Thoughts on exacqVision

I went to a place and they have this old “server” (absolutely no branding on the box), with a monitor sitting on top of it, the cd zip tied to the server says Version 5.6.5 July 10, 2013 exacqVision. After doing some research this seems to be enterprise level camera software. This is a small business they have about 16 cameras (3 not working right now) just feels like overkill. I am assuming this thing has not been updated for A LOT of years.

They want to add some new cameras because the old ones are just horrible, especially at night. I posted about some decent night vision cameras here the other day. I guess the question is something this old, most likely not been updated in over half a decade, am I even going to be able to add the cameras to the system?

I would love to try to move them to synology but I am not sure they would want to go for that right now. But on the other hand, I don’t see a system this old doing what they want it to do. I guess I should also add, they also want the system to push notification if there is movement on some of the cameras at night. There again going back to the question “I guess the question is something this old, most likely not been updated in over half a decade, am I even going to be able to add the cameras to the system?”

Anyways anyone have any suggestions?

For a business situation I would always recommend recommending supported equipment. However, it’s usually unknown how long anything will be supported for these days. Though in the situation you are describing I think it can easily be solved, if you set up a vlan for the cameras then prevent any traffic leaving that will give you a degree of security.

To actually view those cameras, you’ll most likely need some third party software, Blue Iris on Windows seems to be the best (I don’t use it), Linux versions I have tried seem to be hit or miss for me.

I’d say a QNAP (which I have for my cams) or synology will do the job for alerts / motion detection etc. Though keep in mind depending on the model a certain number of “free” Ip cam licenses are included above that you’ll need to pay. Costs can soon add up. Will say QNAP has good options for viewing the cam footage (windows/linux/mac/ipad/android) but I am wary for the future as I see them deprecating these features then charging for them.

Would also add my cams are unsupported, so I have isolated them on a vlan and access my network over openVPN, the cams are still useful for the job they need to do, had them nearly 10 years !

We have some bigger companies using ExacVision, nice system but a bit pricey. Since that system is so old I would push the client to replace it. If they don’t want to spend the money on ExacVision, the Synology Surveillance station system is nice.

Thank you guys, for the response. With ExacVision what little research I did, I just don’t see any advantage in this small situation. I defiantly would push for Synology and not even give them the choice of ExacVision. The thing that really sucks is the ExacVision box has the peo switch built in so rolling out Synology adds more to the upfront cost.

I guess the stupid question is, if I needed to play along and do what they client wants and just put a new camera on the gate. From your experience with ExacVison what are the chances of putting a modern camera on such an old system that hasn’t been updated?

as long as whatever camera you use is onvif compliant it shouldnt be an issue worst case is you just use the direct rtsp feed from the camera.

Thank you, I hope I can get at least one installed without looking like a monkey f-ing a football!

I have lots of experience with exacq. Are you replacing failed cameras or adding additional? If you are adding cams it probably wont make sense cost wise.

From a licensing perspective
They have different license tiers if it has the start license than you cannot go over 16 cams on one system. So if you wanted to add one camera license you would have to pay the upgrade fee for all 16 cams in addition to the cams you are adding. Even if that is not the case the license is most likely expired which is fine you can continue to use it they just wont let you go past the latest version released before the expiration date. But in order to add one they will make you upgrade all of the existing

Some other potential pitfalls
If you are installing a new camera from circa 2020 there is a good chance that the 2013 software will not connect.

They run both linux and windows, if its linux than its probably running ubuntu 10.04 and you will encounter lots of issues if you want to install a newer version

Thank you so much @Joey! Exactly what I was looking for, scared of, and expecting. I do plan on putting a Hikvision ColorVu in for a failing camera.

I ended up going the route of just replacing 1 camera. But if it is not going to connect that is not going to be good. LOL

Anyway, thank you I was having a very hard time finding any facts on their licensing and upgrading policies. At least now I have more facts to bring to the client.