SecurityInfoWatch.com asked some industry notables to “blow away the hype, roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty and not pull any punches when it comes to where they see the video surveillance industry today.” The results were honest, open takes on the security business.
 
Part 1 – Video Surveillance Reality Check – was authored by Dr. Bob Banerjee, IP video product marketing manager for Bosch Security Systems. The piece begins as follows …
 
Can you trust anyone for good advice?
 
In the stable, well-understood and mature world of non IP-video (analog cameras and DVRs), there's no shortage of high-quality advice, from the manufacturer to the specifier/integrator and everyone in-between. In the chaotic world of IP video, up-to-date knowledge of one product set is a luxury few can declare. And up-to-date knowledge of multiple IP video product sets from multiple manufacturers is bordering on pure fantasy.
 
This puts everyone in the value chain in an awkward position. They depend on a very small number of true experts, or worse, they rely on a non-expert and deploy a solution that won't work. So end users educate themselves and design the solution, often directly engaging the manufacturer. This is a risky distraction for end users whose primary business is not security, and a challenge for manufacturers who scramble to act like an integrator in order to present a viable end-to-end solution. It is clearly also a problem for everyone else in between …
 
Click here to read the whole article.