Need Advice on Software

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So I run a camera installation company and have well over 1000+ systems installed and we are now starting to get larger commercial jobs and I am trying to find ways for us to be able to support all of our customers easily from a single interface. I know that I will never find a product that does every little thing but I put a lot of marbles into DSS express and pro. With version 7 we discovered access control didn't work and their new panels weren't compatible and so many things in their software required work arounds and band aids.

DSS released V8 and I was generally happy with it during testing (their pricing model is super silly but that not a main issue right now), I am learning that DSS is a read only program, meaning it can't make any actual changes to NVRs or Cameras. It is insanely resource intensive and there are little things that just don't work right or aren't stable enough. Like when i create roles, users, add devices, they require you to login and logout just to be able to use those new settings and loggin in and out doesn't work properly as I have to forcefully do it via the task manager. This generally isn't an issue if your client is on the server but 99% of the time our end users are using their local machines and thats when issues start to occur

I typically use pss as it is a solid product but some of these big jobs want user and user roles and more user management features that is just easier when centralized with something like DSS. But I refuse to believe this is the best I can provide my customers.

I have 4 customers with 256+ cameras and PSS can't handle that so right now I feel stuck using DSS. I am going to trial milestone tonight but am really curious what ideas this forum can produce. It would be amazing if the solution can do playback, multiple screens (up to 5) and being able to handle events like Facial recognition and detection and IVS that would be awesome. I don't really want opensource or free as I need to be able call a company when something doesn't work as expected and I would be in heaven to find some sort of cloud solution. We only use Official Dahua North America Equipement but if there is better out there I am an open minded person.
 

Jayordon

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I would look into Exacqvision. It may take multiple servers to get 256 cameras onto it, but I'm not sure. A lot of their servers are rated for up to 128 cameras, but I'm not sure if that's a hardware limitation or a software lock. If it's hardware, you can always buy a custom server and load Exacqvision software onto it. If it's a software lock, you'll just need 2+ servers running side by side which works just fine as well. Their tech support is amazing. The software is free, but the cost of licenses for each camera can definitely add up. I haven't messed a lot with the IVS or smart analytics, but it could definitely be worth trying out.
 

adamg

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Milestone XProtect line of VMS has products that meet the needs you mentioned. My impression is that Milestone software is primarily focused on being a camera VMS, with add-ons to enable other types of hardware like access control, intercoms, video analytics. It can handle any number of cameras, any number of servers.

Genetec Security Center definitely meets the needs you mentioned. It can scale to any number of cameras, any number of servers, interconnected stand-alone systems; plus very good support for access control, intrusion detection, and analytics.
 
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