Startup: Thermal Radar

Author: John Honovich, Published on Sep 30, 2014

Two years ago, we covered a thermal panoramic system that covered huge areas, but came with a huge pricetag of ~$250,000.

Now a startup named Thermal Radar claims to be the 'World's First Affordable 360° thermal camera' and is offering their unit at 90% less cost.

In this note, we examine the company's offerings and see how they compare with similar products.

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Comments (5)

Robby Rodjanasiraprapha

10/08/14 06:09pm

??????????

John Honovich

IPVM | In reply to Robby Rodjanasiraprapha | 10/08/14 06:38pm

Robby, can we help? Your question did not appear to come through.

Undisclosed Integrator #1

02/08/16 07:48am

Does anybody have any experience with TIR?

I'm currently gathering some info, and Hydra unit looks like the perfect solution, but no videos or demos anywhere, even on TIR website.

That would be great if any of you can share some info with me.

thank you!

Thumbnail brk pic1

Brian Karas

In reply to Undisclosed Integrator #1 | 02/08/16 01:26pm

I don't have any experience with this unit directly, but I'll offer some advice/opinion.

Thermal cameras in general are a fairly niche market. The ideal security applications are limited, and when customers compare a thermal image to what you can get from a modern optical camera they are generally not impressed unless the application is very specific.

With this approach you have a startup, which is an inherent risk factor, built on top of a technology (thermal) that is somewhat niche and expensive.

I don't mean that you shouldn't consider TIR for your application, in may indeed be a very good fit. But you need to evaluate it in the context of what it does TODAY, not on future promised features. Also consider the product itself, durability, build quality, and what you would be left with if the company went under (to the extent you can determine that). Is it likely you could fix basic faults on your own? Are any kind of spare parts available? Can the microbolometer core be replaced or upgraded in the future without some kind of DRM-like restriction?

It's quite possible TIR will be around for a while, will continue to release new feature upgrades, and be available for warranty work. But the odds with a startup statistically say there is a high chance they will also NOT be around, and you should consider that as well. Or, in other words, you need to look at the ROI on something like this, if that is longer than 1 year, then you should carefully consider these factors before moving forward.

Undisclosed Integrator #1

In reply to Brian Karas | 02/08/16 02:40pm

Thank you for your comments Brian.

I honestly think they are doing a great job and covering some niche scenarios that could be qualified as "unique" right now.

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