IP Cameras only good for after the fact? Not any more

[handinpalm]

I wanted to start a thread on what I have recently done with an IP camera setup using Blue Iris, to protect my home. I have had IP cameras around the house for the last 11 years+, and using Blue Iris for 6 years. During a recent event where an intruder was breaking into the house while I was at home, I have upgraded a few things for alerts and monitoring. During this night intrusion, I did not even know it was happening, even though they were ~4m from me, while I was watching TV inside. I have been very complacent over the last few decades and did not have all my capabilities enabled. It has been very quiet around here. I had 10 Dahua cameras around the house, but only used about half of them to alert me of movement through Blue Iris while at home. While away, all cameras were enabled to alert me of movement through BI app, along with remote/local viewing using UI3.

Fast forward to today. I have upgraded all my older Dahua 2MP cameras to the Dahua 4MP 5442 series (14 total). Not only the better resolution, but the IVS motion detection firmware is superior (less false alarms) to the older 2MP cameras. No longer use BI motion detection, only the Dahua camera's IVS motion detection to externally trigger BI, which results in extremely low false alarms. Maybe 1 every couple weeks. Have not ventured into DS, yet. Also added additional external IR lighting, because I keep it very dark outside. All cameras record continuous mainstream video, so upgraded HD from 6 TB WD Purple to 14TB WD Purple. Memory is cheap. I do not wish to record substreams, but use substreams on BI console and UI3 monitors to keep CPU usage down.

BI is now set up to alert me for all movement from outside and garage cameras 24/7, while at home. Before, only the front cameras alerted while at home. I use 4 new/old Android phones (BI app) scattered around the house so I can hear alerts awake or deep sleep. It echoes throughout the house! While away, All cameras alert me through the BI app. I have different alert tones for different locations, so I know exactly where there is movement without looking at the phone. Some locations, I will get 3 different location alerts before they reach a door. I also set up SMS/MMS alert redundancy (with pics) while away. I am hoping that Ken from Blue Iris will implement the capability to add our own wav files to BI alert audio files. Right now you can only add wav files for BI console use, but BI will not recognize them in the Alert GUI that is sent to the phone app. Would be nice to have a voice say a particular location, instead of just an alert tone. It gets somewhat confusing with lots of cameras.

Have upgraded all my home BI dedicated TV displays (3) to 40", to better view more cameras. I have Amazon Firesticks and can use the remote to bring up BI UI3 utility in less than 13 seconds (cold start) for a real time maximized view. Whatever room I am in, the BI UI3 display TV with real time view is always on.

I have also always had a complete separate (very loud) house alarm system that I now set at night while at home and away. I monitor the system myself, through audio triggers from the inside cameras, then triggers BI for my alerts. In Florida, if you have a monitored alarm company, they have to try to contact you 2X, before they can call LEO. I don't know how long they take between 2 calls. In my area, false alarm call fines start at $80, and rise to $500 / call. Florida Call Fines I think I can contact LEO faster than monitoring Company, and give the 911 operator a play by play on what I see real time from the cameras. I store the local Sheriff office number on my phone for when I am out of State.

Some of you may think, what the hell is with this paranoid guy? Well, this is the World we live in now. I live in a nicer part of town, but with Biden Admin opening our South Border, Fentenal, and bad people are pouring into our Country. It is coming to a neighborhood near you, if not already in my case.

So when people state that cameras are only good for after the fact, the system is not set up correctly. I hope others will post their system descriptions and lessons learned on this thread. I welcome any critique. Stay safe!

Few pics of UI3 TV monitors throughout the house. Your wife will love it!

 

[Jessie.slimer]

I would agree with you. I am planning to use a camera to to prevent vandalism. This vandalism is from woodpeckers going crazy on my cedar siding on the south/sunny side of the house. I have not been able to stop it with traditional methods, so I am going to set up a 5442 and a speaker of some sort to play a loud owl sound when the camera sees a bird. I may even engineer some sort of motion device on an owl decoy that is activated by the motion. They quickly get used to non moving decoys as I have learned.

I was originally thinking of using a pir motion sensor, but I doubt it will be sensitive enough for little birds.

 

[Jessie.slimer]

Few pics of UI3 TV monitors throughout the house. Your wife will love it!

Interesting. You have these running 24/7? I was thinking of putting one up in the bedroom and seeing how I liked it.

