[Editor's Note: SecurityInfoWatch.com asked four industry notables to blow away the hype, roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty and not pull any punches when it comes to where they see the video surveillance industry today. The result was honest, open takes on our business. Their columns will be appearing consecutively on SecurityInfoWatch.com. Part 1, our first guest column, appears from Dr. Bob Banerjee, who is the IP video product marketing manager for Bosch Security Systems. In subsequent parts, each written by a different guest columnist, we'll link all these stories together and promote the heck out of them on the site (all will appear on the "columns and features" segment of our Video Surveillance section; click the "products" navigation drop down and choose "video surveillance"). We hope we stir up some feelings. The comments area is open, so share your perspectives, too!]

Can you trust anyone for good advice?

In the stable, well-understood and mature world of non IP-video (analog cameras and DVRs), there's no shortage of high-quality advice, from the manufacturer to the specifier/integrator and everyone in-between. In the chaotic world of IP video, up-to-date knowledge of one product set is a luxury few can declare. And up-to-date knowledge of multiple IP video product sets from multiple manufacturers is bordering on pure fantasy.

This puts everyone in the value chain in an awkward position. They depend on a very small number of true experts, or worse, they rely on a non-expert and deploy a solution that won't work. So end users educate themselves and design the solution, often directly engaging the manufacturer. This is a risky distraction for end users whose primary business is not security, and a challenge for manufacturers who scramble to act like an integrator in order to present a viable end-to-end solution. It is clearly also a problem for everyone else in between.

The latest and greatest

We're in love with whatever's new; that's human instinct. Magazines, tradeshows, webinars and roadshows satisfy this desire. But it's not always in the interest of the end user who has a problem to solve and doesn't want to have months of flaming emails with the installer or the manufacturer who sold them something bleeding edge, which was positioned as "Oh sure, we've deployed this in many places but if I tell you where I'll have to kill you". In fact it's so bleeding edge that it's actually not touching the blade at all. Think hard not about what you want but what you're trying to do, and then ask for multiple solutions before specifying what the solution should be.