A Peek Into Vicon’s Mission for Open Standards
Vicon Industries CEO Eric Fullerton believes video surveillance consolidation has stifled innovation. He is now challenging security systems integrators and end users to spec only ONVIF-based open platform systems.
Vicon Industries CEO Eric Fullerton says too many video manufacturers are "holding on to the control of their devices so they cannot be opened up and controlled by a third-party in an open source."
For integrators and end users, its means they should be putting specific language in their specs that calls for an open platform solution that “futureproofs” their security systems. Open platform enables the ability to truly upgrade an existing system. So the ultimate promise is that you have futureproofed the end user by giving him a true open platform, not a make-believe, proprietary open platform, according to Fullerton.
He says ONVIF is definitely the standard to be the building block.
“We have to all get together behind it. The reason manufacturers have been able to convince dealers and end users to go with proprietary solutions is that the ONVIF standard is relatively loose. It needs to be tightened up. Some tightening has happened,” he admits.
Vicon’s New Mission, Vision, Values
Vicon itself has also defined a product strategy that includes an end-to-end video recorder product range that starts at the high end of the VMS and goes all the way down to plug and play, and a camera line that has multi-megapixel cameras, normal megapixel cameras, streaming cameras, explosion-proof cameras and prison cameras. But all of the products also work with other third-party equipment.
The company’s new Vision Statement says: “Vicon will enable video to become the most valuable digital resource to our customers’ and partner’s business solutions.” It doesn’t say security anywhere there. We not only want to provide their security but provide value to their bottom line.
The new Mission Statement: “Vicon will deliver open and innovative video products while providing an unprecedented customer experience.”
The new Values Statement is based on customer, integrity, passion, innovation, team.
“We are driving these values in the company with integrity. And the integrity piece means that we want to develop products that will be compatible and integrate with third-party solution products, even though we might have a product that will compete with it. We want to do what is best for the end user, and sell the right thing for the right solution. We don’t want to block clients into using only our products,” concludes Fullerton.
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About the Author
Jason Knott
Jason Knott is Chief Content Officer for Emerald Expositions Connected Brands. Jason has covered low-voltage electronics as an editor since 1990, serving as editor and publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He joined CE Pro in 2000 and serves as Editor-in-Chief of that brand. He served as chairman of the Security Industry Association’s Education Committee from 2000-2004 and sat on the board of that association from 1998-2002. He is also a former board member of the Alarm Industry Research and Educational Foundation. He has been a member of the CEDIA Business Working Group since 2010. Jason graduated from the University of Southern California. Have a suggestion or a topic you want to read more about? Email Jason at [email protected]
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