 

[handinpalm]

Interesting. You have these running 24/7? I was thinking of putting one up in the bedroom and seeing how I liked it.

I did have all 3 firesticks running UI3 24/7 in the beginning, but noticed that my CPU usage on BI server went up a little. I run my substreams at 1024 bit rate. I used the Kodi tool to disable firestick from sleeping. Now, when I shut off TV, I first press the Home button on firestick remote to disconnect the Silk browser from streaming UI3, then power button. It only takes about 13 seconds to get UI3 up in running Maximized from cold start, so that was not too bad. The only thing I do not like about firestick is there is a microphone for Alexa. A little glue in the mic hole solved that.

 

[Holbs]

I went through what you went through.
Before, complacent to just use cameras to view recordings hours and hours AFTER the fact.
Went full bore into security. Like you, upgraded to 5442 for the AI, installed motion detection flood lights on all 4 directions of the house, bought a DSC 1832 home alarm system and hardwired all 1st floor doors & windows & glass breaks & 3 outdoor motion detectors. I went a little further and incorporated Home Assistant into the mix so that when a HUMAN triggers either my outdoor PIR motion detectors or through my 5442's, both Blue Iris and DSC alarm system notify Home Assistant which turns on specific smart tv's that have the firestick/UI3 running and also sets off alarm sound on a Z-wave siren (got tired of 3am neighbors giving me false alarms so this is currently disabled). Firestick is a great cheap way to get UI3 on a TV but has it's downsides. Probably will eventually swap out to pi3's or something as the firesticks like to update/reboot/crash every so often.
Also bought heavy duty security metal front door (not the $100 Home Depot version but the $500 ones), a shotgun, a glock. Even tried to see if I could have my DJI drone auto-takeoff and have auto follow of a HUMAN within my property (that was a no-go).
If it wasn't for the security events around the house that I went through, I would probably still be "complacent". So there are silver linings here & there.

 

[Teken]

For the benefit of others who may stumble upon this thread and interested in the same as it relates to security. A few basics need to be accepted and understood otherwise everything done is - half measures.

- True Security: Is a mental attitude and way of life that enforces situational awareness at all times.

- Security Audit: In general terms one must identify the level of threat they are exposed to whether it be animal, human, natural, environmental. Given the vast majority of people live in the city almost every major government tracks all manner of crime statistics. Many more offer heat maps which indicate the type of crime in your area and the frequency of. Once the threats are known the next step is to identify all of the weak points in your lifestyle, home, business, etc.

- Intelligence: This next aspect (4 rings) is one of the major pillars of true security. That is obtaining live, ongoing, and historic data that relates to the current threat / future threats. The phrase First to know - First to act is a truism that every combat / intelligence agency lives and breathes. If you know a thing you can prevent or mitigate a thing so having multiple sources of information is key.

it should be pointed out collating information and data is worthless unless you're able to digest and understand the same on a timely manner. You finding out there's a tornado coming your way five minutes later offers you nothing.

- Force Protection: Are the physical barriers that protect the home whether it be fencing, gates, bollards, concrete barriers, window bars, impact resistant doors & windows, frame enforcement etc. All of these elements are static and passive in nature and require no human intervention to operate.

- Reactive Elements: Are any solutions that turn on (activate) based on an external stimulus and do X vs Y.

All of the above offers you the most valuable thing a person needs during an emergency - time! Time is the victor and this is the difference between you getting out of bed, calling the FD, PD, EMS. This is the difference between fumes from a fire that overcome you vs you getting out. This is the difference between a the FD coming on time to put out a small fire vs a complete loss of your home. This is the difference between you sitting in the living room watching Sunday night football and someone breaching the door in a home invasion.

Time, allows you to react from - flee to fight . . .

As it relates to a CS (Central Station) for a security alarm system those who self monitor have already cut their chances of survival to 20%. The only goal of a CS is to monitor your home for all manner of threats from fire, CO, leak, low / high temp, sump failure, duress, burglary, heart attack, etc.

While you're asleep / away trained staff are the guardians of your property 24.7.365.

Having a monitored security alarm system also offers a reduction of home insurance - who doesn't like a discount???

As noted, there are four rings to true security and all other elements within those rings. Don't focus on just the bells & whistles that offer you nothing to do with - time.

 

[OBXJeepGuy]

I liked having my cameras viewable on the Roku IP Cam Viewer app. Now that I have the cameras on a separate subnet, I can't do that anymore.

