Compared to Other Systems

When we designed Xanview, we tried to think different, to think like the business or home owner, and what information they'd like to see:

Beyond CCTV: CCTV is the central function, but we can monitor just about anything you have from: your network and phones to your stock room temperature or even water consumption and alert you of anything unexpected.

Events: Events are identified with a "best" thumbnail that's also available for every 1 minute of video. This allows finding that specific incident or person faster without looking through hours of footage.

Web 2.0: Modern interface designed for the end user first and CCTV operator second. This means a polished, responsive and predictable user interface with practically no learning curve.

Compared to MyHome247™?

MyHome247 have a great system with fantastic features at a very attractive price. However it is not designed to record video and cannot replace a video survaillance system:

Doesn't record contineous video, only a few seconds with gaps.
Doesn't record audio.
Misses events that happen within short periods of eachother to conserve space.
Very limited online only storage means a very small incomplete archive.
DIY system with wireless sensors you place with no installation service available.
Sensors can be easily misplaced or knocked out of position because they are not attached to anything securely.

Compared to software (e.g. Geovision)?

Geovision, Avermedia and others make excellent survaillance software packages with very advanced features. They should be considered but have some disadvantages:

Requires Windows license on the DVR which pushes price up.
Very limited web interface and finding events over Internet is very time consuming.
Users we spoke to say for day to day, use over Internet is not practical (and many said unusable).
You have to rely on VNC (remote desktop) to access many system features which can be very slow over Internet.
No Mac or Linux support for recording or playback.
Configuration is complex and easy to misconfigure. This can cause loss of critical events or even unauthorised user access (e.g. if certain services aren't disabled in Windows and network security not configured correctly).

Compared to cheap Maplin/Argos DVR?

All budget DVRs we tested suffered from many major flaws that made them inpractical in a very wide range of applications:

No access or practically unusable access over Internet.
Multiplexing all channels into one generally means very poor recording quality.
You have to stop recording to watch recoded video.
Difficult to find events in a list of thousands of timestamps.
Unintuitive slow menus controlled with a remote control or buttons on the DVR make navigation difficult.
Low framerate and recording capacity (generally a week vs many months on a Xanview solution).
Fast write speed can wear hard drive quickly and cause DVR to stop recording.

Compared to Network Video Recorders?

More expensive Network Video Recorders generally offer many of the CCTV features Xanview offers, some differences however would be:

Normally not event driven so harder to find relevant videos.
Most have no audio recording.
Most are significantly more expensive.
Can be a fair learning curve.
Designed for CCTV operators, not end users.
Have no support for analog cameras.
No comprehensive web interface.