I’m just starting out my custom install business and trying to decide on all of the products I’d like to offer. While my installers have experience installing security/surveillance systems, as the designer I do not have much experience at all. I’m looking for what sort of products to offer in this area. I came across EZ Watch Pro (http://www.ezwatch-security-cameras.com/) and it looks like a pretty robust system. Does anyone have any experience with them? If so, what is your opinion? How is their reseller/dealer program?

Of course I’m also open to any other suggestions in the security/surveillance area as well - I have not decided on anything and the EZ Watch system was the first I’ve really looked into.

Thanks!
Kyle

Kyle, congratulations on the beginning of a new chapter.  And also, kudos to you for getting online and seeing what you can find out about this industry you are jumping into.  Having said that, I would like to point out a couple possbile things to consider.

1)  Decide what your company priorites are (i.e. best service, best price, complete solutions, customer satisfaction, timeliness, cleanliness, etc.)
2)  What criteria are important to you in choosing your products? (availability, warranty, location, quality, price, etc.)

And even after answering these, my guess is that it is too early for you to decide what product you will settle on.  Chances are you will pick something, install it… find something you don’t like about it and search for a product that can improve that feature.  After an iteration or two, you’ll settle on a product that fits your business.  Then your business will change, and your selection of products will too.

Bottom line, pick something - best advice is DO NOT INSTALL IT FOR THE FIRST TIME AT A PAYING CUSTOMER JOB.  This is a recipe for problems.  I’ll venture another guess.  Every installation company has, out of necessity and lack of R&D;budget, purchased an item and installed it for the first time for a customer.  No time to do it right, plenty of time to do it over.

You’re in for a ride, so get in and hold on.

-Morgan

The advice above is great!  Do the careful analysis of how you want to position yourself in the business, but follow it up by talking with your installers.  If they have experience installing systems they have experience with the strengths and weaknesses of the various offerings, and they know what your customers think of them.  Your techs are one of your most valuable resource when it comes to choosing solutions, and in my experience most of them would love to give you their opinions (whether you asked for them or not).  Add your understanding of the business side and you’ve got a winning combination.

Hope it helps,

Joe

Thanks Joe and Morgan for the great advice. I’ve decided to go with Morgan’s suggestion of not installing it for the first time at a paying job. I’m going to order one of their systems for myself and play around with it and try to learn the ins and outs. As soon as I get it in and have some time with it I’ll post my thoughts here in case anyone else would like to look into their system.

Kyle

Hey Kyle,

Did you ever purchase the ezwatch pro system? What was your experience?

James

Yes, I did purchase the ezwatch pro system and I have to say I was impressed. Since I’m a techie and I always have computers and parts laying around, I chose one of their kits that runs off a customer supplied PC. The cameras run back to a video capture card that fits in a standard PCI slot. They have 2 models to choose from - Business and Professional. The Business allows for 30fps across the entire 4 channel card so if you have all 4 cameras plugged in you effectively get 7.5 fps per camera. For my little setup this was fine so I chose the Business card. The Professional option gives 30 fps for each channel. It also allows for audio inputs on each channel while the Business card only allows for audio on one channel. They also have kits where they provide the PC or kits where they provide a Linux based DVR or of course you can buy items individually.

Installation was a breeze for my installer - since I purchased a kit it included all required cables including 100ft video and power cables for each camera. It did not include screws but I don’t think that is a big deal.

The software was easy to set up and is simple but powerful. I was able to set up remote viewing and a detailed recording schedule in a matter of minutes. The list of software features is impressive including multiple users/permissions, alerting via email, phone call, or text, I/O triggering on events, recording on events, and more.

The only downsides so far are as follows -
1) one of the features they list is remote viewing from a smartphone as long as it can play 3gp files. I have not worked very long on getting this to work but it didn’t right out of the box.
2) I have my 2 outdoor cameras set to record on motion and originally I set them to email me when detecting motion. Even when I set the sensitivity all the way to its lowest setting however, I still got an email everytime a bug flew in front of one of the cameras. I woke up the first morning after the install with 736 emails in my inbox!
3) You can view the cameras remotely via installed software or through a web page. This web page utilizes ActiveX so it is only viewable in Internet Explorer - no support for Firefox (my browser of choice)

I plan to contact their support department about the first two issues to see if I can find a resolution.

Overall I was very satisfied and if I can get the motion thing taken care of I would feel good about selling this product. I plan to contact them to find out more about their dealer program.

P.S. - For you integrators out there using media center I was able to view the cameras from the Vista Media Center interface by utilizing Media Center Launcher (http://mikinhosoft.blogspot.com/2008/07/media-center-launcher.html) to launch the remote viewer software program.

Kyle,
    I just sent you an email. Check out http://Secure-i com for a simple concept that can overcome the roadblocks you will find with traditional camera systems and generate recurring revenue for your business. This solution is the first of it’s kind in the US and you will find it more than interesting I would be willing to bet.

We have created an environment that allows our resellers to sell camera hardware at the markup of their choice through national distribution, that requires a subscription through Secure-i that pays the reseller up to 20% of the recurring revenue beased on volume. Most of our resellers are making up to $7 a month per camera.

This solution can really help build operating income to support your business. Feel free to contact us.

I wanted to update my review of the EZ Watch Pro product and also ask the community for some suggestions:

I have been relatively pleased with the system running at my house. I chose the option to install a card in a PC rather than a standalone dvr and maybe that has something to do with my issues but I have to restart the application about once every 2 weeks or so. This is not a big deal for me but I would never want to install a system like this for a customer. I don’t have anything else installed on the PC besides the operating system so I’m not sure what could be causing the issue other than the EZ Watch software itself. I would say it is up more than 90% of the time. Other than that, the system works fine.

Now to my question:
I would love to get some feedback from CEPros who have been in the business for a while about the security side of things. I do not yet want to get into monitoring or installing alarm systems but I would like to do CCTV. In all my research I am finding it difficult to find some legitimate looking places to purchase CCTV equipment. Maybe it is because I am new and have not yet established relationships with the big CE distributors, but it seems like every website selling to the CCTV market just has a very DIY, cheap, almost sleazy look and feel to it. This may have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the products they sell but it makes me weary.

Where do you purchase your CCTV equipment? From the big name distributors? Or from shops that specialize in security? I want to know that when I install a system for a client I will be able to work with the manufacturer or distributor to aid in warranty replacements, tech support, etc. and not have to worry that I (and therefore my clients) have been scammed!

AudVidGuy - 24 October 2008 03:57 PM

Hey Kyle,

Did you ever purchase the ezwatch pro system? What was your experience?

James

I have the same question about that Did you ever purchase the ezwatch pro system? What was your experience?