24 manufacturer's favorability was ranked based on 170+ integrators feedback. Voting plus in-depth comments revealed insights on which brands were well regarded for value or support, and which were viewed as out of date, overpriced, or mistrusted.
The 24 organizations ranked, shown alphabetically, are:
Notes:
These results, as with all IPVM research, may NOT be used promotionally, as it violates our terms of service and is against our fundamental philosophy of independence and research, not marketing.
These organizations were chosen based on our statistics of what our global membership base is most interested in having reviewed. Outside of the biggest 10 or so manufacturers (e.g., Axis, Dahua, Hikvision, etc.), deciding on inclusion or exclusion is difficult as our overall results show low name recognition for most other companies.
Inside this note, we share:
Net Favorability Results Ranked from the most to least favorable
2017 vs. 2019 Net Change in Favorability showing which companies gained and lost the most
Asian Manufacturers Results Ranked
North American Manufacturers Results Ranked
VMS Rankings Ranked
Neutrality Rankings showing which companies integrators felt most and least strongly about
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#1, literally, I / we did not think about AD when putting together the list. When I was an integrator, we led with AD so it's not as if I do not know them. They just so rarely come up in the last few years.
Part of is how they promote / market themselves, i.e., it was TSP, it is JCI now and then within AD, there is VideoEdge and Victor and Illustra, none of which are broadly used. The other part is that Exacq, which is not marketed with AD but is certainly a complement / competitor to it, is much better known.
Not opposed to include them in the future but I think there will be a lot of "What happened to those guys?" comments.
As an end user I started with AD in the early 90's. I recently upgraded our 500 count camera system to Avigilon because I just don't think AD has much to offer anymore.
Marcin, China manufacturers that primarily OEM such as Tiandy, Sunell, and TVT were not included. The main reason was just the assumption that very few integrators would even know they are.
Look at Uniview, who is 'big', they had the second highest neutrality because few people interact with the company given their relatively low levels of direct brand sales / marketing ex-China.
IPVM team, thanks for this summary to see what has transpired in the last 2 years.
For sure, there is another tier of vendors that would be good to see added to this list, at minimum for another comparison in 2 years. There are 2 posts above voting for AD and Tiandy, but I would also like to see where Verkada ranks.
Also, acceptable disclosures would be 'Me caveman', "I am dinosaur" and "ancient poster here"
Verkada is definitely worth including. We actually did include them in the January survey but integrator awareness was so low just a few months ago that it was not that informative so we did not post.
Both integrators and manufacturers had similar responses to Verkada (in our internal breakdown to the poll).
Verkada's numbers are really poor. It is pretty obvious that this is a result of Verkada selling / marketing direct, having few security integrator partners and their dinosaur type comments. They could easily turn it around, as it is early or they could achieve results that rival Arecont and Hikvision.
No, because they don't come up that often in integrator comments, surveys, etc. nor does I3 market much. In such cases, the survey results would be overwhelmingly 'who are they', 'never heard of them', etc.
On the plus side, they have been around for a long time. On the negative side, they are still a niche low profile player overall. Some context, LinkedIn employee chart shows i3 being flat/stable in headcount last 2 years:
Another company from the late 90s / early 2000s is March Networks, still around but pretty low profile so I don't think most integrators would have much interesting to say.
We primarily focused on video manufacturers in this series but that is a good point, we will add more access control manufacturers for the next round in 2021.
Just curiously, what's the methodology here for inclusion?
I ask because there are several manufacturers not on this list: Verkada, OpenEye, and Geovision, for example. Several non-manufacturers are also on this list: Arcules, EEN, alarm.com, milestone, and Genetec. The later are more "software publishers" than "manufacturers."
Manufacturers is just a generic term that has been used in the industry for many years. We could use another word like 'developers' or 'product providers' but it likely would be less clear.
The focus of this report is companies that develop / offer products.
