Uniview / UNV Favorability Results 2019

Published Feb 12, 2019 17:08 PM

Uniview / UNV, the self-proclaimed #3 China manufacturer, while starting late, has been working to make inroads internationally. In IPVM's 2019 favorability results, Univew / UNV had moderately net positive favorability though with very high neutral levels among integrators as shown below:

fav unv 2019

In this note, we share dozens of integrators comments, looking at the most common reasons integrators liked, disliked or simply did not care about Uniview.

Positive - ******* *** *****

***** ******* *** ********** **** ******** cited * ***** ** ***** ******* for *** *****, **** **:

  • "******* ** ****, ****** *** ****."
  • "***** ******* *** *** ****."
  • "***** ***** ** ***, *** *** quality ** ***** ** ****."
  • "* **** *** ********* ****** (********/********) and ***********. **** **** *** ***** control, ** *** **** ** **** prices ** ** ******** **, *** integrators."
  • "* **** ******* ******* ** ***** reliability *** ******* ** *****, **** high ********** ** **** *******. *** service ** ****."
  • "**** ******* ** * **** ***** Support ** ****** **** ** ****."
  • "** *** ********* ******* ******* ** same ***** *****."
  • "*** ******** **** **** ************* ******* and ***** *******. *********** ******** ** other ******* *************."

Positive - ***** ***********

***********, ***** ******* *** ********** ********** them ** ***** *** *********, **** comments **** **:

  • "**** ***** ****** ****** **** ** not ***** ** *********."
  • "****** **** ***** *******, *** ******** is ** **** ** ********* *** they ***** ** *** ** ***** by *** ******* **********. *******, * fairly ***** *******."
  • "******* ** ********* ***** **** ******* brands ** **** ********** ***."
  • "******** ** ** ***** ******* **** looking *** * *** ***********."
  • "* **** *********** ** ********* *** Dahua."
  • "*** ******* .*** *****. ****** **********, good *******."
  • "********** ***** ******* ** ******** **** to ********* ** *****, *** *** they *** ********* *** **** ** terms ** ************ ******* **** *** forming *** ****."
  • "**** *******, ****** **** ***** *** HikV (** *** *******)."

** ******, ******* ** ***** *** less ******** **** **** ***** ** Hikvision.

Neutral - ***'* **** / ***** ****

*** **** ****** ******* **** *********** was **** **** ****** *** *** know *** ******* / *** *** or **** **** **** ***** **** it, **** ******** ********* ****:

  • "***** ***** **, ***** ****."
  • "*** *** ****?"
  • "** *** *** / **** ***** used."
  • "** ********** **** ***** *******."
  • "***** **** * ******* *******"
  • "** **** ***** **** *******."
  • "** *** *** ****** ** ** for *******"
  • "**** ** ********** **** ***"
  • "***** ***** ** ****"
  • "*** ********"
  • "*** ******** **** **** ************."
  • "***** **** *******"
  • "***** **** *******"
  • "***’* **** ******** ***** ****"
  • "*** ****** ******** **** ****."
  • "**** *** *** *** ********** **** them ** ***** ****."
  • "* ***'* ****** **** ******** ***** Uniview."
  • "* **** ******* ***** **** *******"
  • "**** ******* ***** **** *******."
  • "** ** *** **** ********** **** Uniview"
  • "***** ****"
  • "** ***'* ** **** ******* *** I ***'* ****** **** ******** ***** them."
  • "* **** ** ******** ** **** product"
  • "***** **** ** **** ******* ** the *******, ****** **** * *** box ***** ***** *****"
  • "***** ** **** ******* ** ****"
  • "**** *** ***** ** **** *******."
  • "***** ***** ** ****."

***** ***** ** ********** ******** **** on *** **. ** **** ****** some *** *******.

*******, **** ** * ******* *** Uniview. ** ******* *** * ******* / ***** *******, **** ***** ** understandable *** ******* **** **** ** hundreds ** ******** ** ******* *** they **** *** ****** ** ******* International ***** ***** ** *** **** of ********* ** * *** *******.

