Avigilon was founded in 2004 and was a Canadian company, based out of Vancouver, until it was purchased by Motorola in 2018. When the security camera industry was just starting to talk about VGA quality IP cameras, Avigilon cameras was selling High Definition 11MP cameras.
They quickly expanded to include a wide range of high-definition security cameras ranging from 1MP all the way up to 30MP. When I first heard about Avigilon cameras, around 2007-2008, I didn’t believe that it would work. It took me another few years before calling them up to become a dealer.
In 2013, Avigilon purchased a company called VideoIQ which was very strong in Video Analytics. They quickly integrated awesome features such as people, vehicle, and loitering detection and pretty much changed the industry. Nowadays we hear a lot of talk around Artificial Intelligence and video analytics in security cameras, but Avigilon has held the top spot in this space for a long time.
I’ve personally worked with hundreds of these cameras and can tell you that they are the easiest video analytics to setup. The false alarm rate is low, and I would take a lot of convincing to get me to recommend another video analytic camera. We use the Avigilon Video Analytics extensively in our camera monitoring service to remotely monitor construction sites and outdoor storage yards. It would be extremely difficult to monitor outdoor activity without using their reliable analytics.
When Motorola purchased Avigilon, I held my breath and worried that this nice Canadian company would fall apart. But they’ve done a good job at taking Avigilon and making it better. Pre-Motorola days, it felt like you were dealing with a small company that had quite a bit of kinks to work out.
There was a short period of time that camera quality and support was starting to slip, hinting at larger troubles within the company. Once Motorola fully took over though, the story has changed and it appears that Avigilon is back on track and thriving.
The Avigilon security camera line may not be as comprehensive as the Axis Camera line but they have everything that a business would need. From the Avigilon H4 Mini Dome cameras for well-lit indoor areas to the newly released, next-generation Avigilon H5A Security Cameras, you can pretty much find an Avigilon camera for any application.
Avigilon also makes their own software -the lastest release Avigilon ACC 7, is simple to use yet powerful. They recently released their cloud video platform, Avigilon Blue, which is still in it’s toddler stages but looks very promising.
