I am asked quite often what the video cameras are that I use here in Five Forks. The system that I use is the Arlo camera system. You can go here to learn more about them http://www.arlo.com

 

There are a lot of video camera system choices out there and many are quite good. You end up choosing the one for you based on a number of factors. First you need to decide about how they are powered and how the video signal gets back to the internet. You can get higher resolution (that is picture quality) and no need for batteries using a system that needs wires. If you are willing to run cables around these systems can work very well and end up being cheaper to operate.  The second factor is if you want to use them outside or only inside the house.  With many systems you need a special camera that will work outside and will still need power and a cable to get the video back. That’s not very practical if you want a camera down on the deer trail to catch critters wandering by or out by your storage shed.

 

I found that the best combination of features and simple operation is the Arlo for my needs. These cameras are completely wireless, being battery driven, and wireless connection back to the internet. Any of the cameras can be used outside or in the house. No special camera is needed in this system. They will cost a little more to buy initially and you will have the cost of batteries to keep them running, but I have found that to be reasonable to deal with. You can stick these up anywhere because they have a magnet that grabs a mount on a tree, on the house wall, or inside the garage.  My one deer camera is around 200 feet from the house and it connects to the internet base station just fine. 

 

This is what they look like. Note the base station in the picture. This does connect to your internet box and can sit right next to it.

Are they hard to setup? No not at all! You plug in the base station and hit the button on each camera and it does all the rest of the work! They reconnect themselves should the base station loose power or the internet goes down as soon as they can. The most significant thing you have to worries about is keeping them in batteries. These use 4 camera style batteries called CR123. Don’t ever buy these at Walmart because they will want $6 for two. I buy them online on Amazon and get 10-12 for $18-20. So how many do they use? That’s depends naturally. They are pretty well designed to not use up battery power unless they are capturing video or transmitting back the images they see. Even with this usage the ones in my house get replaced around every 6 months. I only activate the inside ones when we are not around for security which helps battery life. The most active cameras, like the one the bear tries to eat, gets changed every 2-3 months. The cameras are smart too. They tell me when they need fresh batteries and if they have any problems connecting. Here is a picture of the batteries I get from Amazon.

 

OK, I have to touch on proper usage around where you point these things. I am able to know when people come around my house but I am careful to aim them so I am not capturing my neighbors activity or every car going down the road. There are even laws in Georgia on Lake Lanier where cameras cant be used because of sensitivity around this. However, even close to your house cameras can sometimes induce great silliness from your neighbor friends. I was once treated to a deer dance by a couple friends who hid their identity behind a handmade deer mask.  OK, I appreciated that comedy and it was in good taste.

 

They talk to me all the time! I can turn them on and see what is happening anytime I want using a browser on any computer. I can bring up the video on my iPhone or my Android-based tablet. There are many settings to tell it what to do. It can be setup to automatically tun on and record video and then send you an email and/or a text message. The video is recorded and held on an Arlo server so you can get it when ever you want. The sensitivity for how big and how close the object is to start the video can be set. The length of time for how long the video runs can be set.  You can tell one camera to turn on other cameras when it is triggered. This is what the iPhone app looks like to see your cameras and control them.

 

One other thing people worry about is that the videos are stored on a server some where in the cloud. They are secure but, as a technology person, I know they live outside of my control. For that reason, I would always keep in mind that video of you getting out of the shower is not a good idea to capture and leave in the cloud. The nice thing about this is that up to 5 cameras can capture and hold video in the Arlo cloud for no cost! They will hold the video for a rolling month and then delete what is there.  You can download to you PC or iPad any of them you want to keep. You can pay to keep them out there by why would you do that?

 

There are other really nice alternatives to video camera systems and I will talk about them in another blog. These other systems have advantages over the Arlos that are worth considering depending on what you want to do.