FLIR / Lorex and Hanwha / Samsung Groundbreaking Low Kit Pricing

I always wonder how appealing the price must be to the average consumer, only to find out they have to run cables in their house.

My neighbor bought a 16 channel kit with 16 cameras, but only hung two cameras before stopping.

I'm not saying this is hard or complex, but it is work. Snaking cables and drilling holes in a hot attic isn't the DIYer's idea of 'simple', so I wonder how many of these kits get bought and never installed/used.

I would expect that many consumers who purchase these kits from Costco, Wal-Mart or the internet will see that they're not up to the challenge of installation, like Brian points out, and will pick up the phone to call for help.

I pass on these types of calls as I don't want to be on the hook for issues that arise later on, such as equipment failure, camera adjustments, complaints of poor image, unrealistic expectations, etc. If you do get involved in this type of arrangement, then a clear and concise agreement should be executed first. Otherwise, any hiccup in the system will result in a call for service with the implication that your installation, not the equipment, was the cause of the failure, and the consumer would expect a "no-charge" repair or replacement. It would not be worth it for me to take on this type of client.

The consumers / DIY'ers who'll buy these kits probably would never have considered a professionally installed system in the first place, so I'm not worried about missing an opportunity.

[Note: Poster is from Q-See]

You can get a 16 channel 720p system with 12 cameras from Q-See at Costco for $499.99. Better value.

Wait a second.. I thought I saw a Hanwha set for sale here darn it lied to again

Weak threat, large pain in the backside as far as when you are talking to these "customers".

I voted moderate because even if the DIY guy isn't my target customer, these kits are still pulling the overall market downward in overall cost expectations.

"If you can get a decent 12 cam system at a store for $700, then surely a really good one can't be more than double that, right?"

I am very familiar with the OEM manufacturing company for the FlIR/Lorex brand out of Shenzhen. I'm friends with the factory owner and I asked him if I could resell some unbranded product to my neighborhood who's been having a string of thefts recently. Mostly homes between 2500-7000 sq feet.

After posting an offer on the neighborhood Facebook page I had over 130 committed buyers. This was not to make money as much as it was to get 1080p video all over the place to catch the criminals. Problem was the install. Nobody wants to install these units themselves once they really think about what is needed for wire. For finished homes, even integrators backed off because of the complexity of the work. Most of the homes even have structured cabling to each room, but install pricing kept coming in 3-4X the price of the system.

Until there is a real, cloud based wireless solution (Mesh based, not single point of failure WIFI) which is affordable, this market is always going to remain small. These packages are still a viable threat to integration/distribution, but I believe that the install side is going to remain strong. First person to figure out how to sell a system at Costco which includes the fixed install of each camera is going to be the big winner. There are so many variables that this is nearly impossible until someone works out the wireless technology.