How HiSilicon Wasted $200,000 At ISC West

By: IPVM Team, Published on Apr 03, 2017

Huawei owned HiSilicon is a hidden key component of many of the cheapest cameras on the market.

For the second year in a row, HiSilicon has wasted $200,000 with the most bizarre booth strategy seen.

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Comments (25)

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

04/07/17 08:11am

You have to laugh at this typical Chinese strategy. Send a bunch of people who stand there smiling yet have no particular message to get across and if they had they couldn't communicate it because of a lack of English. It could be ignorance, arrogance or just stupidity, hard to know. It reminds me of endless streams op Chinese, Taiwanese and other folks pouring in and out of IFSEC in London every day who all end up standing talking to each other or sitting behind desks with little or no interaction with the visiting public. Somethings will never change I guess and HiSilicon seem to be another great example of it.

Marty Calhoun

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #1 | 04/07/17 09:47pm

Laugh? Whats funny? This company (Chinese or not) has made 100's of millions of dollars and obviously has the cash (100k+)to blow on a booth year after year. What is stupid? Or is it just the old hat story, if its Chinese there must be something wrong with it, or the company is really an 'agent' of the government? Anyone ever though they might just be very talented people from another country visiting ours showing off what they have accomplished (which is very good) with no bad intentions and expecting that the Americans will be a gracious host and not condemn them simply because they may be mis-understood? Sorry but I do not think they are "arrogant or ignorant" only because of their nationality.

Eddie Perry

In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/07/17 11:11pm

They haven't "made" any money only printed it out of thin air and "loaned" it to itself. Once week i read finance reports how chinese companies are cooking the books with government loans and have failed only to be started again under a new Name.

their company is "subsidized" like most of the other government "picked" or "owned" companies. Subsidized companies are not profitable.

While it may be silly to laugh at the fact the Chinese are unprepared (culturally) to be at ISC west, It doesnt mean they wasted $200,000 unless they learned something from it.

Reminds me of the time a Manufacturer sent an engineer to me here in NC,USA from Japan. Now his English was par enough to cause only the average number of misunderstandings in a conversation, which was way better than abysmal talent in Japanese. I needed massive help in software troubleshooting and engineering and he was the guy to talk to about it. Luckily both of knew our craft so well we figured more out by pointing and doing than talking.

But the most interesting thing was when he introduced himself to me and coworker ( who is a huge Foot-boll(soccer) fan) by handing me a Business card and bowing and before he could say his name i looked at the 2 sided card (one in "American" English and one Japanese Kanji ) and said "Oh hi XXXXXXX-san I am Eddie and this is my coworker so-and so ( I wont use other names without their permission) he was Immediately taken back in amazement as I pronounced his name right and used his family name with the honorific "san" (means Mr.) so he unpacks his stuff and I ask him with what part of japan he was from, after telling me, I replied with" oh yeah that's on the southern Island of Kyushu, I figured they would send some one from Tokyo instead given its out of the country and most people from Tokyo are used to dealing with foreigners. He had to stop and compose himself and say in really bad broken English that this is first time out of many he has Had an American say his name right ( then he took it back as he said it as he meant the Japanese way) and could pronounce his name right let alone know where he was from or find it on a map without google. It was world cup year too, so he enjoy chatting with my coworker about that as well. But I wasn't "ignorant" in my my first meeting with the engineer like the HiSilicon team and their management that put them here is.

point is what you should watch is whether the Chinese learn from this or continue what they are doing. While I dont agree with UD#1 in that they wont change. I do agree that what you saw there at ISC is normal operating procedure for quantity not quality Chinese mentality. Numbers, Numbers, Numbers at any cost. Kinda like Marty.....

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Eddie Perry | 04/08/17 12:00am

They haven't "made" any money only printed it out of thin air and "loaned" it to itself.

So then you subscribe to the theory that state-owned Chinese mfrs sell to us at a loss? And so is basically giving people who buy their product free money?

Until Axis, Hanwha, Arecont, Panasonic etc go out of business and then the state owned mfrs jack the prices up twice as high as they were before?

Or are you one who believes that the true aim of the subsidies is a global sino botnet?

Just curious.

Marty Calhoun

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Eddie Perry | 04/08/17 12:24am

Well Thank you Eddie for the warm compliment but please note for future reference that I choose not to judge other people based on where they were born, live, or work at, I find that to be a childish conclusion that seems to describe another Human as inferior as if they had control over there Nationality, which is ridiculous.

By the way, you are passing many judgments on matters you know nothing about so you must have forgotten that when you point a finger at another you are pointing 3 fingers at yourself......

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/08/17 12:49am

...when you point a finger at another you are pointing 3 fingers at yourself......

Are you accusing Eddie of pointing fingers?

Marty Calhoun

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed #2 | 04/08/17 12:58am

No, I am contemplating which Pickle Truck Santa Claus fell from, Duh?

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/08/17 05:09am

Looks like a 4-finger deadlock; consider thumb wrestling...