** *** ***** ****, ** *** integrator *****:

****, **** **** ***** ** *********(***** own *********), *** ** *********** ** a ******** *** *********.

******* *** ************* ** ***** *** marketing ***************, ******* ** **** *********.

Low ******** *********

*** ********** ******** ***** *** ******* is **** *** ******* *** *** significant **********. *********, *** **** **** most **** ****** ***** *** ******* is * ****** ** **** *** even **** ****, *** ******** ********* were ********* ****, **** **:

  • "******* ****** ************, ** *** **** closely ********** ** ****** *** **** as *****. ******** ** *** ****** same ******** ** ******* *** *******."
  • "*'** ***** **** ***** ** ****, nor **** * **** ****** **** them. ** ****'* *** ****, **** probably ****'* **** ****."
  • "***** **** ***** *******. ** ***** be *** **** ******* *** *****, but * **** ***** **** ***. Companies **** **** * **** ** the "***** ********" ** *** ********. They *** ****** ******** ** *** the ******** **** *** *** ******* are ******* ******. **'* ******** **** successful *** ****, *** * **** can't *** ****** ** *** *** business ****** ***** ******* ** * feel ** *** ****** **** ***** just *********."
  • "* ***'* ***** **** ********* ** bringing *** *** ********* ** *****; In **** ******* *** *****."
  • "***** **** **, *** * **** the ********** ****'* **'* ***** ****."

*******

******* / ***'* ****** ******* ** what **** *** ******* *** **** to ****** ******* ** *****. ***** now, **** *** ******* ****** ******** nor ****** **** (*** ********, ** some ***, ** *********). ** *** company **** ****** *** **********, ** could ****** ** ****** *********** ** Hikua, ****** *** ****** ********. *******, the ******* *** ***** ****** ******** poof ** ***** ******* ** **** to ** ****.

Comments (30)
Avatar
Shawn Spaeny
Feb 12, 2019
Jet Stream Systems, Inc.

We have been encountering UNV cameras for about 3 1/2 years through our integrators. They appear to be of great quality especially given the price point. We connect these to our VMS through our ONVIF driver and it has always worked great. We can receive all ONVIF messages including audio, PTZ, DI/Os, cameras motion detection and VCA analytics to be used in our event rule engine. The thing that most integrators like the most about them is that you are not likely to find them advertised online, which give them a little bit of "dealer exclusivity" if only temporary.

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Feb 12, 2019

Have you investigated if they have gov't ownership?  Are there in any places such as Xinjiang?

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TB
Thomas Blankenship
Feb 13, 2019

I am a distributor of Uniview and have seen nothing that leads me to believe that they are owned by the Chinese government. The company invests more than 15% of their total revenue on R&D. The failure rate is so low that my customers that use Uniview never even ask for any of our other lines. The perfect replacement for Hikua.

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BP
Bas Poiesz
Feb 12, 2019

Oh the irony. When it comes to Dahua and Hik they get red flagged (yes pun intented) for being chinese, commie, and must be part of a masterscheme of the Chinese to conquer the world one CCTV installation at a time.

But when it comes down to it spending more is not an option, just go fo the next Chinese option, which happens to be cheaper too!

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John Honovich
Feb 12, 2019
IPVM

Where's the irony, Jonathan? Most people just don't know who Uniview is, good or bad.

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Bas Poiesz
Feb 12, 2019
  • "Pretty good build quality, the firmware is as good as Hikvision and they claim to not be owned by the Chinese government. Overall, a fairly solid product."
  • "Non chinese .gov owned. Easily purchashed, good pricing."
  • "Switched it to these cameras when looking for a HIK alternative."

After all the banter on Hik and Dahua and their roots it's a little odd to say the least that people are willing to switch on price and forget to check where it's from.

At best, UNV will get more sales and in a few years you can start a new lobby: to ban UNV.

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JH
John Honovich
Feb 13, 2019
IPVM

Jonathan, try math. There are a handful of purely positive integrator comments out of 200 responses. This is not a trend or proof of anything.

Hikvision is literally unique. No one in the industry before (and likely ever after) will combine such a combination of marketing spend and low prices.

There will always be people who buy based on lowest prices but as a mainstream phenomenon, your partner's government backing has been an extreme outlier.

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U
Undisclosed #2
Feb 13, 2019

Arguing cheap development is like qualifying who makes the best water hose.

In a few years will UNV be Hikua's greatest ever competitor worth banning?

Avatar
Luca Fogliati
Feb 12, 2019

As a 3 years UNV dealer i can say my pro and cons:

in some things they lead innovation (they had h265 already 4 years ago ) in some others they  just are slow,maybe due to the fact they are a smaller company than hikua so less money and people to invest in r&d, at the moment they are basically ip cam and nvr producers and they just came out with some hybrid dvr.they totally lack of products like anpr cameras (they are working on a model since years but the final version is not ready yet) no thermal cameras, no analog hd cameras.have a p2p service similar to hikvision with some extras like nvr fw upgrade from cloud.most of the cameras are good quality with robust aluminium case.nvrs have a weakness with fans but ,on the other side, they all come with 802.3at poe+ and they were among the very first .proprietary gui with no similarityes with hikwa and nvrs till 500 and more channells....

