Home Security and Cameras for Smart Homes

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Let’s start with outlining the state of the home security market. In general there are two types of security system providers. The first are the national chains like ADT and CPI. The second are local security companies like Audio Advice and many others. In general, this market is a relatively commoditized market, meaning that the product provided and the cost of installing a system and the monthly monitoring costs are approximately the same whether you use a national chain or a local provider. The primary difference between the national players and specialty local companies is that the national players largely use wireless contacts for their doors and windows because they can be installed very quickly without running wires during a prewire. However, these tend to not go over well with interior designers. They also require continual changing of batteries and are susceptible to wireless interference so they are not as reliable as a wired system. If you are building a home from scratch, I would highly recommend you prewire all high risk doors and windows such as ground floor entry doors. This looks better, is more reliable and more hassle free long term.

The other major leap forward in security has been the interactive and remote management capabilities. All of the major systems today provide the ability to remotely arm and disarm and check on your system at any time. Most security systems will enable you to do very basic smart home capabilities like a door lock or turning on and off a light. However, for most high end homes, the security systems are connected into a full smart home system which provide a way more expansive experience than the security systems can do on their own. When implemented correctly, this makes the simple one button press to arm your system an incredibly powerful tool. It used to be people hardly ever set their security systems so when they did, they often accidentally set off a false alarm. For Audio Advice Signature Series smart home customers, we have made this process completely seamless. You simply hit your Away button every time you leave your home. The rest handles itself. The system also knows when you set your alarm to the Home position for night time so it does not turn off the televisions. But the end result is that what used to be a mundane security system is now an interface to amazing control of your home.

Most people have heard of the Nest and Ring doorbells which enable you to answer your doorbell from a phone. The top smart home systems, like Control4 have a more luxury version of these doorbells which have incredible video capabilities, enable both cloud and local recording, and they have form factors designed for high end homes. In general the cheaper cloud based cameras and those that you would buy in a box at a discount club, have cheaper chipsets, night vision, etc. So most luxury homes will use higher performance cameras that will last longer and capture a much better picture. Then of course there is how you record video. Historically the cheaper solutions would do a basic cloud recording which had the advantage of easy access at any time but were bested by local network video recorders that would record lots of video in high resolution on a drive in your home--so you did not have to rely on Internet to record. At Audio Advice, we offer a combined solution that allows you to record video on a local NVR plus provide cloud recording for things like doorbells for fast access to historical clips. I personally really like this solution that has the best of both worlds.

In summary, if you are building or remodeling and considering home security, I would highly encourage you to find a highly reviewed local security company who is less interested in the recurring revenue that you may find in a big chain and more in the relationship with their customers. If you are going to have a smart home, I would find a provider who is both a top smart home company and security provider. Having one company install and configure both your systems will simplify your world and make sure someone is thinking through everything holistically.