 

[Duh987]

For the benefit of others who may stumble upon this thread and interested in the same as it relates to security. A few basics need to be accepted and understood otherwise everything done is - half measures.

- True Security: Is a mental attitude and way of life that enforces situational awareness at all times.

- Security Audit: In general terms one must identify the level of threat they are exposed to whether it be animal, human, natural, environmental. Given the vast majority of people live in the city almost every major government tracks all manner of crime statistics. Many more offer heat maps which indicate the type of crime in your area and the frequency of. Once the threats are known the next step is to identify all of the weak points in your lifestyle, home, business, etc.

- Intelligence: This next aspect (4 rings) is one of the major pillars of true security. That is obtaining live, ongoing, and historic data that relates to the current threat / future threats. The phrase First to know - First to act is a truism that every combat / intelligence agency lives and breathes. If you know a thing you can prevent or mitigate a thing so having multiple sources of information is key.

it should be pointed out collating information and data is worthless unless you're able to digest and understand the same on a timely manner. You finding out there's a tornado coming your way five minutes later offers you nothing.

- Force Protection: Are the physical barriers that protect the home whether it be fencing, gates, bollards, concrete barriers, window bars, impact resistant doors & windows, frame enforcement etc. All of these elements are static and passive in nature and require no human intervention to operate.

- Reactive Elements: Are any solutions that turn on (activate) based on an external stimulus and do X vs Y.

All of the above offers you the most valuable thing a person needs during an emergency - time! Time is the victor and this is the difference between you getting out of bed, calling the FD, PD, EMS. This is the difference between fumes from a fire that overcome you vs you getting out. This is the difference between a the FD coming on time to put out a small fire vs a complete loss of your home. This is the difference between you sitting in the living room watching Sunday night football and someone breaching the door in a home invasion.

Time, allows you to react from - flee to fight . . .

As it relates to a CS (Central Station) for a security alarm system those who self monitor have already cut their chances of survival to 20%. The only goal of a CS is to monitor your home for all manner of threats from fire, CO, leak, low / high temp, sump failure, duress, burglary, heart attack, etc.

While you're asleep / away trained staff are the guardians of your property 24.7.365.

Having a monitored security alarm system also offers a reduction of home insurance - who doesn't like a discount???

As noted, there are four rings to true security and all other elements within those rings. Don't focus on just the bells & whistles that offer you nothing to do with - time.

Monitored systems are a joke and it's a discount on home insurance, not actual savings when you compare the money spent on the monitoring. Monitored systems have been repeatedly shown to have slower response times compared to homeowner calling the police. All monitored alarms delay response time by call the homeowner to confirm it is an actual emergency before attempting a real dispatch. By trained staff, you mean a person that gets a 2-day class by clicking a button to an automated alarm?

You are much better off self-monitoring, it's very easy to do and you can loop family in on the alerts too. This is a hill I will die on.

 

[Duh987]

I liked having my cameras viewable on the Roku IP Cam Viewer app. Now that I have the cameras on a separate subnet, I can't do that anymore.

Sure you can. Your NVR can rebroadcast the RTSP feeds. I don't use that app though on my roku and just stuck a Chromecast in the back. Home assistant has automation to cast an active camera to that Chromecast and automatically pop it the active camera for me.

 

[icpilot]

I wanted to start a thread on what I have recently done with an IP camera setup using Blue Iris, to protect my home. I have had IP cameras around the house for the last 11 years+, and using Blue Iris for 6 years. During a recent event where an intruder was breaking into the house while I was at home, I have upgraded a few things for alerts and monitoring. During this night intrusion, I did not even know it was happening, even though they were ~4m from me, while I was watching TV inside. I have been very complacent over the last few decades and did not have all my capabilities enabled. It has been very quiet around here. I had 10 Dahua cameras around the house, but only used about half of them to alert me of movement through Blue Iris while at home. While away, all cameras were enabled to alert me of movement through BI app, along with remote/local viewing using UI3.

Fast forward to today. I have upgraded all my older Dahua 2MP cameras to the Dahua 4MP 5442 series (14 total). Not only the better resolution, but the IVS motion detection firmware is superior (less false alarms) to the older 2MP cameras. No longer use BI motion detection, only the Dahua camera's IVS motion detection to externally trigger BI, which results in extremely low false alarms. Maybe 1 every couple weeks. Have not ventured into DS, yet. Also added additional external IR lighting, because I keep it very dark outside. All cameras record continuous mainstream video, so upgraded HD from 6 TB WD Purple to 14TB WD Purple. Memory is cheap. I do not wish to record substreams, but use substreams on BI console and UI3 monitors to keep CPU usage down.

