T3

Security cameras

Install one of these smart security cameras around your home and you’ve got yourself an extra eye that never sleeps – keeping your property and your loved ones safe

- Words: David Nield Photograph­y: Neil Godwin

There’s now a plethora of devices in the smart home category, with more seemingly arriving every week – but the security camera remains hard to beat as one of the most useful and valuable in terms of bang for your buck. These compact devices act as all-seeing eyes guarding your home, making sure that if someone is there who shouldn’t be, you’re going to know about it straight away.

If you don’t already have a security camera system set up at home, it’s the perfect time to invest in one: the days are getting darker earlier, giving would-be intruders more time under the cover of darkness. We’re also getting to that period of the year where it’s traditiona­l to spend time away from home visiting friends and family, and these devices give you peace of mind when you can’t be at home yourself.

Whatever the extras and bonus features, every security camera has one key feature, which is watching out for any signs of motion and then sending a notificati­on to your phone when something is detected. That core functional­ity can then be augmented in all kinds of ways, whether it’s 24/7 video recording, integratio­n with your other smart home devices, or whatever else.

The good news is that you no longer need to spend huge amounts of money or get a profession­al installati­on team in to set up a surveillan­ce system at home. These cameras attach themselves to your local Wi-Fi network and largely configure themselves – through an accompanyi­ng app on your phone, you can be up and running in just a few minutes. Adding a second or third camera is even more straightfo­rward.

We’re also seeing security cameras improve year on year, offering higher resolution video footage and still images, smarter integratio­n with the rest of the devices in your home, improved abilities in terms of being able to identify what’s happening in front of them, and so on. The smart home cameras that you can pick up today are the best we’ve seen yet.

If there is a problem in getting started, it’s in picking the right camera from the wealth of options that are now available to you – but that’s where we can help out with some suggestion­s and some advice about what to look for. Big names such as Amazon and Google have their own lines of products, and while Apple doesn’t have its own security camera range, it does oversee a smart home standard that cameras are part of.

In other words, there’s a home security camera out there for you, no matter what your needs and your budget. While features and functions vary, they all offer 24/7 monitoring of whatever space you put them in, and you’ll be able to tap into the live feed of the camera from wherever you are in the world; whether you’re upstairs in bed or on a trip at the other end of the country, you can always check in on what your camera is seeing.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada