By Dan Gelinas, Published Apr 29, 2019, 10:30am EDT
The US city, most famous in video surveillance for standardizing on Hikvision, has issued an RFQ for 962 Verkada cameras due Wednesday, May 1, 2019. We estimate the value to be one million dollars.
Crazy how Verkada was specified yet they also specify it work with their existing foundation. Guess if it all it needs is POE they can just swap the camera...
I can sorta accept, if not understand, a private company doing this. But it almost feels like misconduct to spend a million dollars from the public purse on not just a closed system, but a system that gets bricked without continuous license fees. And none of the cameras (which you already paid for) can be reused if you decide to move away from their platform? TCO, ROI, wtf?
My dinosaur brain wonders if the Verkada business model would be viable without Silicon Valley money and influence...
I wonder if this portends a change in purchasing patterns more than support for Verkada. Are government agencies getting more comfortable with long-term OPEX spending as opposed to big ticket CAPEX?
My guess is that either someone on city council has some sort of link to Verkada (friend of a friend of a friend who sells cameras), plus the HIK fear and therefore Verkada got a chance to "sell" them on it and they didn't do any further research before making the decision.
"so what we do is we store all the video on the camera itself - up to 120 days of continuously recorded, full motion, high resolution video - without compromise - on the camera itself."
James Ensten from Verkada gets served up 10 minutes of softball questions from SIW at ISC West.
NOTE: we've added the following information to the story above:
City of Memphis General Services Director Antonio Adams confirmed the original RFQ had to be canceled because there was no term specified for the licenses.
Adams told IPVM that the new Verkada system would not replace or directly supplement the existing Hikvision surveillance system that is monitored by the Memphis PD in the RTCC:
We wanted to have an enterprise-wide solution for the city, but one which wouldn’t tax the PD. The existing system is sent to the RTCC. The new system is only for the security of patrons in and around city facilities. It’s more or less just to record activity, fact find if there is an incident and accurately determine what happened. The facility managers will be responsible for the monitoring of the new system. When there’s a notification—once we teach the system what we’re looking for, for example, an unauthorized entry—then it will give notice to the RTCC. It’s not meant for them to monitor on a regular basis.
Adams also confirmed that the Neighborhood Sentinel Program mentioned in the City Council agenda was not a precursor to the Verkada system.
A great lesson on the power of simplicity. Even with the tremendous risk, cost and limitation Verkada presents, their simplicity offered wins projects.
As more devices become IP enabled and IT departments become responsible for managing them, simplicity will become a stronger and stronger decisive factor.
UM#4, Verkada was specified in this project, so bidders were expected to quote Verkada. All bids were due yesterday May 1, 2019, at noon. There is no information on the website yet as to who won the contract.
As more devices become IP enabled and IT departments become responsible for managing them, simplicity will become a stronger and stronger decisive factor.
Maybe or IT departments will learn about the problems and tradeoffs of focusing so much on 'simplicity' when it comes to video surveillance systems that last for a decade.
I see parallels to Hikua here. The attraction first was the super low prices but then many people realized over time that there were offsetting negatives to factor in.
Thank you, UM #5. I checked on the site and found the PO.
NOTE: We've added the following information to the story above:
Though we estimated based on historical pricing from other municipal projects, Verkada's pricing was much lower and the total for the whole project is $783,760.78
In what is certainly an atypical move, the city split the RFQ between two vendors. Thomas Consultants who won the purchase order for the 383 D40s mentioned in RFQ 39411 at a price of $466.48 each, which is ~ 42% below Verkada's old MSRP of $799. Systems Technologies, LLC was awarded the PO for the 579 D50s at $579.86 each, which is ~36% below Verkada's old MSRP of $899. Systems Technologies also won the 5-yr licenses at $280 each, which is ~47% off Verkada's old MSRP of $599.
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Comments (27)
Matthew Del Salto
04/29/19 03:52pm
Crazy how Verkada was specified yet they also specify it work with their existing foundation. Guess if it all it needs is POE they can just swap the camera...
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
I can sorta accept, if not understand, a private company doing this. But it almost feels like misconduct to spend a million dollars from the public purse on not just a closed system, but a system that gets bricked without continuous license fees. And none of the cameras (which you already paid for) can be reused if you decide to move away from their platform? TCO, ROI, wtf?
My dinosaur brain wonders if the Verkada business model would be viable without Silicon Valley money and influence...
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Mark Marzinzik
A $1,000,000.00 worth of bricks
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Undisclosed Distributor #2
Inside look at the Verkada Sales office over here >>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WJ_2ycsHl8
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Hal Bennick
05/01/19 03:03am
I wonder if this portends a change in purchasing patterns more than support for Verkada. Are government agencies getting more comfortable with long-term OPEX spending as opposed to big ticket CAPEX?
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Corbin Hambrick
My guess is that either someone on city council has some sort of link to Verkada (friend of a friend of a friend who sells cameras), plus the HIK fear and therefore Verkada got a chance to "sell" them on it and they didn't do any further research before making the decision.
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Undisclosed #3
James Ensten from Verkada gets served up 10 minutes of softball questions from SIW at ISC West.
Listen to all the stuff he says they can do - and ask yourself if you believe it.
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John Honovich
Another recent spec: Arlington VA schools 80 cameras bid April 2019, partial excerpt below:
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Dan Gelinas
NOTE: we've added the following information to the story above:
City of Memphis General Services Director Antonio Adams confirmed the original RFQ had to be canceled because there was no term specified for the licenses.
Adams told IPVM that the new Verkada system would not replace or directly supplement the existing Hikvision surveillance system that is monitored by the Memphis PD in the RTCC:
Adams also confirmed that the Neighborhood Sentinel Program mentioned in the City Council agenda was not a precursor to the Verkada system.
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #4
A great lesson on the power of simplicity. Even with the tremendous risk, cost and limitation Verkada presents, their simplicity offered wins projects.
As more devices become IP enabled and IT departments become responsible for managing them, simplicity will become a stronger and stronger decisive factor.
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
City of Memphis issued P.O. 36286 for:
383 - Verkada D40 Indoor Mini Dome Camera with 30 day on camera video storage" 466.48/each
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
Verkada D50 Indoor Mini Dome Camera with 30 day on camera video storage
579 Qty $579.86 Each $335,738.94 Total
Total for this P.O. $605,098.94
Total for Project less any mounting accessories and install labor $783,760.78
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
FYI - $178,661 + $775,992 = $954,653 less mounting and installation.
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Undisclosed Manufacturer #5
Will there be an update on this:
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Undisclosed Integrator #7
Wonder how the City feels now?
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