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 multi-site retail, restaurant and banking teams who want the same cameras to answer safety and operations questions too.
The cameras do not move, so switching changes what sits behind them and what the footage is asked to answer. Both rows describe what each vendor publishes.
Four moments when multi-site teams running March Networks start this conversation. If none of them are true, staying put is a reasonable answer.
March Networks announced in March 2026 that VIVOTEK's branded business merges into it, with closing expected mid-April, and shipped its first post-merger release in August 2026 adding a VORTEX integration and C-CURE access control support. A portfolio change is a normal moment to ask which recorder families and which analytics carry the roadmap for the next three years, and to ask it of both vendors.
March Networks publishes this plainly: end users including banks, retailers and transit agencies should contact their certified solution provider for technical support. That is genuine accountability when a recorder fails at a store on a Saturday. It is a real cost when the person with the problem is a district manager who wants an answer this afternoon.
The 8000 Series is published as hybrid, supporting analog and IP together with built-in PoE across 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 channel models. In plenty of estates it is those analog channels, not the software, keeping the recorder in the cabinet. Those same channels reach an Intelligent Video Recorder without new cabling, which usually removes the reason the decision was deferred.
The published analytics are transaction shaped: Searchlight AI, license plate recognition, Smart Rules and fraud detection for unauthorized discounts, sweethearting, voids and underringing. That is exactly right for a loss prevention director. If the list now includes PPE on the night shift, a forklift near-miss or a dock trailer sitting for forty minutes, ask which of those arrive pre-trained.
The structural differences that decide whether a switch is worth starting.
Swipe the table sideways to see every column.
March Networks data comes from March Networks' own product, compliance and support pages as of August 2026. Where March Networks 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: manufacturer, model, resolution, codec and network path, and mark which channels are analog on a hybrid recorder. Then list what the video is wired into, because in these estates it is rarely only cameras: point-of-sale, ATM and access control integrations all have to land somewhere after the move. That integration list, not the camera count, is what decides the order sites go in.
Run one site live on both platforms at once. The March Networks recorder keeps recording while the same cameras stream to an Intelligent Video Recorder, so search, detection quality and what happens after a detection are compared on identical footage. Pick a store or branch where somebody can name last month's three worst incidents, because the honest test is whether the new system would have caught them.
Move site by site rather than estate-wide, keeping the existing recorder live 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 a transaction or access integration stays in place, wire it before the video moves and confirm the exception reports still reconcile.
Once coverage is stable, the work moves from parity to what a transaction-shaped analytics set was never asked for: safety and operations 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 pays for the project twice.
The six that come up in every one of these conversations.
Then say so early, because it is a legitimate reason to stay. Transaction-linked exception reporting is the published heart of Searchlight and it should not be replaced casually. Spot AI connects outward to point-of-sale, access control and other systems, so the honest test is a pilot on one site where both run against the same week of transactions and somebody compares the exception lists side by side.
Most switches start before a term ends, because assess and pilot cost little and the comparison is more honest with both systems live. The tiers are published as Essential and Premium, so read your own end dates, run the pilot on one site during the overlap, and time each site's cutover to its own renewal rather than paying twice across the estate.
No, and the plan is built to make that structural rather than a promise. The existing recorder 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.
Footage stays on the recorders under the retention you configured. March Networks publishes the detail that matters here: media clips carry a secure hash so tampering can be detected, third-party players do not provide that authentication, and editing a clip invalidates it. So export anything under a legal or insurance hold in the authenticated format, using their player, before a recorder is retired.
Six things, and they are the same six whichever way you go. When each subscription ends and what notice it needs. Which tier each site is on and what it includes. The export format, the player it needs and any time limit on historical footage. Which recorders and cameras are still under warranty or carry a change notice. Who owns the camera VLAN at each site. And your own retention and data-residency policy in writing.
It depends on your site count, your retention and how much of the recorder fleet is due for replacement anyway, and anyone answering without those numbers is guessing. What changes is the shape: recorders and tiered software per site against a per-camera subscription covering the software and the IVR. Quote both against the identical site list and the identical retention obligation over three years.
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. March Networks publishes a third-party camera list naming Axis, Bosch, Hanwha, Panasonic, Pelco, Sony and others, so most estates are already mixed, and Spot AI reads any IP camera that speaks ONVIF or RTSP. Analog channels on a hybrid recorder connect through the Intelligent Video Recorder instead. Nothing on the wall moves.
They keep working. The 8000 Series is published as hybrid across 4, 8, 16, 24 and 32 channel models, and those analog channels come into the Intelligent Video Recorder rather than being replaced. No coax is pulled and no field of view changes, which is usually the part people assume will be expensive.
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 stores or branches you have rather than how many cameras.
Yes, and the plan depends on it. A camera can feed the existing recorder and an Intelligent Video Recorder at the same time, so the pilot compares search, detection and response on identical footage. The old system keeps recording at every site until that site has passed a full week of sign-off.
March Networks pairs its own recorders with Command Enterprise, on premises or hosted, and its published intelligence is transaction shaped for loss, fraud and business intelligence. Spot AI keeps the on-site recording model, with full-resolution video on the Intelligent Video Recorder and only metadata leaving the building, and runs 15+ pre-trained agents across security, safety and operations on the same cameras.