Testing Rogo's Managed VSaaS

By Benros Emata, Published Aug 03, 2010, 12:00am EDT (Research)

Managed / hosted video offerings continue to expand with a variety of technical and business approaches.

In this test, we examine Rogo's Managed Vide [link no longer available]o offering [link no longer available]. The system uses an on-site recording application that interfaces with USB and network cameras, providing 'plug n play' remote access. For background on USB cameras, review our test results on using Megapixel USB cameras for video surveillance.

When evaluating Rogo's hosted service, the following 10 key criteria / decision points should be considered.

Criteria Strength Description
 Pricing Moderately Strong  Ranges between $10 - 30 per month with no license restrictions on cameras per PC.
Simplicity Moderately Strong Easy to navigate, limited configurations, lacks some 'basic' features
 3rd Party IP Camera Support  Weak Only Axis & Logitech officially supported
H.264 Support None Not supported
Analytics Support  None Not supported
Exporting  Moderate  No visual flag in / out, provides standalone player
Remote Monitoring  Moderately Strong  Live monitoring & investigations provided
Run as a Service None  Not supported
Multi-camera Playback None  Not supported
Support Strong

Publicly available phone and email support offered

Key Findings

Setup:  For the SMB and SOHO environments, installation is not complicated. The low requirement of technical knowledge will ease deployments and time dedicated to setting up the system. If strictly deploying USB cameras, almost no configurations are required to get the system up and recording. Power users seeking enterprise level features, such as managing multiple workstations will not be satisfied with Rogo's simplistic approach.

Live Monitoring / Investigations:  Its clear that Rogo's system is not scalable when lacking basic functionality in both live monitoring and investigations. For those customers seeking extensive investigative features or require more 'complete' live monitoring abilities, should examine these areas carefully. For the features that are provided, controls are clearly labeled and are all displayed on the interface. Those that are new the video surveillance will find the system easy to adopt. 

Recommendations

We recommend Rogo's managed VMS for deployments of no more than a handful of cameras. With highly limited functionality in all areas of live monitoring, investigations and administration in terms of management and scalability, its not a system for mission critical or enterprise requirements. For those SMB / SOHO environments is where Rogo is more prominent. Rogo's ease of installation and clean interface provides a very simple solution with inexpensive startup costs.

Product Overview

Computing Platform Support

Rogo's managed VMS' thick client  supports Windows XP or Vista PC. In our tests, we hosted the software on a Windows 7 (64-bit) system. Rogo's website [link no longer available] will direct those interested to the trial page where the software can be downloaded and is under 6 MB.

Those seeking supporting documentation should note that this is not available directly from Rogo. The demo page [link no longer available] will provide some high level instructions on various factors of the managed VMS.

Remote access is built on Java, so browser support is flexible. In our tests, we successfully used Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.

Third Party Support

Rogo officially support Axis IP / wireless cameras and Logitech USB cameras.

Pricing

As noted in our recent analysis of Rogo's offering, re-sellers may set their own pricing and feature segmentation. Rogo reports a range of pricing from $10 - $30 per month.

Rogo's direct service charges $19.95 per month per site for as many cameras as one has.

It should also be noted that pricing is per workstation and no limitations on the number of cameras. Of course, there are practical limitations when considering computer hardware.

Usability

The following screencast examines usability highlights of Rogo's manged VMS system. Key points include:

  • No native option to run as a Windows Service (00:30 min)
  • Recording and software requirements (00:48 min)
  • Limited live monitoring and investigation capabilities (01:24 min)
  • Limited camera configuration options (02:50 min)
  • Installation is simple (03:27 min)
  • No hidden controls, clearly labeled interface & easy to navigate (03:54 min)
  • In combination of HD USB cameras, present low-cost solution (04:29 min)

Administration

The following screencast examines how to configure/setup Rogo's managed VMS system. Key points include:

  • Download and installation (00:11 min)
  • Auto-detecting and associating USB cameras (01:18 min)
  • Accessing advanced camera settings via manufacturer interface (02:57 min)
  • No native option to run as a Windows Service (06:50 min)
  • Software requirements for remote access and recording (07:09 min)

Live Monitoring & Investigations

The following screencast examines live video monitoring with Rogo's managed VMS system. Key points include:

  • Working with live monitoring (01:36 min)
  • Conducting investigations (03:04 min)
  • Viewing and saving snapshots (05:40 min)
  • Third parties using the standalone player (07:12 min)
  • Working with the remote web interface (07:43 min)

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