Procurement and compliance notice
This equipment is subject to federal procurement and FCC restrictions. The rules depend on the buyer, contract and site, and existing privately owned systems are not automatically illegal. Read NDAA Section 889 and the FCC Covered List before purchasing, extending or removing a system. See the Hikvision alternatives for a migration path.
Hikvision cameras and recorders are common on Colorado commercial sites, and they carry two restrictions. NDAA Section 889 bars federal agencies and their contractors from using covered equipment, and the FCC Covered List stops new authorizations and sales. Private owners are not required to remove working systems, and service can continue. SecureComm services existing sites and plans compliant replacements.
Most Hikvision questions we get from Colorado building owners are not about image quality. They arrive from a procurement officer, a grant condition, an insurer or a general contractor who has to sign a representation, and they all reduce to one ask: what are we allowed to do with this system now? The honest answer depends on who owns the building, who funds the work and whether federal money or a federal contract touches the project.
This page is a compliance briefing, not a product pitch. It covers what FAR Subpart 4.21 and NDAA Section 889 require of federal buyers and their contractors, what the FCC Covered List does to new equipment authorization and marketing, and where those rules stop. It also covers how SecureComm handles service on an existing Hikvision deployment and how a staged replacement is scoped when a site has to change platforms.
Federal procurement rules under FAR 4.21 and Section 889
Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act has two parts that matter to a security project. Part A bars federal agencies and their contractors from buying covered telecommunications equipment from named manufacturers, Hikvision among them. Part B bars them from using that equipment as a substantial or essential component of a system, or as critical technology, even where a private party bought it years earlier.
FAR Subpart 4.21 writes those prohibitions into contract terms. A prime contractor or subcontractor must represent that it does not use covered equipment, and the representation flows down the supply chain. A privately funded camera installation can therefore sit inside a federal contract without the owner realizing it, and at that point the equipment has to go or the contract is at risk. Agency waivers exist and are narrow.
Related:NDAA and FCC compliance overview
What the FCC Covered List changes for new equipment
The FCC maintains a Covered List of communications equipment and services that it treats as a national security risk, and Hikvision is on it. Equipment on the list cannot obtain a new equipment authorization, and FCC rules prohibit marketing and sale of covered equipment that has received one. The practical effect falls on new imports, new models and new authorizations rather than on hardware already bolted to a wall.
Nothing in the Covered List requires a private owner to tear out a working recorder. What does change is the supply chain around it. New models are harder to source, firmware and repair parts become less predictable as a platform ages, and a buyer whose own policy demands currently authorized equipment may find there is nothing new to specify. Planning around that is an engineering problem, not a legal one.
Servicing existing systems and planning a compliant replacement
SecureComm services Hikvision deployments that are already in the field. That work is ordinary integration work: diagnosing failed cameras and recorders, replacing units where parts still exist, adjusting retention and storage, tightening remote access, separating the camera network from the business network, and keeping an existing video management platform running. Where a site falls inside a federal obligation, we document what is installed so the decision rests on facts. Where a client is staying on the platform for now, the camera families we run into most are AcuSense for analytics and DarkFighter for low light, and a replacement matches those roles rather than a model number.
Replacement is usually phased, because a full cutover in one weekend is rarely funded. A common sequence keeps the existing cabling and network switches, replaces the recorder first, and migrates cameras by zone so coverage never drops. The destination platform depends on the video management system above it, the retention the site actually needs and the procurement language in play. Axis, Hanwha Vision, Avigilon and i-PRO are the camera platforms we most often quote against a Hikvision replacement.
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Related:Hikvision vs Axis
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Frequently asked questions
Do we have to remove Hikvision equipment we already own?
Not as a general rule. Removal becomes mandatory when a specific obligation applies: a federal contract clause, a grant condition, a state or local procurement policy, or an insurer requirement. SecureComm reads the obligation with the owner, separates what is binding from what is merely cautious, and scopes work to the binding part.
Can SecureComm still service a Hikvision system?
Yes, within what is still available. We repair, reconfigure and replace failed hardware where parts can be sourced, and we say plainly when a unit cannot be. We do not sell restricted equipment into a project where the buyer has a federal obligation, and we flag the cases where repair no longer makes commercial sense.
What are compliant alternatives to a Hikvision platform?
For cameras, Axis, Hanwha Vision, i-PRO and Avigilon are the usual candidates on a Colorado commercial site. Above them sit platforms such as Genetec Security Center, or the recorder-native software the site already runs. The choice turns on cabling, retention, integration and who signs the compliance paperwork, which is why we quote a transition rather than a single unit.
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