BI is now set up to alert me for all movement from outside and garage cameras 24/7, while at home. Before, only the front cameras alerted while at home. I use 4 new/old Android phones (BI app) scattered around the house so I can hear alerts awake or deep sleep. It echoes throughout the house! While away, All cameras alert me through the BI app. I have different alert tones for different locations, so I know exactly where there is movement without looking at the phone. Some locations, I will get 3 different location alerts before they reach a door. I also set up SMS/MMS alert redundancy (with pics) while away. I am hoping that Ken from Blue Iris will implement the capability to add our own wav files to BI alert audio files. Right now you can only add wav files for BI console use, but BI will not recognize them in the Alert GUI that is sent to the phone app. Would be nice to have a voice say a particular location, instead of just an alert tone. It gets somewhat confusing with lots of cameras.

Have upgraded all my home BI dedicated TV displays (3) to 40", to better view more cameras. I have Amazon Firesticks and can use the remote to bring up BI UI3 utility in less than 13 seconds (cold start) for a real time maximized view. Whatever room I am in, the BI UI3 display TV with real time view is always on.

I have also always had a complete separate (very loud) house alarm system that I now set at night while at home and away. I monitor the system myself, through audio triggers from the inside cameras, then triggers BI for my alerts. In Florida, if you have a monitored alarm company, they have to try to contact you 2X, before they can call LEO. I don't know how long they take between 2 calls. In my area, false alarm call fines start at $80, and rise to $500 / call. Florida Call Fines I think I can contact LEO faster than monitoring Company, and give the 911 operator a play by play on what I see real time from the cameras. I store the local Sheriff office number on my phone for when I am out of State.

Some of you may think, what the hell is with this paranoid guy? Well, this is the World we live in now. I live in a nicer part of town, but with Biden Admin opening our South Border, Fentenal, and bad people are pouring into our Country. It is coming to a neighborhood near you, if not already in my case.

So when people state that cameras are only good for after the fact, the system is not set up correctly. I hope others will post their system descriptions and lessons learned on this thread. I welcome any critique. Stay safe!

Few pics of UI3 TV monitors throughout the house. Your wife will love it!

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Really good write-up.

I read something recently that described security cameras as a modern day 'moat' (absent the alligators, of course). Since returning to my family home several years ago, I no longer reside in an area with minimal criminal activity. This area was recently identified as one of the ten (10) most crime-ridden neighborhoods in the Phoenix metro area and I see it every day. Security is not optional here, and the difference between a good system and a mediocre system can be life or death, as seen in this recent Phoenix incident .... .

 

[Teken]

Monitored systems are a joke and it's a discount on home insurance, not actual savings when you compare the money spent on the monitoring. Monitored systems have been repeatedly shown to have slower response times compared to homeowner calling the police. All monitored alarms delay response time by call the homeowner to confirm it is an actual emergency before attempting a real dispatch. By trained staff, you mean a person that gets a 2-day class by clicking a button to an automated alarm?

You are much better off self-monitoring, it's very easy to do and you can loop family in on the alerts too. This is a hill I will die on.

The reality and facts would counter and negate your assertion that self monitoring - is better. The words I've bolded in blue from you more than likely will come to pass. As the statistics of people who self monitor and experience a fire / CO incident are the one's that pass on because they truly believe they will wake up during a raging fire.

The historic facts all across North America as it relates to just a fire show that the vast majority of people die from inhalation (VOC) well before the fire ever touched their feet. A CS is like any service a person buys and has enforce such as insurance.

Everyone pays insurance on something from boat, car, bike, home, trailer . . .

The vast majority of citizens will never see the benefits of the annual insurance they pay out. Yet, every year all across North America natural disasters from man made incidence occur to the same. The only thing that will ever come close to making a person whole is financial compensation to pick up the broken pieces.

99% of the population will never ever use the services of the CS for the security alarm system. Like insurance on that faithful day when needed their isn't a soul that will argue or cry about the annual fee they paid out when it saved their loved ones and something people have worked their entire life to attain - a home.

One can have conviction on a million things that impact our lives. Spending money on an extra pair of eyes that's dedicated 24.7.365 to protect the only thing that matters life and property is - well spent.

