WIRELESS, SMART TECH HAVE UPPED HOME SECURITY’S GAME
There’s something about the holidays that gets me thinking about home security. Maybe it’s reading on Nextdoor about rampant neighborhood porch piracy, or maybe it’s a recent stovetop mishap setting off the smoke detector. Even more troubling, maybe it’s the occasional power outage that disconnects me from the security call center, because my home phones, which use Internet, are dead. Am I as protected as I could — and should — be?
In the early 1980s, installing a home security system meant drilling holes into window and door frames, screwing in sensors and running wires through walls to a central keypad, all powered by a large battery tucked away in a basement or closet. If you went all in, maybe you had a hard-wired smoke detector, too. That was pretty much the norm for homeowners, including me (my security system dates to 1999), until highspeed Internet, ultrafast wireless and smart home technology became the norm.
Goodbye wires, forgetting to arm your home or fretting if the electricity fails. Hello self-adhesive sensors, high-definition infrared cameras, app-based remote arming and touch-screen panels.
“The past 10 years or so have been amazing for home security,” says Tim Rader, senior director of product development and engineering at home security supplier ADT, with more than 6 million residential and commercial customers.
“The pivot from wired to wireless allowed companies to install sensors in places we couldn’t get to before.” Tim Rader • ADT
“The pivot from wired to wireless allowed companies to install sensors in places we couldn’t get to before. Then, fast-forward to next-gen systems, with smart home technology that can immediately identify if a window has been broken or in what room a fire has started.”
Wireless technology has also paved the way for homeownerinstalled systems, says Doug Woodard, chief customer experience officer with SimpliSafe, which launched DIY home security products in 2006. “People are increasingly comfortable with