I went to a security and installer expo yesterday and visited several camera vendors and sat through a couple seminars (hikvision was one of them) with installers and it is shocking what professional installers so not know. Literally still installers that do not understand ip addresses, as in they don't know what they are. Behind me sat installers from a nationwide well known company that installs cameras and security. They were complaining about long hold times getting support, they said it took them 3.5 hours to figure our how to put IPs on an 8 camera system earlier this week. They also said they install these "all day every day" and yet they know nothing about them.
I felt like an everloving genius in there lol. Also, Hik is pissing off the industry with the nice low prices it seems, other vendors scoff and call them "cheap Chinese" cameras and warn "well, you get what you pay for" if you mention you use them. Then I mention that I have hundreds in use and have had exactly one fail, due to water getting inside it, that I blame on the camera. Couple hit by lightning but otherwise they have actually be the most reliable brand I've ever tried. Hikvision was mentioned specifically by name by competitors several times, never in a good light.
Installers are pressured to sell cameras from vendors that have cameras that are 1k to 2k a pop and then compete with analog installs. And they are told Hik is junk, so they are afraid to use them on big projects so even new installs go in with analog still today. It is an interesting industry that is for sure. I saw cameras pushed yesterday that "replace 4-5" cameras for $2400. I'm thinking, or I can buy 16 Hiks, a switch, and a computer to run it on....
Good times.