Home Surveillance Camera System

I’m finally back! Thankfully, I was able to monitor my home throughout the month-long break in Perth, using M1’s novel Internet home surveillance system, aptly named Home Camera (currently free!).

Disclosure: I’m currently providing SEO work for Wireless Intellect Labs on their Home Camera service. Nonetheless, this post is an unbiased review that was written from my point of view as a customer.

We live in a 7,000 sq. foot house in a densely populated area in Malacca. Although not as notorious as KL or JB, still we’ve had several break-ins here in the past year. Since this was the first time leaving our maid alone at home and for such a long period, we felt it necessary to finally get a home monitoring system.

Our requirements were quite simple:
1) Hassle-free - no messy installations and cabling.
2) Convenient - easily store, find and browse the recorded videos.
3) Smart - motion detection, SMS notification, multi-cameras, etc.
4) Accessible - view over the Internet by anyone using any device.
5) Affordable.

I found the perfect solution in Home Camera, created by Singapore’s Wireless Intellect Labs (a division of M1). Still in beta, the system was mostly designed to work with webcams. However, I got it to work with Dlink’s DCS-2120 wireless IP camera (approx. S$250), thanks to the timely release of an updated firmware by the Home Camera team.

Setting Up

Dlink DCS-2120 Wireless IP Camera

Setting up a DCS-2120 (640×480 VGA) camera with Home Camera was easy:
1) Create an account at HomeCamera.com.
2) Update your DCS-2120 camera’s firmware if necessary.
3) Configure the Home Camera options page.
4) Configure the image/video settings, motion detection, etc.
5) Connect the DCS-2120 to your home’s wireless network.

Setup for use with webcams is much easier and done using Home Camera’s software.

Motion detection is a great feature by the way. Unlike traditional CCTV systems where you’re forced to record continuous videos (and have trouble finding specific scenes later), Dlink’s DCS-2120 let’s you record only when motion is detected in certain areas of the frame. You can also adjust the sensitivity, time-lapse between videos, and even specify times and days for a more useful recording.

Motion Detection Camera

Using Home Camera
Whenever a motion is detected, an image or video is automatically uploaded to the Home Camera server where you can playback online, or send to your email or mobile phone (mobile credits required). You can also take a snapshot or record a video on-demand using the control panel.

I particularly like being able to send an SMS command to record an image or video, and have it sent immediately to my mobile phone. Home Camera also provides a special page, albeit with limited options, for mobile devices using WAP - everything seems to have been well thought out.

Home Camera Control Panel

You’re given 200MB free storage with options for paid upgrades. Once your storage is used up, the oldest 10MB of images/videos are deleted. How much can the 200MB store? Configuring my camera to record at 320×240, 30 fps, “Excellent” video quality and 12Kbps GSM-AMR audio quality, I got the following:
a) sample image (.jpg) - 12KB
b) 43-second sample video (.3gp; requires Quicktime) - 297KB
Note: right-click and select “Save As” to download the sample recordings.

Hence, the 200MB storage would allow you to store more than 17,000 images or 490 minutes of videos. Another point worth noting is that Home Camera let’s you configure up to 4 cameras with one account, i.e. you can view up to 4 cameras with one account.

Home Camera Surveillance Archives

The service is currently free to use but expect 2 types of fees once it’s officially launched:
a) A monthly fee for using the service.
b) Credits for sending alerts and image/video links to your mobile phone.

After a month of use, I’m definitely happy with both Dlink’s DCS-2120 and the Home Camera service. Infact, I’m planning to add 2 more cameras and install them permanently at better locations - yup, I realized that my cameras aren’t at the most ideal locations currently.

That said, I do have some features on my wishlist (hint, hint) for both:
- higher resolution, better compression, bigger storage.
- the ability to stream videos in real-time.
- pan, tilt and zoom, and infrared for night time monitoring.