The trigger moments that start this conversation, what actually changes on day one, and a four-phase plan that keeps every site recording throughout. Written for teams running a unified security platform who want more from the cameras already on the wall, and who may only be moving the video layer.
The cameras do not move, so switching changes what sits behind them and what the video is asked to do. Both rows describe what each vendor publishes.
Four moments when teams running a unified security platform start this conversation. If none of them are true, staying put is a reasonable answer.
Security Center earns its keep when video, access control, license plate recognition, communications and intrusion should be one system instead of five. Once that consolidation is done and the daily use is video, the depth that made it the right buy is depth nobody is spending any more. That is not a fault, it is a signal that the next problem is a different one.
Genetec publishes KiwiVision as its analytics brand, with a Security video analytics module and Privacy Protector, and does not publish which modules are separate SKUs or where they run. When the new asks are dock dwell, PPE on the night shift or a fire door propped at 02:00, write the list down and ask both vendors which of those arrive pre-trained and what each one costs to add.
An upgrade window is the cheapest moment to compare, because the platform decision is already open and the disruption is already scheduled. Ask for both quotes against the identical site list, broken out into software, recording hardware, storage, installation and support, over three years rather than one.
Genetec documents its buying path plainly: Security Center is sold exclusively through certified channel partners and the route to a demo is your partner. That is real accountability when something breaks at 03:00, and it is a real cost when you wanted to point twenty of your own cameras at something this month and see what it finds.
The structural differences that decide whether a switch is worth starting.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
Genetec data comes from Genetec's own public product pages and FAQ as of August 2026. Where Genetec publishes nothing, this table says so rather than guessing.
A rollout that keeps coverage live throughout. Most sites go live inside six weeks.
Inventory the fleet per site, then inventory the platform: which Security Center modules are actually in daily use. A site running Omnicast for video and Synergis for doors is a different migration from one running video alone, because access control stays and only the video layer moves. Because Genetec is open architecture and Spot AI reads ONVIF and RTSP, the camera list is a coverage map rather than a replacement list.
Run one site live on both platforms at once. Security Center keeps recording while the same cameras stream to an Intelligent Video Recorder, which is the only honest way to compare search, detection quality and what happens after a detection on identical footage. Pick a site where somebody can name the last three investigations, because the comparison you want is against real work rather than a demo reel.
Move site by site rather than estate-wide, keeping Security Center recording at each site until its replacement has run a full week. Cameras do not move and cabling does not change, so a cutover is a configuration change plus an IVR. Where access control, license plate recognition or intercoms stay on Genetec, wire the integration first and confirm the door and gate actions behave before the video layer moves.
Once coverage is stable, the work moves from parity to what the unified platform was never asked for: operations and safety agents on the same cameras, an Iris detection built in natural conversation for something specific to your process, and a decision about what fires at 03:00 with nobody watching. This is the phase that answers whether the switch was worth starting.
The six that come up in every one of these conversations.
Then keep it. Synergis stays on the doors and this becomes a video-layer migration rather than a platform replacement, which is a smaller project with a smaller blast radius. Spot AI's action layer connects outward to access control and other systems, so a detection can still lock a door. Confirm the integration during assess rather than discovering the gap in week five.
Most switches start before an agreement ends, because assess and pilot cost little and the comparison is more honest with both systems live. Genetec publishes what Advantage covers, from software releases to support response times, so read your own dates and run the pilot on one site during the overlap. Time the cutover to the renewal rather than paying twice across the estate, and have your partner in the assess conversation rather than surprised by it.
No, and the plan is built to make that structural rather than a promise. Security Center keeps recording at each site until its replacement has run a full week, the cameras never move, and cutover happens site by site. If a site fails its sign-off test, that site stays where it is while the others proceed.
It stays under the retention each Archiver is configured for and it does not migrate. Genetec documents its export formats: G64x and G64 need Security Desk or the Genetec Video Player to open, G64 is deprecated in favour of G64x, and G64x is the only format that can be re-exported. ASF and MP4 are the portable options. Decide which format your evidence process needs before anything is decommissioned.
Camera reuse is common ground, and anybody selling against Genetec on hardware lock-in is arguing with a page Genetec publishes. What changes is what the video is asked to do: whether detections arrive named and pre-trained, whether the same cameras answer safety and operations questions, and whether anything happens at the moment of a detection without a person reading an alert.
Six things, and they are the same six whichever way you go. When each agreement ends and what notice it needs. Whether licenses are per device, co-terminated or tied to a support agreement. The export format and any time limit on historical footage. Which cameras are still under warranty. Who owns the camera VLAN at each site. And your own retention and data-residency policy in writing, not from memory.
Bring a camera list and we will tell you what works as it is.
Customer-reported outcomes from named Spot AI customers.
Staccato went from first conversation to full deployment across an 800-acre campus in seven weeks, on the camera infrastructure it already had.
Bridge33 Capital standardized video across 25 plus properties, each acquisition arriving with a different camera system, and cut footage search from hours to minutes.
The YMCA of Greater Richmond deployed 17 locations in two weeks and standardized retention across the estate.
"Within four minutes of the alarm going off, Spot AI gave us video footage of the incident on the responding officers' phones. We had five recoveries within the hour."
No. Genetec states its solutions are non-proprietary and built on open architecture, so the fleet is already mixed, and Spot AI reads any IP camera that speaks ONVIF or RTSP. Analog cameras reachable through encoders today connect through the Intelligent Video Recorder instead. Nothing on the wall moves.
Yes, and for many estates that is the right shape. Synergis keeps running the doors, AutoVu keeps reading plates, and the video layer moves to Spot AI with an integration between them. Confirm which actions have to cross that boundary during the assess phase, because it decides the cutover order.
Most estates are live inside six weeks: a week to assess, a fortnight of pilot on one site, then site-by-site cutover. Sites go live individually rather than in a big-bang switch, so the timeline scales with how many sites you have rather than how many cameras.
Yes, and the plan depends on it. A camera can stream to the Security Center archive and to an Intelligent Video Recorder at the same time, so the pilot compares search, detection and response on identical footage. Security Center keeps recording at every site until that site has passed a full week of sign-off.
Security Center is a unification platform: its published strength is bringing video, access control, license plate recognition, communications and intrusion into one system, deployed on premises, in the cloud or hybrid. Spot AI is a video AI layer on the same cameras, with full-resolution video kept on the Intelligent Video Recorder in the building and only metadata leaving it.