great article brian... i appreciate the question you ask about infinias' lack of mainstream success and believe you answered it correctly... having used the platform for quite some time now we haven't experienced hardware issues outside the norm of any equipment manufacturer and they have great support as well so it certainly isn't from bad support or product... what potentially could have kept it from the mainstream was the fact that it is ip based... at the time it came out i don't believe as many dealers were as comfortable with ip solutions as they are today... in regards to the lockdown you touched on we just finished working on a system today where the rule was used for that... red card locks the facility down and doesn't allow for card reads, green card reverts it back to schedule... i will note that there are several 1200lb single door maglocks out there that fall below the eIDC 450mA output and can be powered locally along with a rte...
Pelco's Abandoned Access Control Line (Infinias)
Once upon a time, Pelco had its own access control offering that claimed to be the 'smallest, most powerful', and 'highly scalable' platform available, and everything appeared set for a fairy-tale ending. However, like so many star-crossed relationships, Pelco grew distracted with other problems, promptly ended things, and left this fledgling system to fend for itself in the harsh winter of the competitive security market. What happened afterward? In this note, we look at the platform, Infinias' eIDC32 based access system, [link no longer available] and review which applications it makes the most sense.
Pelco History
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Brian,
I've been very pleased with the product (in general), but their customer support is some of the worst I've ever had the displeasure of encountering. Getting answers from their support personnel is extremely difficult and finding certified installers, even more so.
Apart from that - the product is a stellar, decentralized solution with both thin-provisioning and client/server implementation. Love the form factor, power solution and overall compactness of the device.
Thanks,
Ed
We just did a small AC project (3 doors) as a throwin for a bigger data and video project for a cold storage warehouse client and took a chance on Infinias. We had the system up and running quickly and have been very pleased with its stability. We will be installing the mgt software and will give our opinion once we review, but setting everything up through the web interface of the controler was easy and only having to run one cat 6 to the door made it a no-brainer
I find it humorous that the so called downside is that it may be too small of a form factor. Which is completely opinionated. I've never heard of anyone complaining that the controller was either too small to work with or hard to find and locate. Don't forget it has bright red LED's on the face of it that are easy to spot in the darkness of a drop ceiling and the double gang box is easily distinguishable by technicians when mounted properly into a wall. I do agree that the small size is not as useful as some other features of the controller, but when you are talking about installing a 50+ door system, then the small size and light weight can become a factor when having to transport and mount the product, which due to its size is much less labor intensive than some other competitors. This may not be that obvious when doing smaller 1-10 door installs, but can be a major factor when doing large 50+ door installs. A smaller and lighter product also means less weight when shipping which can save both the manufacturer, distrubtor, and installers when having to ship large amounts of product. In today's market, every little bit helps. Also, with all do respect, I've wired many of these and they are quite easy to wire or re-wire if swapping out a bad unit. Maybe before making opinionated statements like these, you may want to do some research with installers that utilize the product regularly or maybe even try it out yourself first prior to writing an article. It just seems like you were searching for a downside to put in the article.
Respectfully,
Jason
Hello Undisclosed/Jason:
Actually the 'difficulty to install' aspect was indeed taken from installer feedback. After visiting Infinias on the show floor, one (integrator) gentleman in particular (whose fingers appeared to be the size of sausages!) picked up the foam mockup and made the comment. His opinion resonated with the small group gathered in the booth.
Suggesting the opinion is wrong by asserting a counter-opinion is sort of silly. We have not tested Infinias, but the platform appears to hold it's own against similar offerings. Like we noted in the report, uptake of the platform is limited by the fact Pelco flubbed the product early, not because the controller is 'too small'.
You were right that post spin off in 2009 was tough. However as a quick update, our growth rate over the last three years has averaged 48%/year - we're not so small anymore and players like Axis are only serving to validate the PoE at the door based model that we created in 2005.
Wayne Jared
President
infinias
The system works good and is solid. Good concept... However, The systems ability to create reports that are useful are quite poor. We will be probably ripping it out in multiple locations as it is the same price for that as to have 3x logic build custom reports that other systems like Avigilon make it possible to do.