Alternative to Hikvision

[dgsmith]

Would love to not have to use Hikvision or any other brand that still doesn't work properly in modern browsers. Amazed that there are so few real alternatives.

 

This. The build quality of hikvision cameras is mostly adequate and the image quality is actually, for the most part, fairly reasonable. Yet the fact we must use either IE or edge with IE compatibility mode enabled, to get a feed on them, in 2023 is quite staggering. I am not a huge fan of the browser GUIs but they are at least something you can navigate and comprehend reasonable ok (compared to some others I have seen). The GUI with our NVR on the other hand.. not so great..

[DrCheese]

Do we have thoughts on Ubiquiti kit in this space? https://eu.store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect

 

Avoid it. It's not ONVIF compatible so you're tied to Ubiquiti's hardware/PVR & it's not installable on anything off the shelf.

They have form in just randomly dumping a product & leaving installers high/dry (Unifi Video) to force people onto their newer platforms.

 

Might be ok for a small school, but it wouldn't have scaled for our needs at all.

[XiJ]

Ina school I’d be wary of unifi - having had them at home when the dumped the old nvr. That said, using my existing cameras with a hikvision nvr now. But seriously considering going back to unifi cloudkey nvr. I just can’t be doing with the IE thing in 2023.

 

To be fair I often use the feeds on a home assistant instance anyway. But I’d like to record and schedule properly.

 

There’s also a ton of open source video software out there, much of it very reasonable in quality.

[FragglePete]

Do we have thoughts on Ubiquiti kit in this space? https://eu.store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect

 

I have it in our school, over 70 cameras spread over three UNVR's and since upgrading the drives to faster units the system has been running quite nicely with us adding more cameras as we go.

 

We had the first cameras installed using the old Unifi Video and was a bit miffed with Unifi when they pulled the product, but the UNVR's are quite inexpensive and the cameras were still useable on Protect system. We've got cameras installed in early 2017 still going strong, and run most of the cameras on their small Unifi PoE switches using it's own set of fibres going back to a Unifi XG Fibre Switch

 

I have a love/hate relationship with UniFi stuff, for now it's working but have invested too much over the years just to rip it out. Can be annoying getting hold of cameras at the mo, but I can usually find them when we need them by hunting around.

 

Pete

[mavhc]

Can you not get RTSP out of your hikvision cameras?

[jthompson]

Can you not get RTSP out of your hikvision cameras?

 

What NVR appliance/software would you recommend? We have both Dahua and Hikvision cameras and NVRs at the moment, and neither NVR is capable of motion-based recording with anything but their respective camera brands.

[Jcx500]

What NVR appliance/software would you recommend? We have both Dahua and Hikvision cameras and NVRs at the moment, and neither NVR is capable of motion-based recording with anything but their respective camera brands.

 

Have ran Hikvison on Avigilon’s software before.

 

Was windows based and we ran it on a bare mental supermicro box

[DrCheese]

Yes, use Avigilon - Nothing else compares.

[Sonic007]

Never had any issues with Hikvision and it does what it needs to do.

If security is a concern, put it on it's own isolated VLAN.

[jimmy_2k]

another vote for Avigilon, although at my current school its all Hikvision

[Lcornwall]

We are going with Unifi Protect as a trust solution now. meets our needs camera and security-wise.

[CHiLL]

We enquired about Avigilon, though we were told by two suppliers that you're looking at 2-3 times the cost of a HikVision/Dahua equipment, which pretty much rules it out as a replacement.