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A screen capture of the AutoIP video surveillance management software system

Image from PacketNVR

Company executives says that GVI's acquisition of the "AutoIP" IP video management software from PacketNVR last month puts GVI Security Solutions in a different role than it had been before. The company previously was known for selling video surveillance products from Samsung Electronics, although it also had products it was selling under its own brand as well.

Steve Walin, GVI's chairman, said the acquisition gives an alternate business model because the company actually owns the intellectual property for a product -- something which had not been normal for GVI in the past.

"This acquisition is very important for GVI," stressed Walin during a Monday afternoon call with investors and the media. "We acquired AutoIP and the intellectual property. This represents a major strategic change for us; Owning the intellectual property gives us new revenue models, allowing options like licensing sales."

At its core, AutoIP is a mid-market IP video management software (VMS). Such systems typically take advantage of network/IP technology for managing how video surveillance data streams are distributed, stored and viewed.

AutoIP, said Walin, is uniquely positioned. While there are certainly many software systems that can manage IP video -- from companies like Honeywell, Milestone Systems, Genetec, OnSSI, Verint, March Networks, EVT, VideoInsight, IndigoVision, JDS and so many others -- GVI feels that the AutoIP solution hits the forgotten mid-market.

According to Tom Galvin, the developer of AutoIP who was recently hired as GVI's new vice president of product management, the market has tended to leave a major gap in the mid-market in terms of VMS. At the lowest level, Galvin said it is common to find freeware offerings from IP camera vendors. Such freeware systems, he said, usually require you to only use that one vendor's cameras, and they also are often limited to a small number of cameras.

The other option that has typically been available on the market has been software designed to handle systems with hundreds and even thousands of cameras. Galvin, who has a product development background from both General Electric and Verint, said that a VMS designed for enterprise level camera systems adds complexity that the mid-market security and CCTV dealer doesn't need.