Almost one month ago, on Dec. 12, 2008, I wrote an article about Pelco and Cisco entering into a technology partnership. Today, I had the chance to sit in on a webcast with Rob Morello of Pelco where he openly discussed and presented on the topic of this partnership.
I was able to gather a couple more details regarding this partnership:
-  The partnership is a relationship between Pelco and Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit (the "WNBU", one of the larger units inside Cisco).
- The partnership is independent of the Cisco physical security unit, which is part of Cisco's emerging businesses unit.
- Pelco will be showcasing H.264 technologies at ISC West 2009. Early indications would be for a number of new products launched here by Pelco -- probably most would be new devices and cameras that support H.264, but I'd probably also expect some high resolution/megapixel offerings as well, since that seems a general trend among all of the leading video security camera players in our industry.
- There is a general info share going on between Cisco WNBU and Pelco, with Pelco bringing more products up to the Cisco campus for testing this week, and both companies playing with each others' technology on their corporate campuses.
Some have written to me following that December article that this is just a marketing move, and indeed it is certainly marketing-driven, but there's more than that according to Morello. He notes that while IT directors (the ones inside companies that are looking at video surveillance) wouldn't generally be the ones to pick a solution provider (like a DVTel, a Genetec or a Pelco), they do hold veto power and can nix edge technology that would eat up too much bandwidth or generally "not play nice" on the corporate network. According to Rob, what Pelco is doing is going out and making sure their camera technology is compatible with common IT infrastructure so that there would be no worry about the products getting on a "veto" list. Smart move.
[As always, you can send comments to me via the comments area of the blog, but you can also reach me via email at [email protected].]Â
-Geoff
