If you’ve ever wanted to install a video security camera system at your house, but didn’t know where to start because all the wiring — and the cost involved, now there’s a wireless solution that really works: The Arlo Pro Wireless Security Camera System.
Our house is an English tudor-style home built in 1929. The attic spaces are not at all friendly to running wires and I certainly didn’t want to have to add electrical outlets in order to place a video security system in every area needed around my home.
Over the past couple of years, we tried various wireless systems, including The Ring Doorbell. We were never able to get this system to work due to a very long delay between someone setting off the device and its ability to record the “visitor”. The best this system could do was maybe record their back as they left or fled. We wound up sending this system back to the manufacturer.
Ever since then, we’ve been waiting for wireless camera systems to improve. Recently, the Arlo Pro Wireless Security Camera landed on our radar screen and we decided to give wireless security camera technology another try. And I’m glad we did, because the Arlo Pro is pretty darned good. Not perfect, but it gets the job done well enough to where we feel safe. And it was easy to install and setup.
Below is a breakdown of some of the key features of the Arlo Pro wireless security camera system:
- In this case wireless really means wire free. Each camera has its own battery. They are proprietary batteries that come with the system. You do have to buy a separate battery charger which comes with an extra battery. This way you can easily change out batteries and put the run down one on the charger. Without the separate charger, you would have to remove each camera and plug it in to charge.
- You can view it on your smart phone or your iMac or desktop computer. There’s an app to install on your phone that will send you notifications and emails when motion is detected.
- You can also view the cameras live and talk to the person who is on-camera but this does run the camera battery down faster.
- You can set it up to have a siren go off if motion is detected. The siren is on the base unit which is located in the house.
- The setup is easy – there is a base unit that needs to be located near your router. I highly recommend getting a wifi range extender, in that case you plug the base unit into the extender. An extender will help extend the distance your wifi will go away from the router giving the exterior cameras more wifi signal.
- There is a slight delay in the motion detection but our’s is only a few seconds. When motion is detected is the camera has to “wake up” causing a slight delay. The slower your wifi connection speed the longer it takes to wake up. This is also why I recommend the wifi range extender. It will help some with the delay.
- The quality is very good. Night vision picks up good also.
Are there Downsides to the Arlo Pro?
Yes. The major downside I’ve found is that the cameras record in “bursts” ranging form 6 to 12 seconds or so. At first this bothered me, but I soon realized that that is plenty of time to “ID” someone. You can also set the system to continue recording in bursts until the motion stops. So, you get a lot of video.
Another downside is the audio from the camera isn’t that great. It is not as good as what you get from your iphone, but at least its there. The sound recorded from each video burst is very good. You can hear everything and it picks up very well.
Other Features of the Arlo Pro Wireless Security Camera System
Each camera is adjustable as to sensitivity, which is a cool feature. You can also turn cameras off…say you’re doing yard work and there’s a camera pointing to your deck. You can turn off that camera. Just don’t forget to turn it back on!
Overall, we’ve been very pleased with the Arlo Pro Wireless Security Camera System. It sure beats running all those wires!
Arlo Pro:
http://amzn.to/2vxgGG0
Arlo Pro Charging Station Bundle with Rechargeable Battery
http://amzn.to/2fEXoJw
