subject: Tips For Finding Obsolete Surveillance Equipment [print this page] Tips For Finding Obsolete Surveillance Equipment
Have a piece of surveillance equipment that you absolutely love and would never want to change out for another? Well unless you plan on having that piece of tech last a lifetime this may prove to be problematic. Lets face it as time goes on technology in most all fields like the surveillance industry becomes obsolete and outdated. This actually proves to be quite a problem for a large population of people who find it quite the nuisance to have to upgrade their equipment and replace it with some new camera, DVR, quad, etc... when their old equipment breaks down. For a lot of people they rather just replace the part with the exact same model and not have to screw around with any upgrades or new surveillance system tech. In a lot of cases this isn't the easiest thing to do; however we will address a few tips, tricks, and ideas to help alleviate this problem.
First of all before we look into the ways in which you can locate obsolete parts or at least help in preventing the need; make sure you understand one thing. Unless you are a multi-millionaire who can purchase large quantities of the same products for future replacement, you will most likely fall into the majority of cctv product users that eventually have to replace their equipment with newer upgrades.
1. STOCK UP ON YOUR PART
If you know a certain piece of your surveillance tech is becoming obsolete and you still love it; then you need to start looking for replacement parts immediately; even if you don't quite need them yet. The reason for this is because the further down the obsolete road you go with your piece of equipment the harder it is going to be to find, and the more likely the price is going to go up.
At Industrial Covert Unlimited we see this happen all the time where a camera or monitor or some other piece of surveillance tech will go obsolete and all of a sudden we will have 30 people looking for that particular piece. Now all of a sudden a piece of equipment that wasn't sold all that often beforehand is in high demand, and as the market dictates the price rises quickly as it becomes more and more scarce. So simply put have replacement parts on hand if your tech is becoming obsolete and you don't want to face higher prices, competition for parts, or having to upgrade to something else that might not fit your needs.
2. KEEP YOUR SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM FLEXIBLE SO YOU CAN UPGRADE
The best thing you can do to make sure your not faced with a conundrum when a piece of your surveillance equipment goes bad is to put some thought into your surveillance system design before implementing it. By keeping your system as flexible as possible and not relying too much on one feature or piece of equipment; you make upgrading that much easier down the road, and stop the headache of having to even try to find an obsolete product. So by planning ahead and building your system to accept future upgrades and be ready for more surveillance scenarios you make your life easier and more stress free when a piece of equipment goes bad.
3. WHEN YOU HAVE TO FIND AN OBSOLETE PRODUCT
Now even with the best planning and having a few backup replacement parts on hand their are times where some people will be faced with the problem of having to find a certain obsolete product, and there are a few options. First of all the most obvious thing to do is get a feel of how obsolete and scarce the product is by just taking the time to do a couple of quick internet searches, and see if you can find someone still selling it. This is the best case scenario and a lot of people won't always get this lucky in finding their part. Now when a quick search doesn't prevail in finding a purchasable product you should still use the search to your advantage. A lot of the time even when a cctv product becomes obsolete E-commerce stores and companies will keep it listed in their product inventory even if it is not order-able; the reason for this is two fold. By keeping the product listed; a company has the obvious benefits of search traffic and using it as a reference to help with sales; however this also can prove to be beneficial to you. By keeping the product listed the company is showing that they at least at one time sold that product and will have some knowledge as to what it is. This provides you with a potential source for finding out if its possible to locate a used part, a new part, or a replacement part. By simply calling the company that once sold this now obsolete cctv product you can potentially locate new leads or information as to finding your desired piece of surveillance equipment.
In the end by following these few tips you may be able to help avoid this situation or at least ease the confusion and annoyance it can bring. Ultimately however sometimes it may still take a lot of searching, calling, and tracking down information to find an obsolete product in general, but hopefully these tips can help lessen that burden.
