidently integrators overall are not big fans. In particular, we've found Mainconsole to be poorly built and hard to use. It's a shame and I am not sure why they did not develop more.

NUUO's a publicly traded company, with fairly flat revenue in the ~$15 million range, which is low even for the VMS space.

Carlos Espinoza

In reply to John Honovich | 02/17/16 11:27pm

Try Crystal Series for Enterprise solutions

Avatar

Brian Anderson, CPP®

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Carlos Espinoza | 02/17/16 09:55pm

NUUO was surprisingly #5 on the list in 2014. Main Consule works well for SMB. They do provide some really good analytics included with the software.

Vasiles Kiosses

02/26/16 12:53pm

Is there a way to differentiate what makes a great VMS product for small, medium or large customers. Albeit defining what is small, medium and large can also be an issue.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Vasiles Kiosses | 02/26/16 01:21pm

Good question.

As a general rule of thumb, we see:

  • Small customers look for low cost and reliability first. Good enough usability is fine, since they do not use the systems that much, and advanced features are not generally needed because they have simple needs. (e.g., Hikvision)
  • Medium customers look for ease of use first and moderate functions. Since they have operators use the system frequently, this becomes more important and they are willing to spend more to get it but they do not have super advanced requirements. (e.g., Exacq)
  • Large customers look for advanced features because their security risks are higher and the operational challenges are steeper. They tend to be willing to trade off some increased complexity and cost for that. (e.g., Genetec).

Tom McVey

IPVMU Certified | 03/01/16 07:36pm

Anyone have any experience with Galaxy/Open Eye?

Undisclosed End User #3

03/01/16 08:50pm
I work in the EMEA casino market and we increasingly use Milestone, though not Husky for NVRs as we upgrade older DVR based solutions.
Avatar

Abdelhamid Metwally

IPVMU Certified | 09/02/16 06:50pm

Milestone very popular in the Middle East for medium to large installations and increasingly so is Avigilon for large installations. Ironically while the Tyco buy-out may have harmed in Exacq in North America it has actually made Exacq more visible in the Middle East.

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