★Carried & Installed

Avigilon video & access control · Kansas City.

IntegrateIT carries and installs Avigilon across the Kansas City metro — cloud video and badge access for an operator adding sites, or an on-premise system for a campus that keeps its own recordings. One precision first, because the trade is sloppy about this word: Avigilon is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized Avigilon dealer. What we are is the people who ask about your retention policy and your IT staffing before we recommend a platform, then install and commission what we specified. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.

What we carry and install from Avigilon

Avigilon — Motorola Solutions’ security brand — splits its own range in two before it splits it by product, and that split is the decision that shapes the whole project: Alta is cloud-native, Unity is on-premise. Everything below sits under one or the other, in Avigilon’s own naming. We specify, install and commission to order.

Avigilon Alta — the cloud platform. Five systems that Avigilon sells as one: Alta Video for cloud video, Alta Access for access-control management with mobile credentials and remote administration, Alta Protect for site monitoring built on your own Alta cameras, Alta Mailroom for package logging, and Alta Visitor for visitor access across sites. No servers on site is the point of it — which is what makes it the usual answer for a multi-site operator with a small IT team.
Alta hardware. Avigilon Alta security cameras, multi-technology access control readers, and the access control panels, boards and hubs behind the doors. Plus the Alta Cloud Connectors, which are the piece worth knowing about on a retrofit: they bring existing cameras onto the cloud platform instead of forcing a rip-and-replace of hardware that still works.
Avigilon Unity — the on-premise platform. Unity Video is the video management software, in Core, Standard and Enterprise editions so a small building is not paying for an enterprise feature set. Unity Access is the on-premise access control, and Avigilon unifies the two so an access event and the video of it are one record rather than two systems you correlate by timestamp. Unity Cloud Services adds remote access, system-health visibility and simpler upgrades without moving recordings off site.
Unity analytics and workflow. AdaptAI is Avigilon’s edge-based video analytics for the on-premise side, and the Decision Management System module brings video, access control and intrusion into a single-screen workflow so a response is consistent across whoever happens to be on shift. A Smart Assurance Plan covers software and firmware upgrades over one, three or five years — which is the line item most buildings forget until the version they are on stops being supported.
Cameras, in the usual form factors. Dome, bullet and box, pan-tilt-zoom, 360-degree and panoramic, and a specialty range, plus the video infrastructure behind them. Form factor is a job decision, same as on any site: overview and identification are two different cameras in two different places. This is the hardware behind our commercial surveillance scope.
Doors — readers, intercoms, controllers, credentials and wireless locks. Door readers and intercoms at the opening; boards, controllers and hubs in the closet; access credentials including mobile; and wireless locks for the interior doors that were never going to get conduit. That is the range behind our access control work, alongside the other platforms that page names.
Smart sensors and alarms. The HALO 3C and Halo 4 smart sensors monitor air quality and detect smoke, vape and other events — in the places where a camera is neither legal nor decent. Restrooms, locker rooms and student housing are exactly why they exist, and why they turn up in schools and multi-family buildings. Panic buttons and intelligent site protection sit beside them.
Operations and intelligence. Security AI analytics, a license plate reader, occupancy management, mailroom and visitor management, and remote video monitoring — the software layer that turns a camera estate into something an operations team uses daily rather than something security looks at after an incident. Avigilon also publishes an integration ecosystem across the rest of the Motorola Solutions estate.

How we choose between Alta and Unity

This is the conversation most integrators skip, and it is the one that decides whether you are happy in year three. Neither platform is the upgrade of the other.

Retention policy first. How long recordings must be kept, and whether anyone has a position on where they live, settles more of this than any feature comparison. Ask your insurer and your counsel before you ask an integrator.
How many sites, in three years. One building behaves like one building. Four buildings with one administrator behave like a cloud problem, and Alta is built for it.
Who administers it on a Tuesday. If the answer is an office manager rather than an IT department, that is an argument for the platform with no server to patch. If you have a server room and staff already in it, that argument disappears.
What is already on the wall. Serviceable cameras with a dead recorder are a connector problem, not a replacement project. We document what exists before we price anything.
The network is part of the system. Either platform lives on the LAN, with its own lane, its own switch capacity and its own power budget — which is why our commercial network scope gets designed alongside it rather than inherited.

Where Avigilon sits beside the other lines we carry

We carry more than one answer on purpose, and none of them pays us to be recommended. The real comparison on a commercial site is Avigilon against Axis, and it is a difference in shape rather than in quality: Axis is an open device catalogue you assemble deliberately, Avigilon is a suite decision you make once. On a house or a small business, Ubiquiti UniFi is usually the proportionate answer, and our residential surveillance page says so. Intrusion is a separate system from any of them — Paradox does that work, and the video and the alarm state still land on the same panel.

