Cool things on B.I. - Something to win over the significant other!

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buckfast

Getting the hang of it
Nov 24, 2016
142
18
HI All

I recently purchased BI 5, and have been reading the wiki and help file extensively to gain a basic understanding. I have also downloaded the android app, and am tinkering around with it.

To date, all I have done is setup motion detection, and recording on each of my two Dahua Starlights.

I'll admit that I am not blessed with a creative vision, and I am struggling to expand on the simple concepts outlined above.

Question really is for thoughts from more experienced users on how they fully leveraged the features of BI beyond the basics. My wife is not all that impressed with things and while she accepts the obvious security benefits and investigative benefits, I'd like to truely win her over on what is possible.

Hope I am making some sense.

Thanks
 
When I put a laptop on my end table in the living room a couple of years ago, my wife was too keen on the idea.

Skip forward a few months and the Laptop battery needed replacing which took a week, meaning no camera viewing for a week. A few days into the lack of a laptop, my wife asked when the cameras would be back up?

Today, she regularly uses TV's or the laptop to view the cameras, especially when someone is at the front door. The TV's are controlled by Alexa and Harmony Hubs so she can ask Alexa to turn on the cameras and the TV in question will tune to an app that displays all of our cameras in one layout.

She won't answer the door unless she knows who it is. Much better than tipping off the person outside by looking through a peep hole in the door, or opening to who knows what?

When someone trips the motion on the front door camera, BI triggers an event in HomeSeer, our home automation system, and an announcement is made that motion was detected at the front door.
 
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JNDATHP said:
When I put a laptop on my end table in the living room a couple of years ago, my wife was too keen on the idea.

Skip forward a few months and the Laptop battery needed replacing which took a week, meaning no camera viewing for a week. A few days into the lack of a laptop, my wife asked when the cameras would be back up?

Today, she regularly uses TV's or the laptop to view the cameras, especially when someone is at the front door. The TV's are controlled by Alexa and Harmony Hubs so she can ask Alexa to turn on the cameras and the TV in question will tune to an app that displays all of our cameras in one layout.

She won't answer the door unless she knows who it is. Much better than tipping off the person outside by looking through a peep hole in the door, or opening to who knows what?

When someone trips the motion on the front door camera, BI triggers an event in HomeSeer, our home automation system, and an announcement is made that motion was detected at the front door.
Click to expand...

Sounds great. Although my Samsung TV is a smart tv, I have never had much luck in installing any third party apps. Would a firestick be the way to go? What app do you refer to that displays the feeds?
 
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Monocle and the Alexa skill.

Just say “Alexa show the Driveway”. Firetv stick plugged into spare TV shows selected BI camera feed. Instant WAF points.

Bonus is Visio Tv has HDMI Cec control and so does FireTv so it turns on TV and switches to correct HDMI input and shows video. Quick and easy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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My wife was skeptical about cameras, but after having a chainsaw stolen from the yard in the middle of a Saturday afternoon and a bike stolen overnight she understood why I felt the need to get them...and calling them a Father's day present didn't hurt any either.
The convincing factor in favor of the cameras for my wife was not any feature of BI explicitly but placement of a pair of cameras so she could see our birdfeeders...one PTZ (normally on the back/side yard but can pan around to the birdfeeders) and one fixed that is always on the birdfeeders. Having a BI trigger to record and an alert that let her know when a hummingbird was at the feeder was a double bonus for her.
My 3rd camera (a PTZ) arrived today and a fourth (fixed) is on the way. These will go on the front of the house to cover the driveway and front porch.

Now if they cameras are down for even an hour I hear about it. :D
 
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thanks all. Got myself a fire stick and the TinyCam pro app. Next I must try to integrate Alexa.
 
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