Pick up any trade magazine and they are awash with literally hundreds of CCTV Suppliers……..all professing to offer ex-stock supply of the latest and greatest products at the best possible priced!
But is this influx of supply simply diluting the industry and causing end user and integrator confusion?
I recall many years ago that there were 2 or 3 mainline suppliers – if you wanted CCTV you went to Norbain or CCTV Warehouse……….. and a couple of other more regional companies…………even the electrical wholesalers sold products that were sourced, in bulk, from companies such as Norbain.
Now, pick up a Farnell, or RS, or Maplin brochure and observe the availability of seemingly good quality cctv kit………visit B&Q and there, in the electrical section, you’ll find an external cctv camera complete with wireless connectivity to a regular TV!
Not to mention the huge amount of eBay stores now popping up offering Hong Kong and China’s latest number one DVR!
So, where does this leave the industry?
We think confused – how is it really possible to justify a £10k professionally installed system when the end user has ‘found’ a ‘perceivably’ equivalent system online?
We hear stories of end users buying cheap(er) kit and then ringing installers to ask for a price to install !! As if it isn’t bad enough that the installer has to adapt to the ever changing supply of industry supplied kit!!
So, consider this – the distributors and manufacturers of our industry offer not only good quality kit, but provide a level of pre and post sales support that is simply not available from CCTV_Man from eBay, or from China’s number 1 DVR manufacturer……… we urge you to try and get one of their guys out on site on a cold December evening!!
