The Automation Guy
Known around here
My in-laws have two homes where they already use Ring doorbell cameras. They are installing a pool this year at the second residence and want to add a couple more cameras. Because they know what I have done at my house, they asked what I would suggest.
They would like "overview" coverage of the pool (rear yard) and possibly the driveway (front yard). I believe they currently only use the "free" Ring service, which means no recording of footage, but only live action. They are completely comfortable with this as they have had Ring doorbells at both residents for years and never recorded any footage from them. Furthermore, this is all they are interested in having with the new cameras (ie live action but no recordings). I also had a long conversation with them about "Identifying" vs "Observing" and they really only expect to be able to observe someone. This makes sense because if they aren't recording the footage, then they really don't need to identify someone, so at least their expectations match "reality" so far. They just want to be able to open the app and see if someone is in their driveway or hanging around the pool.
My first reaction is to put up some Dahua full time color cameras and record to SD cards, "just in case". However it is the remote access that is drawing me to consider Ring. They already use the Ring app and it would be trivial to add a couple more cameras. If I use another camera solution, I'd have to come up with some sort of VPN service at this location and I have no idea if their current router supports it or not. I suspect their router will support at least OpenVPN, but it's still an unknown at this point. I'd rather not jump to using a NVR or BI because it's just more devices that I will end up having to support for them, and they really don't expect any footage to be recorded/retained. Even if I can set up a VPN service, I would then have to train them to use another method to access the cameras (local camera addresses saved in their browser??) and the end result will almost certainly be more complicated than using the Ring app that they are already comfortable with. Plus either I would have to replace the doorbell cameras, or they would have two different methods they would have to use to access their cameras.
Long story short, they really don't need/care about getting the highest quality images, they don't expect to record footage, and they are already familiar with the Ring app. I think the easiest solution is to add a couple Ring spot light cameras and call it a day. Thoughts?
They would like "overview" coverage of the pool (rear yard) and possibly the driveway (front yard). I believe they currently only use the "free" Ring service, which means no recording of footage, but only live action. They are completely comfortable with this as they have had Ring doorbells at both residents for years and never recorded any footage from them. Furthermore, this is all they are interested in having with the new cameras (ie live action but no recordings). I also had a long conversation with them about "Identifying" vs "Observing" and they really only expect to be able to observe someone. This makes sense because if they aren't recording the footage, then they really don't need to identify someone, so at least their expectations match "reality" so far. They just want to be able to open the app and see if someone is in their driveway or hanging around the pool.
My first reaction is to put up some Dahua full time color cameras and record to SD cards, "just in case". However it is the remote access that is drawing me to consider Ring. They already use the Ring app and it would be trivial to add a couple more cameras. If I use another camera solution, I'd have to come up with some sort of VPN service at this location and I have no idea if their current router supports it or not. I suspect their router will support at least OpenVPN, but it's still an unknown at this point. I'd rather not jump to using a NVR or BI because it's just more devices that I will end up having to support for them, and they really don't expect any footage to be recorded/retained. Even if I can set up a VPN service, I would then have to train them to use another method to access the cameras (local camera addresses saved in their browser??) and the end result will almost certainly be more complicated than using the Ring app that they are already comfortable with. Plus either I would have to replace the doorbell cameras, or they would have two different methods they would have to use to access their cameras.
Long story short, they really don't need/care about getting the highest quality images, they don't expect to record footage, and they are already familiar with the Ring app. I think the easiest solution is to add a couple Ring spot light cameras and call it a day. Thoughts?
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