Set up video-entry system
Fed up with cold callers on your doorstep? Matt Egan shows how to set up a video-entry system for the home
So, 2015 is the year of the smart home: we all control our heating via our smartphones, record and watch TV remotely on the same device, and play music via our smart light bulbs. We do, don’t we? Well, we can. And the application of smartphone-controlled smart home technology is only going to become more prevalent.
But 2015 is also an election year: and that means a spate of well-meaning local politics types traipsing to your door to convince you to back their candidate. And if your street is anything like mine, we are just about to enter ‘gutter season’, in which a succession of local tradesmen knock on my door inviting me to pay them to clear my gutters (not a euphemism).
Benefits of a smart security camera system
Reader, call me a misanthrope, but I don’t like people calling unannounced at my door. More than that, just as the biggest security threat to your PC is likely to be your behaviour, the greatest opportunity for thieves and con men is to catch you unawares at your front door. This is doubly true for vulnerable or elderly people. The world is actually a pretty safe place, but if someone wants to get into your home, the easiest way to do so is to persuade you to open up the front door.
In the past video-enabled entrance systems required a lot of money and expertise to install, and maintain. They were the preserve of swanky apartment complexes or spit-drenched local authority housing tower blocks, often in a state of disrepair. But now everyone with a smartphone can have a smart security camera and entrance system. Arguably they should. And if you are concerned about a relative or friend, you can set them up with one, and also see yourself who is at the door when they go to answer it.
One reasonably inexpensive smartphone-connected doorbell and video entry system is the DoorBird, which will be available soon in the UK. You can pre-order this system now: it costs € 299 (£215) for the DoorBird Video Doorbell itself, and € 289 (£208) for the BirdGuard Add-on Camera. Simply head over to doorbird.com and order your system. If you have a home Wi-Fi network and at least one smartphone, set up is simple.
For this price, you get an easy to install, Wi-Fi connected front doorbell and a Wi-Fi connected security camera that is designed to live outdoors. It also has a 180-degree field of view. To this you can pair up to eight iPhones, iPads or Android smartphones and tablets, and then answer the door from the safety of your phone screen. Whenever you are connected to the web you can listen to- and talk to visitors to your home, as the DoorBird works over 3G and 4G too. If like me you are paranoid about your home when you are on holiday, this is a handy feature to have.
The video is HD too, according to DoorBird, so you will be able to see the full horror of Halloween trick-or-treaters in glorious technicolour. For fans of Silence of the Lambs, the DoorBird comes with night vision – you could always set up an outdoor light, too.
The security features look great, in fact. You can speak to people at your door, even if you aren’t there. And when they ring the bell DoorBird takes a snapshot of them. If you have a bad experience with a courier or salesperson, they won’t be able to wriggle out of it by saying it wasn’t them.