Always-On Video (AOV) Explained: What It Means and How to Source AOV Solar Cameras at Wholesale

Always-On Video, defined

Always-On Video (AOV) is continuous 24/7 recording on a battery-powered camera, kept sustainable by holding the image sensor in a low standby power state and letting on-device AI scene analysis decide what is worth capturing at full quality. It exists as a category because the alternative — a PIR-triggered camera that sleeps until a passive infrared sensor detects a moving heat source — misses exactly the events that matter on rural and industrial sites: a slow approach on foot, someone entering just outside the PIR cone, a vehicle drifting through the far edge of the frame, or a person the sensor never registers on a hot afternoon because there is too little thermal contrast between a body and the ground behind it. AOV is an industry-generic term, not a proprietary technology. Any battery-camera factory can build AOV models, so when a supplier presents "AOV" as its own invention, that is a marketing claim, not a specification.

For importers and distributors, the practical translation is this: AOV is a power-budget decision that shows up on the spec sheet as a larger battery, a larger panel, and a higher unit price. Everything else follows from that.

AOV vs PIR-triggered, side by side

Why wholesale buyers are suddenly being asked for AOV

End users rarely say "AOV." They say the camera missed something. A distributor in Đồng Nai or in Antioquia hears the same complaint after the first season with PIR-only stock: the client reviewed footage after a theft and found either nothing at all, or a clip that starts with a person already inside the frame holding the thing they came for. Insurance adjusters and rural police want the approach, not the aftermath.

That complaint is what drives the re-order to AOV, and it is why AOV models are worth carrying even though they carry a higher landed cost. On farms and ranches the target is livestock and equipment moved slowly and deliberately — cattle theft in Latin America almost never looks like a person sprinting past a PIR sensor. On construction sites the loss is fuel, cable and generators, taken by people who belong on the site during the day. On logistics yards and unfenced warehouse lots, the useful evidence is the vehicle that circled twice before stopping.

The second driver is simpler: AOV removes an argument. A PIR camera that missed an event is indistinguishable, to an angry customer, from a camera that failed. Continuous recording moves the conversation from "your product doesn't work" to "here is the footage."

The power budget is the product

Continuous recording means the sensor and the encoder never fully stop, which means an AOV camera has to harvest and store meaningfully more energy than a triggered one. This is why AOV models sit at the top of a catalogue rather than the bottom, and why a supplier quoting AOV at entry-level pricing is quoting something else.

Across our range, batteries run 8000mAh to 20000mAh and solar panels are 8W or 15W. The AOV models are concentrated at the upper end of both — 20000mAh cells paired with 15W panels — because that pairing is what keeps a continuously recording camera alive through a stretch of overcast days and back to full charge afterwards. There is no configuration above those figures, on our line or on the quotes we see from serious competitors; if a spec sheet promises continuous recording from a small cell and a small panel, ask what "continuous" means in that document.

Storage works differently under AOV too. Local storage is microSD up to 128GB as standard, and continuous recording fills a card far faster than clip-based recording does. In practice that means the card is a rolling buffer — oldest footage is overwritten — and the retention conversation with your customer has to happen before the sale, not after. Set the expectation that AOV gives complete recent coverage and that anything needed long-term must be exported when it is found. Distributors who skip that conversation get support tickets; distributors who have it up front close larger orders because the customer understands what they bought.

The AOV models in the current range

The catalogue runs to 150 SKUs, of which 49 are AOV models, with wholesale prices quoted per order. The dual-lens 15W family is the one most wholesale buyers standardise on for perimeter and yard work:

Resolution across the line is 1080p–2K as standard; 4K is available only as a custom or OEM build, and we would rather tell you that than let you quote 4K from stock and discover the gap at PO stage. Outdoor housings are IP66 — not a higher rating, and we do not print one. All models are 4G LTE and solar, so there is no grid power and no WiFi dependency, and field installation runs 5–10 minutes per camera, which is what makes multi-camera rollouts on farms and construction sites economically sane for your installers.

Sourcing AOV: MOQ, margins and lead times

Hardware is built by Shenzhen Leksell, established 2012, certified by TÜV Rheinland, with CE, FCC and RoHS. Ask any supplier for the certificate numbers, not the logos — logos are easy to paste into a PDF.

OEM and private label are available on every model, including all 49 AOV units — your branding on the housing, packaging and app-facing identity, at the 100-unit threshold. Our Vietnam office is in Ho Chi Minh City; we do not operate a Hanoi or Bangkok warehouse, and if a competitor's stock claim in your market sounds too convenient, it is worth verifying.

A practical sequence for a new AOV line: take 10 units as a trial at the 20% tier, put them on the two hardest sites you can find — an unshaded fence line and a site that is genuinely overcast for days at a time — and let them run a full month before committing. Then move to 50 for the margin step, and to 100 if you want private label. Browse the full range at /en/products/, and see /en/wholesale/ for pricing structure by volume.

What to verify before you sign the PO

• Ask what "always on" means in their document. Some vendors call scheduled recording windows "always on." Continuous means continuous.
• Check the battery and panel pairing, not just the battery. A large cell with an undersized panel is a camera that dies in week three of the rainy season.
• Confirm the ingress rating in writing. Ours is IP66 on outdoor models. Take no verbal upgrades.
• Confirm the resolution you are quoting is a stock resolution. 1080p–2K ships; anything higher is a custom build with its own lead time.
• Confirm storage ceiling and retention behaviour so your sales team never promises open-ended archives from a card.
• Get lead times against your own season. 25–40 days by sea has to be counted backwards from harvest, from the start of a construction phase, or from the quarter your customer's budget expires.

If you want a specification sheet for the AOV models against a named site type, message the team on WhatsApp at +86 188 1869 9870, call +86 188 1869 9870, or write to info@solaguard.net. Distributor terms and the tier structure are set out at /en/dealer/.