We spend an enormous amount of money to live in good neighborhoods in New York. We all want great schools for our kids, safe streets, nice neighbors, close proximity to Manhattan, etc. And, to live in these neighborhoods is flat out expensive – but we all figure out ways to do it.
Is it just me or has the recession challenged the safety of our homes and families in our good neighborhoods?
Are your local newspapers now reporting more residential crimes and store break-ins?
Are your neighbors and friends talking more about criminal incidents happening in your local communities?
Are you now making sure your alarm system is up to date, working properly, and “on” more often?
OR
Is it time to step it up and install video surveillance systems for the house?
You’ve probably read or heard about video surveillance technologies becoming more sophisticated, easier to implement/use, and less costly. They are no longer that thing only big companies and government can afford. More importantly for a guy like me, they are now IP Addressable, meaning they can connect to a network (like the one in your house, assuming you have a router) record to a hard drive, and viewable from any Internet connection.
So, for a few hundred bucks you can get a decent wired or wireless IP-based video camera and spend Sunday afternoon setting it up. There are several reasonably-priced vendors that provide the cameras and software needed to run an IP-based video surveillance system:
- Axis
- D-Link
- TRENDnet
- Panasonic
- Lots more vendors to choose from
There are also many video camera bells and whistles to choose from, such as indoor/outdoor (weatherproof,) motion sensing recording (so you only record if there is motion,) night vision (so you can record in the dark,) pan/tilt (so you can remotely adjust the positioning of the camera,) wired or wireless (so no need for a network cable,) differing levels of video quality, remote storage, and the list goes on.
If you are OK with the expense – the next questions to grapple with are:
Do I actually want to monitor my house or is that an invasion of my families privacy?
Where do I want to monitor activity… outside and inside the house?
Are there any legal issues associated with residential video monitoring?
Share your thoughts?
