Without a doubt, video analytics manufacturers fell into the old “over-promise and under-deliver” trap several years ago. The technology was oversold to end users who wanted the kind of performance out of their systems that they could see on TV. The problem was that no one could deliver that. But a lot of people didn’t want to admit that.
“Early on, analytics was clearly oversold. Now it’s far better than before, but you can’t solve crime like on ‘CSI’ in record time,” says Steve Gorski, general manager of MOBOTIX. “It’s important to set customer expectations about what a camera can do and what it cannot do. If you want to zoom in on a cash register to read the serial numbers on a dollar bill, the camera is not designed for that. The ‘you-see-it-on-TV’ perception is a disservice to us all.”