Need advice for upgrading CCTV system

[integrator97]

Unfortunately, Bill, most people are going on price. I generally don't even bother bidding on things that are open to everybody, in which I sense it's low bid regardless. I actually helped a school write specs that many could fill, which they butchered. Then, the low bid didn't meet their requested specs, but they went with him anyway. He did 3 schools, I later won a fourth, matching his systems. Found out he was mixing 2 technologies instead of an equivalant off the shelf that I found and used. He bragged on it to us, said call when we needed help, that he was the only one who knew how, and the manufactures were considering paying him for his design. I called both, and they both said they didn't support that. I informed the school of my change, and they should be aware, in case he got hit by a bus or something.

They kept using him, but I got the last laugh. His system couldn't do 2 facility codes. Guess how long they made data chips in that code. Ha!

I do well when it's selective bidding, or when they're not deciding on price. We can win when they look at quality, knowledge, service.... I try to educate people, especially on DVR's, because there can be so much mis-information. "yea, you can get six months with that 16 channel, 80 gig, mjpeg DVR". It's not a lie, but....

[Ian]

The problem with turnkey and competition is that all too often the contractor will cut corners in the hope of being awarded the contract, he wont do a thorough investigation, if using IP cameras he wont dimension the available bandwidth, if using stand alone cameras he wont look at power requirements, if running a centralised system he will use the cheapest and smallest cable he can and will run into voltage drop and attenuation problems, if using hard drives in a unmanned scenario the capacity to store will be compromised by the quality of video required and vice versa. Whilst the contractor lands in the you know what for all these problems so does the client, big time because you may have paid a deposit for hardware and because of poor planning on the contractors part you will either end up with an unsatisfactory end product or no product at all and what you might have saved initially has been eaten up by lawyers fees when you take the contractor to court. Turnkey is great if you have the luxury of choosing your network planners, your cable contractor, your project manager, your suppliers and installers but all too often turnkey turns into turkey.

[Ian]

Oh by the way we use an embedded PC type of system manufactured by Bosch. Very easy to set up and equally easy to use and the quality of images is quite good.

[integrator97]

I'll look at the Bosch. Thanks.