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Trendnet TV-IP422W IP Camera

Michael Brown — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:30:51 -0500

Trendnet’s TV-IP422W wireless IP camera reminds us of the Zonet ZVC7630W camera we reviewed a few months back. Both cameras have night vision, both offer the same fuzzy video at VGA resolution (640x480), and both use the same unintuitive software. Trendet’s camera costs about $50 more, but it offers two important features that Zonet’s doesn’t: motorized pan and tilt.

The pan and tilt functions enable one camera to cover much more area, which can reduce the total number of cameras you need to deploy. The TV-IP422W can pan in a 330-degree arc, tilt up 90 degrees, and tilt down 15 degrees. Trendnet includes a kit that allows you to mount the camera to any vertical or horizontal surface, but you’ll need a weatherized enclosure if you decide to install the camera outdoors.

You can remotely control a single camera using Internet Explorer and an ActiveX control. Multi-camera management must be performed using the bundled SecurView software. Repositioning the camera’s focal point with this tool is a simple matter of clicking anywhere in the video window. You can also have the camera memorize up to eight positions, enabling you to quickly swing the lens around to focus on a specific spot. A “patrol” mode will automatically cycle the lens to each of its extreme once. Infrared LEDs encircling the lens delivers very effective night vision.

A built-in mic enables you to monitor what’s happening around the camera; plug a powered speaker into the line-level output and you have a functional intercom (in multi-camera configurations—the software supports up to 16—only one can record sound at a time).

The camera has a 100Mb/sec Ethernet interface, but it can also operate wirelessly over an 802.11g network; unfortunately, this will prevent you from operating your 802.11n network in N mode only. A motion detector can activate the recording of video sequences or snapshots; you can also schedule recordings. The software can send event-based email alerts (with still images attached), and a trigger output can be used to activate an external device, such as an alarm. There’s a USB 1.1 port for local storage or for uploading the settings the camera needs to connect to your Wi-Fi network.

You can access the cameras remotely, too (i.e., over the Internet or on a cell phone that supports the 3GPP specification), but if your broadband ISP uses dynamic IP addressing, as most do, you’ll need to sign up with a dynamic DNS hosting service (establishing a unique hostname for each) and configure your router for port forwarding to make this work. And then you’ll need to open a separate browser window to view each camera.

We really dig the Trendnet TV-IP422W’s pan/tilt and intercom features, but the bundled software is the same dreck that Zonet ships with its product. As we mentioned in our Zonet review, Logitech’s Wi-Life camera system has far superior software, particularly in the areas of remote management and multi-camera support; that’s the one reason we remain so enchanted with Wi-Life.

Logitech to Acquire WiLife

Michael Brown — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 11:31:44 -0600

Logitech will expand its presence in the “digital home” market by acquiring WiLife, makers of video surveillance systems for homes and small businesses. This sounds like a great move for both companies, as Logitech acquires a great stable of new products and WiLife gains access to a significantly larger distribution channel.

I reviewed WiLife’s Lukwerks Surveillance Starter Kit in the September 2007 issue of Maximum PC, and awarded the product a solid 9. I just barely held back giving them a Kick Ass award because the product line is limited to surveillance cameras. If Logitech expands the product line to include motion sensors and intrusion-detection modules, such as what iControl offers in its subscription-based package (I rated it a “7” in the same issue), they’ll have an awesome product on their hands.

WiLife offers a whole range of indoor and outdoor cameras that operate on a dedicated powerline-based network.

Logitech will pay $24 million for WiLife, “plus a possible performance-based payment, tied to reaching certain future revenue targets,” according to a Logitech press release. Logitech pointed to a Parks Associate market study that indicates there is “high interest in remote monitoring of their home with a videocamera” among broadband-connected households. The report claims there are 9.8 million homes in the U.S. alone. Logitech clearly expects this number to grow, and WiLife’s executives likely concluded that the company as it stood wasn’t large enough to reach that market on its own.

This marks Logitech’s third acquisition of a narrowly focused, trailblazing consumer electronics brand, following the company’s buyouts of Harmony (innovative remote controls) and Squeezebox (wireless audio-streaming). According to Logitech’s press release, the company’s management “views the long-term potential of the [WiLife] acquisition to be very promising,” but that it will not have a material impact in the current fiscal year, which ends in March 31, 2008.

iControl Advanced Starter Kit

Michael Brown — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:43:31 -0500

This month, we also reviewed the larger of iControl’s two starter kits, which consists of a wireless camera, a motion detector, an Intermatic Z-Wave lamp module, a door/window detector, a motion detector, a keychain remote, and a control module that plugs into your wireless router.

The starter kit is just that: It can be expanded with more than a dozen additional components, including smoke and water detectors, freeze sensors, thermostats, and more. While the WiLife system is limited to video cameras, cameras are but one aspect of iControl’s product: It moves far beyond monitoring visual events in and around your home, enabling you to control your home’s lighting and climate over the Internet. It also comes with a feature we’re not nearly as enthused about: a $15-per-month (or $150 per year) subscription fee.

The WiLife system is limited to generating alerts when its cameras detect motion; iControl’s software is more sophisticated: It can not only generate an alert based on readings from any of its sensors, but also alert you when an expected event doesn’t happen. If your front door doesn’t open by 3:00 PM, for instance, you can program the system to send a notification to your PC or smartphone that your child hasn’t arrived home from school.

IControl’s system is much broader than WiLife’s and it’s entirely web based, so you don’t need to install a software client on your PC. But that $15 per month service charge is hard to swallow.

WiLife Lukwerks Surveillance Starter Kit

Michael Brown — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:43:02 -0500

We nearly slapped WiLife’s Spy Camera Starter Kit with a Geek Tested: Disapproved label when we checked it out in our May 2007 issue. The camera was poorly disguised in the massive body of a fugly digital clock. But the company’s software was so impressive that we called in its Indoor Camera Starter Kit ($300) and an add-on outdoor camera ($230) for a full review.
Each of WiLife’s cameras uses HomePlug powerline networking, so you need only plug the cameras into wall outlets, hook a USB receiver to your PC, and install the software. We had a two-camera system up and working within 15 minutes.

The interior camera comes with a desktop stand, a wall/ceiling mount, and a suction cup for mounting to a window. The exterior model mounts to a wall or the ceiling. Both cameras are expensive, but each is outfitted with an onboard 400MHz DSP that compresses and encodes video to WMV9 format before it’s ever sent to your PC.

WiLife’s software can manage up to six cameras simultaneously with motion-activated video recording, and it can send text or video-clip alerts to your smartphone or email address whenever it detects unexpected activity. You can also establish up to 16 tracking zones for each camera, which enables them to ignore cars traveling on the street, for instance, but activate when someone approaches your door. WiLife also provides a free online account, so you can monitor your cameras from any web-enabled device.

WiLife is a fabulous video-surveillance system—and we dig the fact that there are no monthly fees—but its scope is limited: We’d like to see the company expand this product into a more complete home-control system.