1

Part of my job is to manage the hundreds of cameras we have at 3 manufacturing facilities and 18 branch offices. I got forced into a platform called Samsara 2 and a half years ago. They started out as a Fleet surveillance solution we were utilizing and evidently figured they could move into site surveillance as an afterthought. Well I am here to tell you they absolutely suck at site surveillance. I have a reminder set to daily check connectivity on all cameras because they will randomly disconnect and need to be rebooted or logged into to get them to reconnect to the platform. Like any good vendor they blame my cameras even though I did not have this issue with the previous platform I was using for 7+ years called ExacqVision. The 2 features my boss likes are; 1 - the ability to access cameras from cell phones offsite (so cloud accessibility to on-prem devices) and 2 - when searching through footage it shows blue where a person is recognized.

I currently still maintain the video servers and onsite storage we used previously, in desparate hopes of one day abandoning this crap platform.
Has anyone had a good/bad experience with Samsara or ExacqVison, please comment, and feel free to add a surveillance monitoring platform you do like (Enterprise only)

Surveillance Platform Solutions
  • Samsara
  • ExacqVision
  • Spot.ai
  • Milestone
  • Geutebruck
  • Unifi Protect
  • Avigilon/Motorola
  • Verkada
  • FLIR
  • Digital Watchdog Spectrum
  • Pelco
  • Genetec
  • Lilin
  • Ava Security/Motorola
  • Livereach AI
  • Coram AI
0 voters
35 Spice ups
2

I think the fact that Samsara didnt start out as a surveillance software is why its not as good, ExacqVision is a great option but you might also want to take a look at Gentec Security Center they are pretty robust and have cloud services as well as remote access and vid management

And if you want to revisit a storage solution for your devices Pulseway have a really good Endpoint Backup Software if you want to take a look here

2 Spice ups
3

We just came on board with Spot.ai. It is a cloud system that uses either current surveillance hardware and/or their hardware. The video walls are decently configurable. The platform uses AI for monitoring and intelligence searches of captured video and audio. The searches even provide the ability to integrate attributes such as activity, colors, types of clothing, vehicle makes, and license plates into generating search results (still in beta). They provide the ability to integrate with a limited monitoring app on AppleTV. There is even sharing and remote storage of saved clips and search results. With a mobile app for both phone and tablet, and a web-based platform, your boss will likely love that capability. And the user management is even highly configurable.

2 Spice ups
4

My current job uses exacqvision but it’s severely out of date. Some cameras will no longer power on, they’re that old. It works for what we need it to but I don’t believe ours works with their app. I’m looking at getting away with it potentially with Verkada, but am still looking at other vendors as well.

2 Spice ups
5

I like Exacqvision okay. It’s better than the system we had at my last place of work.

This year we took a serious look at moving our footage to the cloud by switching to Verkada. The downside was needing to buy all new cameras. And Verkada’s cameras aren’t cheap.

To Verkada’s credit, they sent me cookies last year and their salespeople have been polite.

4 Spice ups
6

Verkada only uses Verkada cameras?! That most definitely won’t work here. Is Exacq using AI in the search, yet? To see people vs just motion?

4 Spice ups
7

The version we’re using is maybe 5 years old and it can’t recognize people.

2 Spice ups
8

Samsara: Unreliable, frequent camera disconnections, not recommended for site surveillance. Some cloud features are appreciated.

ExacqVision: Generally reliable, used for 7+ years, preferred over Samsara.

Alternative: Consider Milestone XProtect, Genetec Security Center, or Avigilon Control Center for enterprise-level surveillance management.

2 Spice ups
9

I’ve worked in video surveillance for 13 years now and never heard of Samsara, but that is not to say they’re a nobody. We were never in niche markets like transportation and there’s a lot of different niche players that have been around for awhile. But like you have seen and others have said, when niche players start coming out of their niches, it often proves more challenging that what they were prepared for.

Exacq is a long time player in the industry, but to me (note, I now work on the manufacturing side and am a competitor to Exacq) they’re system, especially their user interface, is very dated and very slow in event lookup and searches (because their method of storing video is very primitive). But if you need just straightforward recording, with very minimal need to review video and not much need to streamline the system into general operations to maximize value, then objectively speaking it is not a bad choice.

Genetec, Milestone and Avigilon are your more notable names and worthy competitors. You may find that they are missing features you are used too compared to a traditional transportation oriented niche player, but they (and us) will have features they don’t have that might be a benefit and worth the tradeoff.

I definitely don’t recommend any system that locks you into their brand of cameras, especially in a way that if you ever change the core NVR’s, your cameras suddenly become bricks. Especially when there are other cloud focused brands that don’t do that and have ways for you to use any ONVIF or RTSP compliant third party camera you want. For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would go that route, but some companies in that space have been very effective in their gorilla marketing tactics. You might want to review a previous discussion thread on the topic…

That aside, you seem to really know what you want. I would definitely recommend making a list of requirements; your must haves, good to haves, and nice to haves. Then requesting demo’s from the more notable names you collect. This is very common and can be done in one-on-one online meetings.