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Majid Bajaman
Feb 13, 2019

I believe best marketing strategy for such product (competing HIKUA) is its display in markets/shops & awareness among local integrators/technicians. Unfortunately UNV sells only IP officially & hence cannot capture Analog HD market share which is used by most technicians & markets overall, hence people do not know about them.

However, they seem to manufacture Analog HD as OEM unofficially. Its on another website univiewworld.com which is based in India, which is a dominant analog HD market.

They also sell it to other OEM's & the only difference is the logo. Their claim of #3 may be practical including manufacturing Analog HD CCTV. 

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Avatar
Sean Nelson
Feb 13, 2019
Nelly's Security

Why spend money on marketing here in the USA when all it gets you is a government ban?

UNV is in a good position. They are literally the same company as Hikua, without all the government attention. Its the same product. Its a Hikua product with different lipstick.

Best of all, they have alot of people fooled that its a safer alternative "cyber security wise" to Hikua. 

Genius!

There is no point in Uniview opening up shop here in the USA as it would be extremely detrimental to do so as Hikua has already laid the ground work as a reason NOT to do this. Instead, they take a much smarter approach. Very sly approach they take. They simply let their Chi-Merican brothers slowly gain all the market share for them without making much of a prescence here in the USA. If you look at nearly every major large volume UNV distributor, it is owned by a Chinese American. Virtually out of nowhere some of these distributors popped up and have millions of dollars worth of inventory all of a sudden and some are popping up locations like its going out of style. Are these guys business geniuses or do they simply have tons of funds to work with? Look at IPVM's recent story about the USA's largest UNV importer as a great example of what I'm talking about. When you have endless amounts of interest free loans with 365 day terms, that you can get from your homeland, its no wonder they have the wherewithal to do this. Not to mention, you have to wonder if the Chinese-American owned distributors are getting favorable pricing as compared to their american owned distributors. IMO, i think so. This is a reason why we didnt bring on UNV. I was able to get cheaper pricing FOB USA from a Chi-Merican owned distributor for one piece than I was to get it FOB china directly from Uniview. BTW, i do know things like this happens with Hikvision and Dahua as well.

BTW, I hope I dont come off as negative or complaining. Far from it. I dont blame them (the Chinese American Distributors) for taking advantage of their extremely pro-business benefits that China has to offer. I would too if we had similar offerings here in the USA. Its an incredible advantage they have over us in the USA. We all know that China has had a pro-manufacturing business edge over the USA for quite some time now. Now we are seeing something else, China is actually infiltrating the USA and taking over the american dream of opening up businesses due to their extremely favorable credit terms and favorable pricing from their brothers in China. So how do we respond? How do we compete with this? Tarriffs! Yay!

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John Honovich
Feb 13, 2019
IPVM

Why spend money on marketing here in the USA when all it gets you is a government ban?

... Genius!

I don't think their marketing strategy is based on a genius plan. The simpler explanation, which I see from interacting with them, is that they simply do not have the resources to spend $10 million hiring a bunch of American salespeople at Hikvision style ~$200,000 RSM comp packages.

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Avatar
Sean Nelson
Feb 13, 2019
Nelly's Security

I have to say I disagree that its not part of their plan. Even one of the UNV salesmen told me that their strategy is to lie low right now.

They may not have enough money to compete with Hikvision, but surely they have enough money to open up "something" here in the USA if they wanted to.

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JH
John Honovich
Feb 13, 2019
IPVM

I don't disagree that right now lying low makes sense. I am saying generally, and for example last year before the ban, they still did not invest.

Sure, they can pull a Longse and have 1 American in a single office but that is not going to make much of a dent.

U
Undisclosed #4
Feb 14, 2019

You don't come off as negative, just racist, or maybe jealous of Chinese Americans.

Kudos for the new conspiracy theory by the way, no longer is it the evil communist regime trying to take us one cctv at a time, now its the Chinese Americans. Can't wait for the new remake of the Manchurian Candidate - where a cctv dealer is brain washed during cpse in Shenzhen .

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Sean Nelson
Feb 14, 2019
Nelly's Security

Jealous? Heck yeah! As I said I dont blame them, I would do the same thing if I were them. Im definetely not mad at them. Jealous as hell though!

Matter of fact, some of these distributors we have regularly done business with and I can call them my friends.


Racist? No way! You may have low iq for thinking that though.


conspiracy theory? Prove me wrong.

