The vendor comes to your office to show you the latest and greatest camera, analytics, VMS, etc. They set up the equipment to show you how it really works in action so you can see for yourself. Yet you have been tricked and you probably did not ev...
By John Honovich - over 8 years ago
For every step forward, sometimes you take three or four steps back. That thought may come to mind of those championing gender equity in the security industry or at least trying to pull the market out of the stone ages. In this video advertisemen...
By Brian Rhodes - over 8 years ago
In a surprising and, sure to be controversial ad campaign, Axis advocates throwing analog equipment away. If the reader is in any way confused about the intent, analog cameras and a DVR are stuffed inside a trash can with a confirmation request, "...
By John Honovich - over 8 years ago
You can be whoever you are ... as long as you are a man; So says security provider Monitronics in a recent industry wide marketing campaign that makes no pretense that women exist. Here's the ad: You might wonder, "Perhaps they just couldn't...
By John Honovich - over 8 years ago
Now that the dust has settled from the product announcements of the last month, we can better understand the impact on the overall video surveillance market. Trends Here's the biggest three trends we see out of nearly 50 new product announcement...
By John Honovich - almost 9 years ago
Unsuccessful people often wonder why they are so, developing silly theories about what is holding them back. The Women's Security Council is an organizition essentially dedicated to that cause. In their awkwardly named Las Vegas seminar imploring ...
By John Honovich - almost 9 years ago
We spent the week on the ISC West show floor checking out what is interesting and have come away with a series of observations and images. Here are the topics/companies covered: Show Floor Traffic Ingram Micro Samsung Interlogix Mobotix V...
By John Honovich - almost 9 years ago
We spent hours on the ISC West show floor today and yesterday checking out what is interesting and have come away with a series of observations, images and one juicy rumor about a top manufacturer up for sale. Here are the topics/companies covere...
By John Honovich - almost 9 years ago
In a past millennium, historians tell us that Interlogix innovated digital surveillance solutions. Now, the once-proud brand has been reduced to trade show parlor tricks. Rather than dazzle us with great new technology, they confound us with an IP...
By John Honovich - almost 9 years ago
To say, "PR People are Worthless" may be going easy on them. Indeed, it is probably fairer to say that PR people are a total waste of money. It boggles the mind how truly inept the PR people who contact us are. Here is a great example from this m...
By John Honovich - almost 9 years ago
In the past few months, Axis has accelerated promotion of encoders, with a flurry of marketing moves including videos, articles, brochures, etc. (e.g., announcements of encoder kits bundled with software, a new ruggedized encoder model, multiple w...
By Ethan Ace - almost 9 years ago
A true PoE / network door strike would reduce costs and simplify installations considerably. Indeed, one access control vendor is marketing a PoE strike. However, what real benefits does this PoE strike deliver? Is it a true innovation or a market...
By Brian Rhodes - almost 9 years ago
For the past few months, Honeywell has been heavily marketing their Tuxedo Touch, their lastest generation touchscreen keypads. This model features integration to Z-Wave devices, such as lights and thermostats, features which Honeywell claims may ...
By Ethan Ace - almost 9 years ago
Determining the right manufacturer to provide storage for your surveillance system is a fundamental, yet complicated choice. The choice significantly impacts cost, reliability and scalability of the overall system. However, there are many differen...
By Ethan Ace - almost 9 years ago
Our recent wireless surveillance usage statistics demonstrated that an extremely low percentage of cameras used wireless networks. This was surprising to many, even somewhat to ourselves, given the level of marketing expenditure and promotion that...
By John Honovich - almost 9 years ago
The worst and most common excuse in video surveillance is that lack of education is holding back sales. This seemingly happens with every new technology - IP cameras, video analytics, now HDcctv, they all harp on how 'the market needs more educati...
By John Honovich - about 9 years ago
Security industy awards today are a joke -- shallow attempts to reward manufacturers who buy ads, booths or research from the award provider. However, reforming these programs can be done in a straightforward manner. In this article, we explain t...
By John Honovich - about 9 years ago
Using wireless networking to connect video surveillance cameras has increased in the past few years, certainly helped by the strong growth of IP cameras. However, what type of wireless systems should one use and who are the 'best' manufacturers fo...
By Ethan Ace - about 9 years ago
What companies are driving changes in the video surveillance industry? What companies are the toughest competitors? In this new report, we answer these questions by looking at the top 5 most disruptive companies we see in the market.Phantom Forces...
By John Honovich - about 9 years ago
In the past 18 months, Milestone Systems has redefined itself as the low cost VMS champion, slashing prices at a feverish rate and introducing the industry's most well known free VMS offering. However, these actions have raised many questions, non...
By John Honovich - about 9 years ago
[UPDATE 2013: Axis has officially entered the access control market.] The most powerful company in IP video surveillance, Axis, has its sights firmly set on entering the access control market. Multiple sources have confirmed that Axis is preparin...
By Ethan Ace - about 9 years ago
Most surveillance people think first of Firetide when considering wireless but Firetide is, in reality, a fairly small player that gets attention primarily from their relentless, VC fueled, PR campaigns. However, the true emerging gorilla is Ubiqu...
By John Honovich - over 9 years ago
People routinely assume that start-ups with big marketing presence at trade shows, magazines, events, etc. are successful. This is highly misleading and obscures a critical factor in true long term success - the ratio of revenue to company investm...
By John Honovich - over 9 years ago
This report provides a summary of key announcements and news being made related to or around the ASIS 2011 show.For each product or change, where applicable, we provide a link to the manufacturer's announcement on their site and then a link to our...
By John Honovich - over 9 years ago
What a colossal marketing mistake - It looks like Schneider Electric is phasing out the Pelco brand in favor of its own [UPDATE: Schneider denies this, details below]. Perhaps this makes sense in a barbarian sense (to the victor goes the spoils) b...
By John Honovich - over 9 years ago