Putting on my sales hat, Geutebruck has been in business since 1970. We’re a contender to the likes of Genetec, Milestone and Avigilon, at often a lower total cost of ownership. We’re not a transportation specialty player (as neither are the names I just listed), but we have been used in transportation, notably rail.

3 Spice ups
10

Verkada sent me a Yeti tumbler.

2 Spice ups
11

The reason for cookies and name brand swag is highlighted in bold. Which is fine, just expect that going with such a company is going to be expensive.

1 Spice up
12

and their sales team persistent

2 Spice ups
13

Verkada … HaaS (Hostage as a Service)

Proprietary cameras, not onvif. Cameras are not upgradeable - you pay for 30, 60, 90, 120 day storage in the camera and that’s all you get. Pay the yearly subscription late, the cameras shut down. Decide to go with another vendor? Get out the man-lift and replace every camera in the facility.

Don’t get me wrong, their cameras and services are pretty excellent, 10 year warranty on the units, easy mobile access since all footage is copied to their cloud. It’s a great solution for the enterprise that values those things. But their licensing model is a deal-breaker for me.

3 Spice ups
14

So you only had 120 days? Verkada told me I’d have 30 days in the cameras and unlimited days of storage in the cloud. It didn’t sound right so I asked again and they confirmed it. Then later I asked a 3rd time about unlimited cloud storage and they confirmed again.

1 Spice up
15

The camera brand I see more than any other in banks and casinos and such is FLIR.

1 Spice up
16

I’m not sure what the cloud storage details are. Our corporate offices are heavily invested in Verkada, but I have avoided them in favor of Milestone at my plant. I don’t see how they can give you unlimited cloud storage without paying a hefty fee for it - I was under the impression that cloud storage was constrained to the storage days on the local device.

2 Spice ups
17

I had over 300 cameras running on Digital Watchdog Spectrum at my last job. For me, it was hands-down the BEST video surveillance system.

Mobile app - Yes!

Visual search - yes, but you might need a add-on / plug-in for recognizing people vs other
You can set up alarms and zones within each field of view. I had one camera set up to watch the front door after COVID. It would ring a bell on a PC in the office when someone approached. Otherwise, you couldn’t see when someone was at the door.

I frequently used it to solve the various “crimes” that happened: stolen items, vandalism, unauthorized “guests”, etc…

The server software is free. It can be run on Windows or Linux (I built Linux servers to run it after testing on Windows). You have to buy a license per camera, but some of the cameras we had, had 4 “heads” but only counted as 1 camera.

PTZ control is available, exporting to MP4 or executables.

There’s probably more, but it’s been almost a year since I last used it, so…

1 Spice up
18

We use ExacqVision. We use/buy whatever cameras we want. We have the ExacqVision Server as a virtual appliance, so storage is a simple matter of how much we want to allocate to it.

The software works nicely for our needs. No, it doesn’t recognize people, it recognizes motion. One of our favorite features is that we have floor plans of our entire building uploaded to it, with camera locations noted. Then, when looking at the Maps, the camera icons will blink on the map if the camera senses motion. You can click on the camera icons to immediately pull up the selected camera.

1 Spice up
19

I always agree with @luiscarmona ​

We work in the industry & have the same perspective.

Exacq are another “oh we may as well do a VMS” company.
In fact all of the options are old school…

From my perspective you have only listed a few professional options;
Milestone = old clunky, large architecture. Lilin will be a much cheaper option if you’re going to invest in that hardware.
Genetec = the only option that really sits as a contender
Avigilon/Motorola = will give you all those features you are seeking, I just can’t do that brand myself…
Digital Watchdog Spectrum - while NX Witness & all it’s OEM versions are taking the world by storm, I have been working with it for over a decade (with certification) & have come to like the platform less & less. Oooh look, fancy graphics!

I honestly cannot see any of the other platforms as ‘current’. Sorry Luis, on this occasion I can’t say “YAY”. I was only discussing yesterday, how Geutebruck (in this country) are only retaining their niche markets, in people who are already committed to the platform (as is the case with many in the list).
Oh Sorry, Verkada are current - “it’s puts the lotion in the bucket!”
Digifort is not listed, for discussion.

2 Spice ups
20

My experience is more on the “legal” side of things, making sure video evidence is ready for any necessary prosecution requirements.

My biggest issue is that a lot of these surveillance systems store video in proprietary formats/codecs and/or require the use of proprietary viewers.

Exacqvision media exports, for example, are usually received in .exe packages with imbedded players, which cannot be easily ingressed into police digital evidence management systems. This causes severe problems all the way down the chain to the courtroom.

If the system cannot export media in standard MP4 format/codecs, it may be useless as evidence to a crime.

1 Spice up