 

[handinpalm]

Monitored systems are a joke and it's a discount on home insurance, not actual savings when you compare the money spent on the monitoring. Monitored systems have been repeatedly shown to have slower response times compared to homeowner calling the police. All monitored alarms delay response time by call the homeowner to confirm it is an actual emergency before attempting a real dispatch. By trained staff, you mean a person that gets a 2-day class by clicking a button to an automated alarm?

You are much better off self-monitoring, it's very easy to do and you can loop family in on the alerts too. This is a hill I will die on.

I could not agree with you more. I always have to think, "What type of people sit in a building somewhere waiting for alarms, especially this day and age?" I would think not too smart, half are probably asleep on a slow night and the other half have a drug induced high. You get what you pay for, and I am sure the Monitoring company's don't pay shit.

As far as other safety such as fires/CO2, that is why I have battery smoke detectors in every room that are backed up by 120V power, along with 2 CO2 detectors. I mostly fear a burglary, and I think I can beat them to the punch.

The major loss I expect in the future is from a Hurricane. A central station monitoring company is not going to help me there.

 

[Duh987]

The reality and facts would counter and negate your assertion that self monitoring - is better. The words I've bolded in blue from you more than likely will come to pass. As the statistics of people who self monitor and experience a fire / CO incident are the one's that pass on because they truly believe they will wake up during a raging fire.

The historic facts all across North America as it relates to just a fire show that the vast majority of people die from inhalation (VOC) well before the fire ever touched their feet. A CS is like any service a person buys and has enforce such as insurance.

Everyone pays insurance on something from boat, car, bike, home, trailer . . .

The vast majority of citizens will never see the benefits of the annual insurance they pay out. Yet, every year all across North America natural disasters from man made incidence occur to the same. The only thing that will ever come close to making a person whole is financial compensation to pick up the broken pieces.

99% of the population will never ever use the services of the CS for the security alarm system. Like insurance on that faithful day when needed their isn't a soul that will argue or cry about the annual fee they paid out when it saved their loved ones and something people have worked their entire life to attain - a home.

One can have conviction on a million things that impact our lives. Spending money on an extra pair of eyes that's dedicated 24.7.365 to protect the only thing that matters life and property is - well spent.

I hope so, I don't like living on this planet anyway. But no, I won't. There is no way that a 3rd party alarm dispatcher will save me from a fire before my smoke detectors/CO detectors. Won't happen and implying otherwise is silly. If I don't wake up to a blaring alarm in my room I am not waking up to a cell phone call and the fire dept will not make big difference in time to actually get me out of my house as you yourself stated the smoke has killed people way before the fire. My smoke detectors need to be going off before the alarm company would be notified. I am not even sure what point you are trying to make with the next several sentences. You seem to be trying to justify a alarm by saying insurance is good. No kidding insurance is good, doesn't make monitored service good. Monitor services just like the police are minutes away well they double the minutes on top of how far the police are away but sure I am sure they have helped a few people. My point is I am not willing to put my safety in the hands of a company that doesn't have an interest in my safety especially for something that I can do better myself.

 

[Duh987]

I could not agree with you more. I always have to think, "What type of people sit in a building somewhere waiting for alarms, especially this day and age?" I would think not too smart, half are probably asleep on a slow night and the other half have a drug induced high. You get what you pay for, and I am sure the Monitoring company's don't pay shit.

As far as other safety such as fires/CO2, that is why I have battery smoke detectors in every room that are backed up by 120V power, along with 2 CO2 detectors. I mostly fear a burglary, and I think I can beat them to the punch.

The major loss I expect in the future is from a Hurricane. A central station monitoring company is not going to help me there.

I have had recruiters for ADT reach out to offer me a job as I list some of my security background and my IT work on my LinkedIn. ADT offered $18/hour so the pay is not the absolute bottom of the barrel when it comes to pay but not enough to get you people will really care. Furthermore, I think that these monitoring companies do exactly what you pay them to do and if that makes you feel all warm and safe inside more power to you. I think they charge way more than they should but at least we companies like simplisafe and Ring at $10-15/month is much more in line with what I think they should cost. I have heard of ADT charging upwards of $180/month. Still, none of that actually makes you safer, we had a monitored alarm as I was growing up. I set it off constantly and without fail the cops never showed up, they always called. A family friend installed simplisafe and to their credit, they called but her phone was dead and police did actually show up but it was 45 minutes after the event. So again, If you are expecting some life-saving miracle provided by these monitored services I have bad news. You are much better off self-monitoring designating family members to be alerted if something happens and you are going to be un-reachable.

