Stop wasting your security camera’s potential with these 5 tricks
Smart security cameras can be a great way to monitor what’s going on in and around your home. Used properly, they can play an important role in the security of your home, but you may not be using them to their full potential.
Solving the Biggest Smart Camera Problem
Most smart cameras can send notifications when motion is detected. When the camera detects movement in its field of view, a notification may appear on your phone to alert you. In theory, this seems really useful.
But in practice, this can quickly turn into a storm of notifications. You can receive multiple notifications whenever the neighbor’s cat walks by or when a spider decides to build a web on your camera that keeps blowing in the breeze. Eventually, you’ll end up turning off notifications just to have some peace.
However, it does not have to be this way. There are many ways to limit notifications so that you only receive alerts when you actually need them.
An easy way is to use person detection if your cameras support it. This way you won’t receive an alert when the cat walks past, but you will receive one when a person approaches your home.
Another effective way to reduce unnecessary notifications is to set a detection zone in your camera app. You can define the areas where motion should be detected and block any areas that might cause false positives. Once you’ve tamed your notifications, they go from being a nuisance to being a useful feature.
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Place them where you really need them
Another reason why your security camera notifications may not be all that they should be is that your cameras are not in the correct positions. If you’re limited to proximity to power sources, you may end up placing cameras in less than optimal locations. Either you miss the alerts you should be receiving or you are overwhelmed by them.
The best option is to place your cameras where you need them most, even if that makes it more difficult to install or power them. For example, your video doorbell should ideally be positioned to cover the area where packages are likely to be dropped off, while still being able to spot people approaching your front door. You can make your life easier when trying to position and power your cameras by using the following tip.
Make your cameras more reliable with better power and Wi-Fi
You can buy battery-powered security cameras that give you a lot more options for where to place them, without worrying about having to power them. There are two main problems with these types of cameras, however.
The first is that you need to recharge the batteries, which leads to inevitable downtime for your security cameras. They may also fall asleep to save energy, which can cause them to miss important events.
The second problem is that they rely on wireless communication, either to the Internet or to a dedicated base station. If your network connection isn’t great, you may experience poor quality streaming or even lose connection completely.
An effective solution to this problem is to use Power-over-Ethernet (PoE). As long as your camera supports PoE, you can provide both power and a stable wired connection through a single Ethernet cable. Running an Ethernet cable can be simpler than trying to power a difficult location, and you don’t have to worry about the distance between your camera and your router either.
Not all cameras support PoE. If you’re considering purchasing security cameras, this is a feature definitely worth considering if you want solid reliability.
Store recordings locally
Many smart cameras and video doorbells offer subscriptions that allow you to remotely access your camera’s recordings via the cloud. This can be very useful, but it is not the only option. Many cameras can store your recordings locally, on local storage such as a microSD card, on a dedicated network video recorder (NVR), or on a NAS.
There are several advantages to storing recordings locally, not the least of which is that you can often avoid paying subscription fees. But perhaps the most important benefit is that your recordings never leave your home, giving you better privacy and control.
Transform camera events into smart home automation
Smart security cameras are ultimately smart home devices, so if you’re not integrating them into your smart home, you’re missing out. There are many ways to do this, from the simplest to the most complex.
For example, if you have Ring cameras and Echo Show devices, you can ask your smart display to display the live feed from your cameras when a person is detected or whenever you ask Alexa. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can use Home Assistant smart home software to do almost anything you can imagine, including getting an AI-generated description of the person the camera detects.
A few small adjustments can make a big difference to your smart cameras. By reducing noisy alerts, installing them where you need them, and ensuring they have reliable power and connectivity, your cameras can go from spam machines to truly useful devices.
