Quick Summary:

Who is Avigilon, and how good are their security cameras?

Avigilon is a provider of security solutions. The B2B company is best known for its line of security cameras. The high quality of their product combined with the efforts the company takes to help customers find ideal setups for their security systems have contributed to stellar reputation the company has built.

About the company

Pronounced a-vigil-on the company develops, designs, and manufacturers AI-powered security solutions. They are on a mission to bring innovative products to people that keep citizens and communities safe. Thousands of commercial sites have installed their products, giving businesses a proactive way to protect their valuable assets.

You won’t find Avigilon on the store shelves. The company runs a strict business-to-business model and refuses to sell directly to consumers or on their website. To get ahold of these security solutions, interested buyers need to find a dealer of integrator that works with the company.

Despite that restriction, Avigilon does work closely with integrators and customers to design custom security solutions that suit the customer’s needs. In the last few years, they not only have expanded their hardware lines but started to leverage AI to expand the capabilities of their products.

Technology available

The company sells cameras geared towards security. The cameras available range fom 8-30 MP, or 4K to 7K resolution. They are the first company to offer a 7K camera with their H4 Pro.

These security camera come built for the task at hand. With high resolution, and excellent compression, these cameras are designed to perform. Out of the box they come with features like:

• Audio capabilities
• Expandable storage
• High Definition Stream Management (HDSM)
• H.264 and MJPEG compression
• LightCatch Technology
• Multiple lens options
• Relay I/O connections
• ONVIF Compliant

Security staff have full control over what the cameras do, and what they focus on. Avigilon produces camera built for the rogers of commercial use, able to deliver in poor lighting conditions, and giving the coverage of 99 traditional VGA resolution cameras.

Entire stadiums can spot individual fan disruption. Full parking lots can be covered, with the resolution to identify license plates.

The excellent performance of these cameras means nothing if it doesn’t reach the screens. Correct compression is key factor in making sure that the detail that come with HD are available to the end user without upgrading internal networks. They use H.264 and MJPEG compression standard, but the company has also developed its own tools to extend those capabilities.

The HDSM 2.0 technology manages data, and changes compression across the screen. The static background gets high compression, while important moving areas of the screen get lower compression to lower the bandwidth needed to stream its 7K lineup by up to 50%. File sizes are kept small, decreasing the amount of storage needed and making footage quick to search through when needed.

Avigilon also offers thermal cameras that create images from the radiating heat coming from people and objects around them. The integrated AI video analytics help the cameras pick out people and vehicles even when visibility isn’t at its best.

All of these resources are easily managed through the Avigilon Control Center (ACC). Mobile and web devices all have access to a company’s security systems. The app allows security streams to run analytics, sound alarms, and give access to high definition streams even when out in the field.

Cyber security a priority for all Avigilon products. The company takes pains to follow all National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines and best practices to keep systems secure. They’ve integrated measures like encryption, updating firmware, lockout multiple invalid login attempts, and requiring device authentication.

Customer opinion

Customers rave about the quality of the cameras that they recieve from Avigilon. They are perfectly suited for their commercial environments. The products are high resolution, and have the flexibility to survey any space indoor or outdoor. Once setup, the cameras are very easy to monitor across a range of devices. The data storage is also praised by buyers.

Creating an account with Avigilon allows the products to be setup. They say that Avigilon supports customers with everything they need to setup devices and provide instructions to add cameras to their proprietary viewer software.

Some of the limitations pointed out for Avigilon products is the learning curve needed to start using the products. The cameras take some learning to be set up properly, so the simplicity doesn’t make itself apparent during the first installation. It can be a bit of a pain to integrate the cameras with the customer’s current network.

While the products are built to work seamlessly with Avigilon’s software, they don’t perform well without it. Customers are forced to use their software if they want to setup hostnames and IP addresses.

The solutions are expensive, which comes with the quality streams they produce, but they don’t last very long. A lot of equipment needs to be replaced after only 4-5 years of use.

Even with these shortcomings, customers still rate the products and the experience they have with Avigilon very highly.