Security professionals, which IP software do you prefer?

[Proactive_IC 0]

Our company installs only standalone DVR/NVR products right now, but I am interesting in pushing towards PC based NVR solutions.

 

I have been doing a bit of research on the subject, and trying to glean as much information as I can about all of the different software methods of doing this, but without using these products in the field, it's hard to judge them.

 

So I ask any other security professionals, which software would you recommend for professional grade installation. No mickey mouse, finicky stuff.

[ak357 0]

Our company installs only standalone DVR/NVR products right now, but I am interesting in pushing towards PC based NVR solutions.

 

I have been doing a bit of research on the subject, and trying to glean as much information as I can about all of the different software methods of doing this, but without using these products in the field, it's hard to judge them.

 

So I ask any other security professionals, which software would you recommend for professional grade installation. No mickey mouse, finicky stuff.

For me

Avigilon

[Razer_SE 0]

Avigilon or Exacq.

 

Milestone is out there too, but the first two I mentioned are better than anything else I've used.

[JohnBG 0]

If you are not super IT or computer savvy, I would recommend starting with Exacq. It's pretty straightforward and easy to set up and use and they support just about every IP camera available. A ham-handed klutz of an engineer like me can set up a system and have it running in an hour without having to ask the IT guys for help (as opposed to Milestone or Genetec installation, where you pretty much have to be an IT guy to install and configure the system). Exacq also sells DVR's (both analog and hybrid) to help your customers manage the transition. I went to one of Exacq's one day training classes and by the end of the day security techs with little to no IP CCTV experience were getting the hang of it.

[thewireguys 3]

If you are not super IT or computer savvy, I would recommend starting with Exacq. It's pretty straightforward and easy to set up and use and they support just about every IP camera available. A ham-handed klutz of an engineer like me can set up a system and have it running in an hour without having to ask the IT guys for help (as opposed to Milestone or Genetec installation, where you pretty much have to be an IT guy to install and configure the system). Exacq also sells DVR's (both analog and hybrid) to help your customers manage the transition. I went to one of Exacq's one day training classes and by the end of the day security techs with little to no IP CCTV experience were getting the hang of it.

 

 

For a system that takes you one hour to configure how many cameras is the system?

[MR2 0]

I love the Milestone, we've got 4 installs of it running around my work...

 

 

I've not tried the other two, but this stuff did exactly what we want from the start so I've not had a reason to look around.

[Voipmodo 0]

We have been having good luck with Milestone. Our partner company does installs throughout the Northeast for schools and municipal projects and they almost exclusivelly use milestone, but sometimes throw exacq into the mix.

[MR2 0]

We have been having good luck with Milestone. Our partner company does installs throughout the Northeast for schools and municipal projects and they almost exclusivelly use milestone, but sometimes throw exacq into the mix.

 

we've been told that the mobile client on Milestone is second to none...

 

confirm/deny?

[prairietech 0]

Security Center by Genetec.

[Razer_SE 0]

If you are not super IT or computer savvy, I would recommend starting with Exacq. It's pretty straightforward and easy to set up and use and they support just about every IP camera available. A ham-handed klutz of an engineer like me can set up a system and have it running in an hour without having to ask the IT guys for help (as opposed to Milestone or Genetec installation, where you pretty much have to be an IT guy to install and configure the system). Exacq also sells DVR's (both analog and hybrid) to help your customers manage the transition. I went to one of Exacq's one day training classes and by the end of the day security techs with little to no IP CCTV experience were getting the hang of it.

 

 

For a system that takes you one hour to configure how many cameras is the system?

 

I don't know about him, but for me from unboxing an Exacq server to it being done and ready to head out for install is maybe 30 minutes total. That is for me changing the default user accounts around, installing firefox, a few camera utilities, VNC setup, and exacq web server setup, and setting my desired static IPs.

 

That's all I really need to do, my Exacq user accounts and all settings are all stored in a default setup file, so a couple clicks and the exacq is good to go for 8 ip cameras as my default install. Unbox, spend 30 minutes on it then it's ready for install!

[buellwinkle 0]

The only problem I ran into with Exacq is that they are very specific about which cameras are supported and I had mixed luck. When it works, it works well.

[thewireguys 3]

Tyco just acquired Exacq.... That will make things interesting for Exacq customers since Tyco always finds away to screw a good thing up.

[Razer_SE 0]

That is interesting news, I was unaware of that. I know nothing about tyco so I'll have to do some quick reading! I've just purchased my last full size servers and will be done ordering the licenses for a good while by the end of the year, so hopefully I'm good for a few years anyway.

 

After that, who knows, if they get bad I'll jump to Avigilon if they can just lower the prices a bit. Exacq killed them in pricing when I looked before for the type of systems I needed, and the web views and the like. Then again, nothing was as bad as Milestone lol!

[thewireguys 3]

No doubt in my mind that Tyco will screw this up. I heard about this about a month ago but had to keep my lips closed

 

http://www.securityinfowatch.com/news/10963863/tyco-to-acquire-vms-firm-exacq-technologies

[buellwinkle 0]

The NVR solutions proposed can be expensive costing well over $1,000 for 4-8 camera system just for the software, not including hardware. If you stick to one brand on installs, some offer pretty decent NVR software for free. For example, i use ACTi NVR3 and it's very good, for sure better for me than Milestone and Exacq but never tried Avigilon so no clue there. We also use Mobotix at 2 sites which does not need an NVR. I rather spend the money on better cameras, just saying.