Common questions

Who installs Avigilon video and access control in Kansas City?

IntegrateIT (Overland Park, KS) carries and installs Avigilon across the Kansas City metro — commercial buildings and multi-site operators on both sides of the state line, from Overland Park and Leawood out to Lee’s Summit. To be precise about the relationship, because the trade is sloppy about this word: Avigilon is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized Avigilon dealer. What we hold is a Control4 Platinum Dealer with a Control4 Certified Showroom, a Crestron Elite Partner, a Lutron Certified Installer and a CEDIA member, with hundreds of projects delivered since 2021. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.

What is the difference between Avigilon Alta and Avigilon Unity?

It is the single decision that shapes everything else, and Avigilon states it plainly itself: Alta is the cloud-native platform, built for remote management and flexibility with no servers on site; Unity is the on-premise platform, which keeps the video and the infrastructure under your own roof and your own control. Neither is the upgrade of the other. A multi-site operator with a small IT team and a need to add locations usually wants Alta. A single campus with a data-retention position, an existing server room and an objection to a subscription usually wants Unity — and Unity has cloud services of its own for remote access without moving the recordings. We ask about retention policy, IT staffing and how many sites you expect in three years before we recommend either.

What is in the Alta range?

Five software systems and the hardware that feeds them. Alta Video is the cloud video software; Alta Access is the cloud access-control management, with mobile credentials and remote administration; Alta Protect is site monitoring built on your own Alta cameras and Alta Video; Alta Mailroom handles package logging and delivery; and Alta Visitor handles visitor access across sites. On the hardware side there are Avigilon Alta security cameras, multi-technology access control readers, access control panels, boards and hubs, smart sensors, and Alta Cloud Connectors — which are the piece worth knowing about on a retrofit, because they bring existing cameras into the cloud platform instead of requiring you to replace working hardware.

What is in the Unity range?

Unity Video is the on-premise video management software, sold in Core, Standard and Enterprise editions so a small building is not paying for an enterprise feature set. Unity Access is the on-premise access control, and Avigilon unifies the two so an access event and its video are one record rather than two systems correlated by timestamp. Unity Cloud Services adds remote access, health monitoring and simplified upgrades over a browser or phone without moving the recordings off site. There is also a Decision Management System module that brings video, access and intrusion into a single-screen workflow, AdaptAI for edge-based video analytics, and a Smart Assurance Plan that covers software and firmware upgrades over one, three or five years. On the camera side the form factors are the usual set — dome, bullet and box, pan-tilt-zoom, 360-degree and panoramic, and specialty — plus the video infrastructure behind them.

Does Avigilon do anything besides cameras and doors?

Yes, and two of those families answer questions cameras cannot. The smart-sensor range — the HALO 3C and Halo 4 sensors — monitors air quality and detects smoke, vape and other events in the places you cannot legally or decently put a camera: restrooms, locker rooms, student housing. That is why they turn up in schools and in multi-family buildings. Alongside them are panic buttons and intelligent site protection. On the software side Avigilon publishes security AI analytics, a license plate reader, occupancy management, mailroom and visitor management, and remote video monitoring. Avigilon is Motorola Solutions’ security brand, and it publishes an ecosystem of integrations into the rest of that estate, which matters if your site already runs Motorola radios or dispatch.

We already have cameras. Can they be kept?

Often, and it is the first thing we check rather than the last. On the cloud side the Alta Cloud Connectors exist precisely to bring existing cameras onto the platform, so a building with serviceable hardware and an unserviceable recorder does not have to re-cable. On the on-premise side Unity Video publishes a supported camera and encoder list, and plenty of third-party hardware is on it. What we will not do is tell you everything has to go when it does not — the visit starts with documenting what is actually installed, and ends with a plain answer about what is worth keeping. Avigilon also publishes its own discontinued-product list, which is how we tell you honestly when something on your wall is past support. Every install carries a five-year workmanship warranty from the final invoice; the equipment carries its manufacturer warranty.

Tell us the sites, the retention policy and who administers it. The platform follows.

Walk your site with us (913) 804-7575

Or read about access control · commercial surveillance · driveway and perimeter detection · multi-family buildings

Written by Daniel Alon, founder of IntegrateIT LLC, with twenty years in IT and AV integration — Control4 Platinum Dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Installer, CEDIA member. Overland Park, KS.