 

[Teken]

I hope so, I don't like living on this planet anyway. But no, I won't. There is no way that a 3rd party alarm dispatcher will save me from a fire before my smoke detectors/CO detectors. Won't happen and implying otherwise is silly. If I don't wake up to a blaring alarm in my room I am not waking up to a cell phone call and the fire dept will not make big difference in time to actually get me out of my house as you yourself stated the smoke has killed people way before the fire. My smoke detectors need to be going off before the alarm company would be notified. I am not even sure what point you are trying to make with the next several sentences. You seem to be trying to justify a alarm by saying insurance is good. No kidding insurance is good, doesn't make monitored service good. Monitor services just like the police are minutes away well they double the minutes on top of how far the police are away but sure I am sure they have helped a few people. My point is I am not willing to put my safety in the hands of a company that doesn't have an interest in my safety especially for something that I can do better myself.

I used the example of insurance because it directly relates to the topic at hand and everyone can relate. 99% of the population will never ever see the benefits of insurance that spans possessions to health care. Yet, everyone knows the proper insurance enforced is the only thing that will come close to making a person whole.

There are probably millions of examples where a person will say X insurance company sucks. The opposite is also true where people will affirm Y was a fantastic insurance company to deal with in their time of need. There's good, bad, ugly CS companies all over the globe does this mean all of them are bad and offer no value???

You think every financial, enterprise, government, name any serious installation pays for monitoring because it doesn't work or offer the value and protection they advertise?!?!

It's a free market and anything can be had that spans good, bad, ugly . . .

The reality is a single person can't be awake, available, everything in between - 24.7.365.

I'm not here to sell you anything or change your mind as to why a monitored alarm system makes sense. I am simply affirming the material facts that this service exists because there's a need and it works. Every good system has a backup and a CS along with a family, friends, neighbor, are all part of that backup system.

All three of those contacts don't need to sleep, go on holidays, will be out of cellular range, a million possibilities to list out??? Yet, a CS is paid to do only one thing with staff on the clock 24.7.365 in three rotations to serve their clients. That is to let you live your life and go do whatever you want to do all the while they monitor your home / family.

 

[Duh987]

I used the example of insurance because it directly relates to the topic at hand and everyone can relate. 99% of the population will never ever see the benefits of insurance that spans possessions to health care. Yet, everyone knows the proper insurance enforced is the only thing that will come close to making a person whole.

There are probably millions of examples where a person will say X insurance company sucks. The opposite is also true where people will affirm Y was a fantastic insurance company to deal with in their time of need. There's good, bad, ugly CS companies all over the globe does this mean all of them are bad and offer no value???

You think every financial, enterprise, government, name any serious installation pays for monitoring because it doesn't work or offer the value and protection they advertise?!?!

It's a free market and anything can be had that spans good, bad, ugly . . .

The reality is a single person can't be awake, available, everything in between - 24.7.365.

I'm not here to sell you anything or change your mind as to why a monitored alarm system makes sense. I am simply affirming the material facts that this service exists because there's a need and it works. Every good system has a backup and a CS along with a family, friends, neighbor, are all part of that backup system.

All three of those contacts don't need to sleep, go on holidays, will be out of cellular range, a million possibilities to list out??? Yet, a CS is paid to do only one thing with staff on the clock 24.7.365 in three rotations to serve their clients. That is to let you live your life and go do whatever you want to do all the while they monitor your home / family.

I am just saying that alarm companies exist because it makes people feel safe, not because it actually makes you safer. Before cellphones, were as widespread as they are now they may have had a purpose, now unless you are in an airplane or really in the middle of now where you are not unreachable. Which again has been shown repeatedly by their response times. I will have to look again to find it but Simplisafe in their TOS on guarantees to call dispatch, they do not promise someone will actually be dispatched. I am sure this is in other providers' TOS as well as each local government has different rules when it comes to dispatching for alarms. Most do in fact have different SOP for Automated alarms vs homeowner calling and they are treated at a lower priority because they are automated and that usually means no risk of physical harm at least for robbery. Yes, not one is available 24/7 but chances of me and the other 4 people I have tied to my alarm notification all being unavailable at the same time is so incredibly low, it's not a real concern.