This may not be the best place for this question but I'll try it anyways. I just came onto IPVM recently and have been impressed with the info I have read. I have done cameras for clients for years, starting with Nuvico but then after they went down, I went with Hikvision because from what i saw at the time they looked like they had a large enough piece of the market to stay IN BUSINESS for the foreseeable future and they seemed to be an OEM for many other brands at the time. I have experienced a few fails but all the issues I had were DOA product and I have had no need for tech support to get anything working. Seeing in this article how utterly poorly Hikvision is ranked today (especially considering the whole China factor), it would seem prudent to consider HID and Ubiquiti. I have used Ubiquiti for wireless devices for a long time but somehow didn't realize they offered security cameras. I wonder how others here have decided what brand to put with their name? I feel like quality (to include durability) and usability are key but with so many brand choices it is a hard call to make. I typically never sell anything until I have tested it for myself but with a list like this, its tough to know where to start. While selling Hikvision I had been buying through distribution but prices vary from one distributor to another a lot. The two biggest distributors that I deal with that sell Hikvision often have little stock on hand and no good ETA on incoming inventory. Also when selling Hikvision we have had a few end users Google a part number and think you're giving them a rip-off price when they had not seen the line about buying from Unauthorized sellers. I guess technically we are competitors here but I can tell you that my work won't be a reason to have an end user think integrators do anything less than an excellent job (and there are a lot of camera jobs to go around). Thanks
Eric, the VMS comparison was focused on companies that do not offer cameras or only limited cameras, while Avigilon offers a broad lineup of cameras and an “end to end” solution.
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Comments (18)
Undisclosed End User #1
What happened to American Dynamics? Have they gotten so bad that they can't even make your rankings?
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Marcin Mazurek
Where is Tiandy
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #3
IPVM team, thanks for this summary to see what has transpired in the last 2 years.
For sure, there is another tier of vendors that would be good to see added to this list, at minimum for another comparison in 2 years. There are 2 posts above voting for AD and Tiandy, but I would also like to see where Verkada ranks.
Note to all: I do not work at Verkada
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Undisclosed Integrator #4
Was I3 considered in your rankings?
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Undisclosed Integrator #5
I saw Brivo mentioned in Eagle Eye report but not included on the list...
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Matthew Nederlanden
Just curiously, what's the methodology here for inclusion?
I ask because there are several manufacturers not on this list: Verkada, OpenEye, and Geovision, for example. Several non-manufacturers are also on this list: Arcules, EEN, alarm.com, milestone, and Genetec. The later are more "software publishers" than "manufacturers."
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Undisclosed Integrator #6
This may not be the best place for this question but I'll try it anyways. I just came onto IPVM recently and have been impressed with the info I have read. I have done cameras for clients for years, starting with Nuvico but then after they went down, I went with Hikvision because from what i saw at the time they looked like they had a large enough piece of the market to stay IN BUSINESS for the foreseeable future and they seemed to be an OEM for many other brands at the time. I have experienced a few fails but all the issues I had were DOA product and I have had no need for tech support to get anything working. Seeing in this article how utterly poorly Hikvision is ranked today (especially considering the whole China factor), it would seem prudent to consider HID and Ubiquiti. I have used Ubiquiti for wireless devices for a long time but somehow didn't realize they offered security cameras. I wonder how others here have decided what brand to put with their name? I feel like quality (to include durability) and usability are key but with so many brand choices it is a hard call to make. I typically never sell anything until I have tested it for myself but with a list like this, its tough to know where to start. While selling Hikvision I had been buying through distribution but prices vary from one distributor to another a lot. The two biggest distributors that I deal with that sell Hikvision often have little stock on hand and no good ETA on incoming inventory. Also when selling Hikvision we have had a few end users Google a part number and think you're giving them a rip-off price when they had not seen the line about buying from Unauthorized sellers. I guess technically we are competitors here but I can tell you that my work won't be a reason to have an end user think integrators do anything less than an excellent job (and there are a lot of camera jobs to go around). Thanks
NOTICE: This comment has been moved to its own discussion: Using Hikvision, Wonder How Others Here Have Decided What Brand To Put With Their Name?
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Eric Koelewyn
Is there any reason why Avigilon was was not included in the VMS comparison? Is it because they are regarded more so as a camera manufacturer?
Thanks IPVM for the great info!
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