Ikena in the real world

Back in July, I promised a review of Ikena from MotionDSP. Getting the software, dongle, updates, and support staff coordinated for a proper review has proven difficult - though it's been no one's fault in particular, just a confluence of events conspiring against proper progress.

Nevertheless, the gear is in and the report is forthcoming.

One little bit of commentary about my reviews vs. the canned footage that companies tend to put up in marketing pieces. When I review products, I use real-world footage. The stuff that you and I see every day: hand-held surveillance camera footage, vehicle mounted surveillance footage, CCTV footage, and still images. The footage comes from a variety of sources, utilising a variety of codecs.

Considering that MotionDSP has already walked into the room and smacked the industry leader in the face, it's important to make sure that not only what I do is fair to them, but also that I look at what they've done in their marketing to make sure that it's fair to their customer base. After all, you do have the right to know if they are telling you the truth about their products. Trust, but verify. If you can't trust a company's marketing, can you trust them with your hard earned money?

So ... some first impression food for thought while you wait ... Ikena doesn't compare at all to the Avid plug-in dTective from Ocean Systems. It's an apples and oranges comparison. Strike one. It's better compared to ClearID from Ocean Systems (see my ClearID review in Evidence Magazine). ClearID is 8 times cheaper than Ikena. In today's economy, stike two. Ocean Systems has published a suggested workflow for their products - a reliable and repeatable pattern of activity that can be documented / learned. I think that you can see where this is going.

Ikena's down in the count, but anything can happen. So stay tuned for the results in a future post.

Enjoy.