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Avatar
Steve Stowe
Oct 27, 2020

Sean,

Just curious. I see that Nelly's now carries Uniview including their NDAA compliant models. Just quoted some Uniview cameras from Nell's today.

Is Uniview changing their US marketing methodology to be friendlier to US distributors?

Another concern I have had in researching them is Technical Support. Is Uniview doing anything with US tech support?

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Oct 27, 2020
Nelly's Security

Thanks Steve!If you are referring to opening up to more distributors. Yes they are for sure. In previous years, they were only open to having only a handful of distributors sell their product. If you mean something else by being unfriendly, let me know and I will clarify.

They do have a phone number for USA based tech support, but Ill be honest, I dont know how good it is, especially for the deep troubleshooting issues. Im sure its decent for basic Q&A. We feel better providing our own tech support for the Uniview products we sell. I think at this time Uniview is relying heavily on their distributors to provide tech support while they continue to build their US presence.

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Steve Stowe
Oct 27, 2020

Thanks Sean,

Luckily I have not needed tech support from camera manufacturers very often....except for Hikvision password reset issues. I had heard they did not have much in the way of tech support. Out of distributors, Nelly's has had better than average tech support as many do not have any.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Oct 27, 2020

Sean I recall you were a large hik distributor, did you replace hik with unv?

Avatar
Sean Nelson
Oct 27, 2020
Nelly's Security

We still do Hik but additionally have Uniview as well

Avatar
Mark Palka
Feb 13, 2019
IPVMU Certified

I am a bit intrigued by comments made about low cost Chinese cameras and higher priced not Chinese cameras. The one commonality of each type is what you buy today in both categories will become obsolete in 3 years - in both categories. From my experience i am seeing huge advances in software deep learning I recently sat thru a very good presentation from a AI company and the one takeaway I had was that their software works on the cheapest cameras. If this is all true then why would anyone not want to look at cameras as a throwaway item after 3 years and choose the least expensive one on the market. What is the business case benefit for the consumer to look at a higher priced camera outside of perceived value which i don't think i can justify as real value.  

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UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Feb 13, 2019

As a three year UNV integrator I can only say I hope they keep a low profile.  The product is good, cameras have great resolution, cloud upgrade for NVR and Camera's from NVR or camera.  If your smart enough you can create your own cloud account and share the devices to your customer to create a great source of reoccurring revenue.

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Tobias Steiger
Feb 18, 2019

Someone who is really interested in the market, and visits security exhibitions should know UNIVIEW. And then he will remark that every 2. distributor has UNIVIEW. But Mostly OEM. Maybe thats why the brand itself is lesser known. But that is a big Advantage. 

No amazon selling like hikua. We start now with them OEM.

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Rich Moore
Feb 18, 2019

I always find it interesting on IPVM, Amazon or anywhere when there are negative comments.  The first thing I check for is what were the problems they had when using the product.  Not a single one has ever tried the product.  

When looking at any product, if all the negative reviews are by people that have never used the product, I discount them immediately

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JH
John Honovich
Feb 19, 2019
IPVM

The first thing I check for is what were the problems they had when using the product....

When looking at any product, if all the negative reviews are by people that have never used the product, I discount them immediately

When looking at manufacturer defenses, the first thing I do is check whether they sell the product. If the defense is by people who sell the product I discount them immediately. Rich, did I do that right? :)

In all seriousness, it's a bit weird that a Uniview distributor like you is complaining here. Not only did Uniview receive a net favorable score, they had very low negative responses.

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Rich Moore
Feb 19, 2019

Definitely wasn't complaining.  Just pointing out that none of the bad reviews used the product

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #5
Feb 19, 2019

We moved to Uniview several months ago. We left branded Hikvision 3 years ago and when to a Hik OEM. At first, we just wanted not to sell the brand as we tried to set ourselves apart at least a little. Then as it became clear that Hikvision wasn't a good partner for us, we started looking elsewhere and bounced around for a while until we landed on Uniview. Distributors are hit or miss with Uniview. That's my biggest complaint. I spend some time at ISC East/West looking for someone to work with. Again we bounced around a little until we landed on someone we felt provided us with good sales/marketing support and had a solid well-built product line. We have found that several of their cameras perform better than Hikvision. The firmware is not as well built, and Univision does not have the tools Hikvision has for camera management. All in all, for a low-cost product line Univision has been good for our customers and us. 

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #6
Aug 05, 2019

Just tested these and the camera have the Huawei  chip that was banned by the US gov't.  So does another one bit the dust.

JH
John Honovich
Aug 05, 2019
IPVM