[MR2 0]

The NVR solutions proposed can be expensive costing well over $1,000 for 4-8 camera system just for the software, not including hardware. If you stick to one brand on installs, some offer pretty decent NVR software for free. For example, i use ACTi NVR3 and it's very good, for sure better for me than Milestone and Exacq but never tried Avigilon so no clue there. We also use Mobotix at 2 sites which does not need an NVR. I rather spend the money on better cameras, just saying.

 

if you say so...

 

Milestone Express Base licence no SA is $170, it comes with a pair of camera licences, so for your 4 to 8 camera system your talking $510 to $850, this is well UNDER $1k...

 

Expand that out to a 20 camera system, we buy our camera's at $210 each, software we're under $2k... how much do 20 x Mobotix set you back?

[thewireguys 3]

^^ Did your pricing include the server and yearly support?

[MR2 0]

he'll need hardware & storage for the Mobotix, his question says "for software not including hardware? seems like a fair comparison for those on a tight budget?

 

on the side of servers we just use spare hardware, we presently have 17 camera's on an old $500 HP DL380 G5, really old dual quad core jobbie! decommissioned from the other crap it was doing, storage we just throw cheap $220 4tb drives into NAS boxes and point milestone at it for archiving...

[thewireguys 3]

So what are your yearly support costs for Milestone? Do they still charge to call them for support?

[cglaeser 0]

I love the Milestone, we've got 4 installs of it running around my work...

 

Can you review a camera in both real-time and recorded view at the same time?

 

Best,

Christopher

[MR2 0]

So what are your yearly support costs for Milestone? Do they still charge to call them for support?

 

we don't pay for SA (the support assurance) It's optional and honestly, while it's nice to think that you can upgrade to a later version when released, the version releases are that slow and there seems to be very little by way of new features with the new versions so I'm happy to just re-buy the whole package should something amazing come out or, stay with what we have (it's working fine now, chances are it's going to be working fine in 10 years)

 

Fwiw, Milestone Package the Mobile Server (for mobile devices) separate to the software, and as such new version of it you can upgrade for free, also the device packs which upgrade Milestones capabilities to talk to camera's is also free, so really your only paying SA to either be able to:

 

1, Upgrade between versions of the software, so from Express to Professional

2, be able to patch, so in the case of Express, to go from 1.0b to 1.1 (we have sites on both, and I'm not really noticing any difference, these programs are very polished before they release anything)

 

I generally don't call them for support, I've been sending any basic query's through the company I bought the software from (techcctv) and anything complex I just email them, we've yet to get charged for this

 

come to think about it, if you don't want to use a NAS you can download the Milestone Xprotect GO version which is free, it has the limitations of not being able to support more than 8 camera's, will not talk to NAS systems, only keeps footage for 5 days, cannot do alarms & is limited to a single user.... but free is free

Edited June 19, 2013 by Guest

[MR2 0]

I love the Milestone, we've got 4 installs of it running around my work...

 

Can you review a camera in both real-time and recorded view at the same time?

 

Best,

Christopher

 

yes, on mobile devices when you go into the archive view (I call it that anyway) it keeps a little window open above the recorded view which shows the live view, on your locally connected desktop/monitoring station you can either open a second client (which is the same as logging in a second user) and do whatever you want independently on each client.

[cglaeser 0]

yes, on mobile devices when you go into the archive view (I call it that anyway) it keeps a little window open above the recorded view which shows the live view, on your locally connected desktop/monitoring station you can either open a second client (which is the same as logging in a second user) and do whatever you want independently on each client.

 

Thanks for the quick response. When monitoring cameras on a single client computer, can you simultaneously view cameras in real-time view and recorded view? This is not possible in Exacq, and worse, during the commission of a crime, it takes what seems like an eternity to rebuild the recorded view each time you want to switch back and forth between live and recorded. In Avigilon, while a crime is in progress and I have the police dispatcher on the phone, I can answer questions about what the criminals are currently doing and at the same time review recorded video so I can report what they did, how many suspects, descriptions of each, etc.

 

This is not a big deal to most people because they record the crime at 2 am and then review the crime in the morning when they wake up and then post the video on Youtube after the criminals have sold their goods at a pawn shop. My primary goal is to stop the crime in progress and have the criminals arrested and the best way to do that is to catch them during the commission of the crime. Can Milestone do that?

[MR2 0]

No Problem, happy to help

 

Just then to make sure it works, I loaded up one local client (Smart Client), went into archive view, selected one of our views with 5 camera's on it, then told it to start playing backwards.

 

I then loaded up a second Smart Client and clicked on the same view as per live and it's running perfectly, in theory if I was running a pair of screens I could have live on one and archive on the other.

 

I can upload a screenshot if you like?

[thewireguys 3]

So it sounds like milestone can not view the same camera live and recorded in a single client simultaneously.