For the sake of the argument, my alarm goes off and it is in away mode, 2x 110db sirens go off which you can hear outside my home at a very noticeable volume. I get notifications to my phone with images from the camera closest to the alarm sensor, these also go to my four contacts, and because I can and I wanted to my outdoor lights also start flashing red and blue, which I have told my neighbors means my alarm has been triggered. That all happens if you breach my door or windows. I start getting notifications as soon as you step on my property in the form of images taken from the camera that picked you up with a link to the video feed. So all in the span of less than a minute I have been able to confirm that yes, my house has actually been breached and can start dialing the cops, quicker if I was already looking at the camera notifications.

Home mode, same thing but more. the room I am in switches the google hub or tv to the video feed, my google homes announce something has been spotted and at night my lights turn on and if they make entry the siren in the basement goes off instead of both as I don't want my ears completely rattling if I end up having to take shots at someone breaking in. Along with the 4 contacts getting notifications and the lights flash red/blue.

Fire/co is more of the same, notifications are sent and all my doors unlock and the lights come on if they are able and google homes announces fire/co warnings.

Furthermore, my cameras are not hidden and I have a few active deterrence models, so I am still working on accessing the sirens with home assistant but that will be coming to both alarm modes. Hard to say that someone in my neighborhood wouldn't call the cops hearing at that point 4 different sirens going off.

 

[fenderman]

A family friend installed simplisafe and to their credit, they called but her phone was dead and police did actually show up but it was 45 minutes after the event.

There are plenty of options for cheap monitoring. While in some municipalities the response time is really slow, in others its not. A friend had a false alarm this weekend due to a malfunction in a 30 year old hard wire system. The response time was under 10 minuets. Two cars. Its just another layer.

 

[samplenhold]

During a recent event where an intruder was breaking into the house while I was at home, I have upgraded a few things for alerts and monitoring. During this night intrusion, I did not even know it was happening, even though they were ~4m from me, while I was watching TV inside.

So how did it play out? Did they gain access? Are you and your family ok?

As far as monitoring, everyone's situation is different. For me the reason I like having a monitored alarm is that for 4-5 months a year we are out of town. We travel in our RV and while I could go the route of self-monitoring, that would be problematic while I am driving the RV. I put about 15k miles each year on it and having to attend to an alert or alarm while driving would not work for me.

I have been lucky in this house for the past 10 years. Very few false alarms and all when I was home. Every one of them was due to a hard-wired window switch gone bad.

Not so in my old home. While we were in Nigeria and my daughter was living in our home, she went to visit friends for the weekend and left a balloon tied to the kitchen chair. Every time the AC kicked on, it blew the balloon around and set off the motion detector. Came home a few months later to a $400 bill, plus late fees, from the county for those false alarms.

 

[handinpalm]

So how did it play out? Did they gain access? Are you and your family ok?

As far as monitoring, everyone's situation is different. For me the reason I like having a monitored alarm is that for 4-5 months a year we are out of town.

The intruder is sitting in the State Penn for 26 months for felony burglary. We are safe, but the intruder would not have been safe if I found her that night. Things are different now, and I am even more ready. The things you learn after something happens. It is easy to become complacent.

Monitoring company could be a good idea when you travel a lot and no one else to look over things. There are lots of places to loose cell service for awhile. But then again monitoring may not always work. Here is a recent article about a local church that relied on ADT monitoring. That guy had one hell of a time!

Church Break-in and ADT failed

 

[bradner]

Have upgraded all my home BI dedicated TV displays (3) to 40", to better view more cameras. I have Amazon Firesticks and can use the remote to bring up BI UI3 utility in less than 13 seconds (cold start) for a real time maximized view. Whatever room I am in, the BI UI3 display TV with real time view is always on.

Thanks for posting this. I have a question on how you implement BI UI3 from a cold start on your Firesticks.

I haven't had good luck yet making them autostart maximized into the UI3 from a cold start. I still need to manually choose the Chrome app on two of my FireTV's when they start from cold. I have two others using an app to load Chrome at boot but it doesn't seem to work on two of the FireTV's.

Also, any tips on getting IVS to work so well in the 5442's? My family seems to want to have the animal captures so I'm not sure if I can have both scenarios - capturing animal movement and accurate people detection via IVS without false alarms. I have not ventured into DS either as my BI system is barely strong enough for what it's handling now.

Thanks for posting.