Cameras 1
Do you integrate with my other products from other vendors/manufacturers?
Verkada is committed to the security, quality, and ease of use of our products. For that reason, we wouldn't recommend integrating with other vendors, which may affect one of these commitments. If an integration with cameras is necessary as a bridge to a cloud migration of your physical security devices, we do offer the Command Connector for visibility of your third party devices in Verkada Command (with limited analytical capabilities in comparison to Verkada manufactured devices).
Do I have to reconfigure my firewall?
Our firewall requirements are very light weight and you usually don’t have to. You’ll only need to open two ports in your firewall: TCP 443 and UDP 123. This allows our system to transmit data and synchronize time between cameras. This does not pose a significant danger to your security and is industry standard.
What are the data plan options for the Cellular Gateway?
Purchase the Verkada Data Plan which offers unlimited data and redundancy across multiple carriers.
Can opt out of purchasing the Verkada data plan and bring in their own SIM. The Verkada SIM will act as a backup to ensure the gateway is always reachable. They will still need to purchase the SW license for the GC31.
What is the experience for a customer who brings their own SIM card?
The only difference will be that the customer can enable cloud backup on their cameras, and they can use the gateway with 3P devices. And they have the peace of mind knowing if their SIM’s network provider fails, the Verkada SIM will act as backup to make sure their gateway is still reachable.
I need different alarm settings in 4 different zones of my building. Is that possible? Would I need to buy 4 alarm licenses?
It is possible and you would only need one alarm license. A license is valid for an entire physical address, but you can split that address into as many sites or subsites as you would like, and each can have different settings, schedules, etc.
Can I buy other products later?
Absolutely, 80% of our customers deploy cameras over time starting with anywhere around 10-20 cameras. As their cameras reach the end of life, we then replace them with our cameras. We are happy to operate at your speed.
How much will it cost? I’ve heard it’s expensive.
The upfront cost is higher but the total cost of ownership over the lifetime of the cameras is comparable if not lower than competitors. We typically see 20-30% savings over a 5-10 year period.
How does the Cellular Gateway get power?
The outdoor gateway has Barrel Jack, Terminal Block. and PoE inputs which can be used to get power from AC outlets, solar/batteries, light poles, PoE injector (with only power out), etc.
The indoor gateway has a barrel jack power input which gets power from an AC outlet using the included AC/DC power adapter.
What sets us apart from the competition?
Ease of use: intuitive UI, integrated into Command, ability for remote troubleshooting, optimized data usage, 24/7 customer support
Ease of set up: Outdoor unit can take any power input, Verkada data plan available with multi-carrier redundancy, we provide POE++ power output, weatherized so no need for a NEMA enclosure.
I have about 30 wired intrusion sensors and 10 wireless sensors I’d like to continue using… is that possible?
You can continue using your wired sensors by purchasing the Verkada Alarm Panel. One panel has 32 inputs, so you’d only need one of those. Unfortunately we’re not able to support 3rd party wireless sensors but we have a full portfolio of our own sensors that are easy to install.
What happens if we lose internet connection?
Our cameras are recording 24/7 via our onboard storage. When connection is reestablished, it will upload all footage recorded during the outage.
This seems like an invasion of privacy with the degree of your analytics. I don’t feel comfortable with it.
You can toggle specific analytics on or off for each device in Command. Additionally, this is not tied to any backend database and we do not reference any outside material.
What is the power output of the GC31 and what is the max number of devices it operates?
The Cellular gateway provides a max of 60W power output. It has two PoE outputs powering 2 devices at 30W each or 1 device (like Multi-sensor or PTZ) at 60W. You do have the option to use a switch to branch the PoE outputs but we do not recommend more than 5 devices per GC unless you have very strong cell signal.
How does Verkada shorten my incident response time?
With our video monitoring option, you can have trained monitoring agents on standby to immediately review, verify, and respond to threats, including calling police. They also screen out false alarms.
Can you explain how Verkada helps eliminate false alarms?
24/7 professional monitoring with video verification comes bundled into our several of our Alarms licenses. When an alarm event occurs - which could be a person detected on camera after hours or an intrusion sensor going off - a video clip from the associated camera will automatically be sent to one of our live professional monitoring agents who will review it. If they detect a visible threat to people or property, they will raise an alarm. If they don’t detect a threat - for example, if it was an animal that set off your motion sensor - they will dismiss the event. You can review each of these dismissed events in Command.
What happens if we lose power?
Nothing will be recorded until power is restored. If it’s a common occurrence, we will work with our partner to create fail safes in the event of an emergency.
I don’t trust the cloud.
One of the beauties of Verkada, is that we are a hybrid cloud solution so your footage is stored on the camera itself and your data is encrypted at rest with AES 128 on the camera and in transit and in the cloud with AES 256. The cloud is the most secure IoT environment in the world. AWS servers, where we house your data, are equipped with armed guards. It would take a natural catastrophe to take every server out.
Should we push customers to opt into the data plan?
No. Our margin is low on the data license. It’s only there for customers who need it to choose Verkada.
We’re having security issues but it doesn’t justify installing a whole alarm system.
Verkada cameras paired with 24/7 professional monitoring are a great solution. You can choose which cameras to have monitored (i.e. external facing cameras), and set a schedule for them to be monitored. If anyone appears on cameras after hours, that video clip will go to a monitoring agent for review, and they’ll only raise an alarm if they see a visible threat to a person or the property.
We’re a 24/7 building and people are always coming and going, I don’t think Alarms make much sense for us…
I agree, video monitoring or intrusion sensors probably wouldn’t be a good fit. But do you have a solution in place around employee safety, such as for front desk staff at night or housekeeping staff who are entering guest rooms alone? Our panic buttons could be a great option because they integrate with cameras and have customizable responses, including notifying on-site security or calling police.
Is it easy to add users and limit access?
We can configure permissions as granularly as the customer desires. We offer unlimited users that you can give varying levels of access to. It’s as easy as typing in your name and email. We also offer SSO integrations.
I don’t want a subscription or pay license fees.
We’re the only manufacturer in the world who can offer a truly predictable total cost of ownership. With older, on-prem systems, the majority of the cost occurs after the system is bought. Additionally, there are many variables that could fail which can be difficult to predict the total cost of ownership. With our solution, hardware failures that occur in the first 10 years are replaced at no additional cost.
How and when should I add the gateway to a customer trial?
If they want to trial the gateway with another product.
Or when the customer has logistical complications or does not want to engage their IT team to unblock the required endpoints to connect trial devices to their network.
Why are your panic buttons better than other options out there? They’re more expensive than most…
Our panic buttons are different in two main ways:
Natively integrated with video surveillance: If an alarm is raised by a panic button, you can immediately pull live video footage from the cameras associated with that specific button and share with the police or your internal team.
Customizable responses: Like other buttons, you can choose to have ours directly contact the police if pressed, but you could also notify internal security, turn on a siren or alarm, or trigger a door lockdown.