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/08/17 02:46pm

No, I am contemplating which Pickle Truck Santa Claus fell from, Duh?

Duh, this one!

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/08/17 11:58am

Nobody is judging people because of their nationality as far as I can see. Why always the 'finger' talk Marty?

Undisclosed Manufacturer #1

In reply to Eddie Perry | 04/08/17 11:57am

I do agree with most of what you say but they don't change, well I haven't seen any significant strides forward in the communication department anyway over the last 20 years or so. I dealt with the representative of a Korean camera manufacturer several years. He lived in Germany and spoke decent English and German. He would even admit that many of his fellow country men and superiors in his company simply wanted to put up as much of a business front as possible yet non of them could hold a conversation in any foreign language. In the end he left out of pure frustration.

Undisclosed #4

In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/08/17 02:27pm

"Anyone ever though they might just be very talented people from another country visiting ours showing off what they have accomplished (which is very good) with no bad intentions and expecting that the Americans will be a gracious host and not condemn them simply because they may be mis-understood?"

Calhoun and the Hisilicons cover The Animals classic 1965 hit:

"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good.... oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.."

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | 04/07/17 02:43pm

If secret backdoors do exist in Chinese cameras, the HiSilicon SOC is the logical place to look for them.

Undisclosed Manufacturer #3

In reply to Undisclosed #2 | 04/07/17 02:47pm

#2 knows what he's talking about

Marty Calhoun

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed Manufacturer #3 | 04/07/17 09:49pm

Yea, that why he or she is "undisclosed #2 ". Never should you even consider that to be a competitor of HiSilicon simply stirring the pot of mis-information.

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/07/17 10:15pm

Never should you even consider that to be a competitor of HiSilicon simply stirring the pot of mis-information.

Because you might be

Chris Dearing

IPVMU Certified | In reply to Undisclosed #2 | 04/07/17 10:15pm

wrong.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Marty Calhoun | 04/08/17 01:35am

why he or she is "undisclosed #2 ". Never should you even consider that to be a competitor of HiSilicon simply stirring the pot of mis-information.

#2 is definitely not a competitor of Hikvision.

Undisclosed #2

IPVMU Certified | In reply to John Honovich | 04/08/17 03:11am

Or HiSilicon or even Hitachi for that matter ;)

Silas Li

04/10/17 04:42pm

John & staff at IPVM

After 44 years in our electronic security business (in Canada), I profess I hardly know you, nor your staff at IPVM.

With all due respect, please re-examine why people would become a member of IPVM in the first place. We didn't sign up for this. The trend of your organization is beginning to lose respect from people, such as myself, at the very least.

Frankly, if you and your family would go to your balcony and blow $10,000 into the wind. I don't need to hear about it.

I would even post my cell # 604.276.2841 if anyone would like to contact me

Regards

Silas Li
Alarm Max Security Inc.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Silas Li | 04/10/17 05:00pm

I spoke with Silas. He objected to our coverage of Hikvision and asked us to stick to just technical reporting.

I recommended he find another site that better fits his interests.

IPVM cannot be all things to all people. We will continue covering both technical and marketing aspects of the industry.

Silas Li

04/10/17 05:19pm

For the records, I responded to this article about IPVM expressing your OPINIONS, such as this one. You asked me about other examples, of which I said Hikvision.

Please report matters accurately.

Silas Li
Alarm Max Security Inc.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Silas Li | 04/10/17 05:24pm

Everything we conclude is an opinion. Even test results are ultimately an opinion. You do not like our opinions on things like Hikvision which you certainly have the right to do. However, we are not going to change our reporting to your opinion. If you have evidence on things that we are specifically and factually wrong about, please feel free to share.

Silas Li

In reply to John Honovich | 04/10/17 05:34pm

Test results and technical matters are measurable and yes, of course you can express your opinion where that product stands. We love that.

I totally agree with you 100% on Rapid Response is sleazy. But that is an opinion I kept to myself.....& want to use my time more wisely - read other great IPVM articles.

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Silas Li | 04/10/17 06:23pm

I totally agree with you 100% on Rapid Response is sleazy. But that is an opinion I kept to myself.

That is totally understandable. However, IPVM takes a different approach and has done so for many years, e.g. The Axis Corruption Cruise, Sexism and the ISC West Party Girls, etc.

The goal of the Rapid Response post is to motivate them to change. We have had success many times doing this.

The goals of this post is (1) to highlight an error of one of the industry's biggest component manufacturers at North America's biggest show and (2) to show another example in a pattern of wasteful, unsustainable sales and marketing expenditures of Chinese companies.

Again, you can certainly disagree in the conclusions we draw and you can disagree that we should even cover this. I respect you enough not to lie to you and say we will change just because you asked even though we are not.

We mix many topics, e.g. today, in addition to the Rapid Response post, a post on a social media threat mining software, a test on a Bosch intrusion panel. That's a typical mix. We will never be all things to all people because we are a publishing company, not a private consultant focusing on individual member's requests.