Smart Cameras
So, I took some money from a bonus and bought a Nest Cam, just the plain outdoors model, rather than the IQ. And I've had some time to tinker and my thoughts at the moment are that these things have their place, but they are largely a scam.
Thankfully, I live in a fairly peaceful area, and I'm not super concerned on that front. We bought it because we can't really see the front of our house at all from the inside. I wanted something I could stream to the TV or watch on my phone. I'm SUPER glad I didn't buy it for security reasons. I would be furious. I'm also super glad I didn't buy the two pack, which I was originally considering.
I don't even know where to start. So, I guess I'll start with what I would expect.
At a basic level, some ability to define zones and alerts WHICH ARE MEANINGFUL. And store, in some fashion, only events which meat that criteria. As well as the ability to connect and view the camera live.
It falls apart right at the beginning. It is almost a hostage situation you can't win. With the Nest Cams, they store EVERYTHING in their servers and you need to subscribe to get access the defining zones and the ability to have it detect people.
So, basically, if you don't subscribe, the camera is USELESS from a security perspective. In fact, it is worse than useless. Because your notification options without zones are... you get notified about EVERYTHING, or nothing. This camera has a HUGE FoV, and it picks up EVERYTHING. Shadows moving? Alert. Car lights from across the road hit the driveway? Alert. A particularly large bug? Alert.
I have a reasonable sized driveway. Not massive. Not puny. The camera is on the lower end of the recommended height and is pointed as close to the ground as the magnetic base will permit. And I can still see clear across the road. It is in the corner of the garage and aimed as far to the other side as the camera will allow. And I can see the neighbors driveway on the corner I'm faced away from, 3 houses down the street and the wall of the garage. The field of view is INSANELY good. Which, perhaps ironically, is what makes it such annoying piece of shit.
This is exactly why without zone support it is simply far too erratic. Honestly, if the free tier supported just 1, fixed shape (rectangle) zone for free it would feel a lot less like a hostage situation. But, that still wouldn't fully solve the problems.
You see, I get a month free, so I know what I would be missing. So, here is how it goes. I create a zone, after trial and error with STILL too many alerts even with zones, I settle on a small area covering the front of the garage and walkway to the front door. And I turn off alerts outside of configured zones. And tell it to notify on people within the zone. And what do I get? If a shadow moves inside of the zone, while there is a person is OUTSIDE the zone? ALERT!
Nest is owned by Google. I would have hoped for some smarts to be incorporated into these devices. But, there is none. The detection is idiotic. At least a single zone is mandatory.
And I understand that they need to charge... because they store everything.
Frankly, I'm sure even some paying customers would be fine with ONLY storing, events which would trigger alerts and the X seconds/minutes before and after. The lowest bandwidth setting promises to try and consume ONLY 30GB a month of upload. Then 120 for medium quality and 300 for HD.
If THAT is the reason they need to charge... they're doing it wrong.
Simple thoughts. They should sell an optional hub. Hub can store, say 1 weeks' footage and can be accessed remotely. Consumes 0GB of upload if you don't try and access stored footage remotely.
Next, at least one zone should be free. The FoV is simply too big. You can't even claim to be serious about selling this as a security product if the base functionality without a subscription is totally useless. As stated, can make is a single shape which can be enlarged and rotated. Lock free form zone and multiple zones behind a paywall and I'm fine.
And lastly, detection needs to be smarter. If I defined a zone and turn off all other alerts, it SHOULD be understood that I only care about what it is in that zone. A combination of things outside and inside the zone should NOT trip it off. And, obviously, basic smarts like shadow detection, bugs, etc... should be configurable.
I have ZERO qualms paying for online storage. It is totally worthwhile in a true security scenario to have the footage stored off site.
No real qualms paying for multiple zones, or free form zones.
No qualms paying for advanced smart detection, like specific people, suspicious activity, or anything which may require access to an online machine learning system.
Having to pay a monthly fee though, just to make sure alerts aren't firing every 5 seconds or not at all? And, having to pay more per camera, even if all you're interested is being able to sleep without getting alerts every 5 seconds?
Ideally, for a decent home monitoring solution, you'd need AT LEAST 4 cameras for the exterior, and at least 1 at every major interior entry point. Let's say 2 more for front and back. You get 6 cameras. The cheapest plan is $5/mth + 3 per additional camera + bandwidth. $18 a month + hardware, plus a strict requirement on FAST unlimited internet. And you still get a solution that will wake you up at 3 in the morning because a passing car lit up an activity zone at the same time a jogger walked NOWHERE NEAR YOUR PROPERTY. Pay a professional.
$18 a month isn't crazy expensive. But camera quality needs to be at least the medium one to get useful detail from the picture, and ideally streaming in HD. But, that means you need a MONSTER internet package with unlimited bandwidth to stream from 6 cameras 24/7. And, you still won't get peace of mind because every added camera will increase the number of false positives.
Even with what feels like a hostage situation. I'd pay the $5 month for the single camera if the alerts had SOME degree of intelligence. If I could set my zones and KNOW that the only reason I was getting an alert while I'm out is because a person actually walked into one of my zones. I can justify self managing my security then. I'm TOTALLY ok with getting an alert, opening it up and saying, "no worries, just the neighbor cutting across the driveway". Or "just the Jehovah's Witnesses". But, getting an alert because of a combination of a shadow and a person walking on the other side of the road? I easily get dozens of filtered events a day if not well into the hundreds on some days.
Sorry, but I can't recommend paying for that.
Thankfully, I live in a fairly peaceful area, and I'm not super concerned on that front. We bought it because we can't really see the front of our house at all from the inside. I wanted something I could stream to the TV or watch on my phone. I'm SUPER glad I didn't buy it for security reasons. I would be furious. I'm also super glad I didn't buy the two pack, which I was originally considering.
I don't even know where to start. So, I guess I'll start with what I would expect.
At a basic level, some ability to define zones and alerts WHICH ARE MEANINGFUL. And store, in some fashion, only events which meat that criteria. As well as the ability to connect and view the camera live.
It falls apart right at the beginning. It is almost a hostage situation you can't win. With the Nest Cams, they store EVERYTHING in their servers and you need to subscribe to get access the defining zones and the ability to have it detect people.
So, basically, if you don't subscribe, the camera is USELESS from a security perspective. In fact, it is worse than useless. Because your notification options without zones are... you get notified about EVERYTHING, or nothing. This camera has a HUGE FoV, and it picks up EVERYTHING. Shadows moving? Alert. Car lights from across the road hit the driveway? Alert. A particularly large bug? Alert.
I have a reasonable sized driveway. Not massive. Not puny. The camera is on the lower end of the recommended height and is pointed as close to the ground as the magnetic base will permit. And I can still see clear across the road. It is in the corner of the garage and aimed as far to the other side as the camera will allow. And I can see the neighbors driveway on the corner I'm faced away from, 3 houses down the street and the wall of the garage. The field of view is INSANELY good. Which, perhaps ironically, is what makes it such annoying piece of shit.
This is exactly why without zone support it is simply far too erratic. Honestly, if the free tier supported just 1, fixed shape (rectangle) zone for free it would feel a lot less like a hostage situation. But, that still wouldn't fully solve the problems.
You see, I get a month free, so I know what I would be missing. So, here is how it goes. I create a zone, after trial and error with STILL too many alerts even with zones, I settle on a small area covering the front of the garage and walkway to the front door. And I turn off alerts outside of configured zones. And tell it to notify on people within the zone. And what do I get? If a shadow moves inside of the zone, while there is a person is OUTSIDE the zone? ALERT!
Nest is owned by Google. I would have hoped for some smarts to be incorporated into these devices. But, there is none. The detection is idiotic. At least a single zone is mandatory.
And I understand that they need to charge... because they store everything.
Frankly, I'm sure even some paying customers would be fine with ONLY storing, events which would trigger alerts and the X seconds/minutes before and after. The lowest bandwidth setting promises to try and consume ONLY 30GB a month of upload. Then 120 for medium quality and 300 for HD.
If THAT is the reason they need to charge... they're doing it wrong.
Simple thoughts. They should sell an optional hub. Hub can store, say 1 weeks' footage and can be accessed remotely. Consumes 0GB of upload if you don't try and access stored footage remotely.
Next, at least one zone should be free. The FoV is simply too big. You can't even claim to be serious about selling this as a security product if the base functionality without a subscription is totally useless. As stated, can make is a single shape which can be enlarged and rotated. Lock free form zone and multiple zones behind a paywall and I'm fine.
And lastly, detection needs to be smarter. If I defined a zone and turn off all other alerts, it SHOULD be understood that I only care about what it is in that zone. A combination of things outside and inside the zone should NOT trip it off. And, obviously, basic smarts like shadow detection, bugs, etc... should be configurable.
I have ZERO qualms paying for online storage. It is totally worthwhile in a true security scenario to have the footage stored off site.
No real qualms paying for multiple zones, or free form zones.
No qualms paying for advanced smart detection, like specific people, suspicious activity, or anything which may require access to an online machine learning system.
Having to pay a monthly fee though, just to make sure alerts aren't firing every 5 seconds or not at all? And, having to pay more per camera, even if all you're interested is being able to sleep without getting alerts every 5 seconds?
Ideally, for a decent home monitoring solution, you'd need AT LEAST 4 cameras for the exterior, and at least 1 at every major interior entry point. Let's say 2 more for front and back. You get 6 cameras. The cheapest plan is $5/mth + 3 per additional camera + bandwidth. $18 a month + hardware, plus a strict requirement on FAST unlimited internet. And you still get a solution that will wake you up at 3 in the morning because a passing car lit up an activity zone at the same time a jogger walked NOWHERE NEAR YOUR PROPERTY. Pay a professional.
$18 a month isn't crazy expensive. But camera quality needs to be at least the medium one to get useful detail from the picture, and ideally streaming in HD. But, that means you need a MONSTER internet package with unlimited bandwidth to stream from 6 cameras 24/7. And, you still won't get peace of mind because every added camera will increase the number of false positives.
Even with what feels like a hostage situation. I'd pay the $5 month for the single camera if the alerts had SOME degree of intelligence. If I could set my zones and KNOW that the only reason I was getting an alert while I'm out is because a person actually walked into one of my zones. I can justify self managing my security then. I'm TOTALLY ok with getting an alert, opening it up and saying, "no worries, just the neighbor cutting across the driveway". Or "just the Jehovah's Witnesses". But, getting an alert because of a combination of a shadow and a person walking on the other side of the road? I easily get dozens of filtered events a day if not well into the hundreds on some days.
Sorry, but I can't recommend paying for that.
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