How Does A Ring Camera Work

Information technology wasn't that long ago when installing security cameras and lighting effectually your dwelling was an expensive, cumbersome process. You lot needed to wire power and connectivity to the cameras, dig trenches or run wiring for the lights, and then rig upwards a system to control and monitor it all.

Ring's latest products this year address those challenges caput-on: they are cheap, like shooting fish in a barrel to install, and run on batteries or even solar so you don't have to run wiring to them at all. Ring has had battery-operated doorbells for a few years, only now, it has a whole suite of products that require no wiring and very little piece of work to install.

For the past few weeks, I've been testing Ring's Stick Up Cam, Smart Lighting, and Peephole Cam, each of which addresses a different need depending on your situation. If yous've been wanting to install security lighting and cameras in your home, it'south never been easier than at present.

Band Stick Up Cam

The $179 Stick Up Cam Bombardment is a battery-powered continued security camera, complete with motion alerts, full Hd resolution, and night vision. It can be mounted almost anywhere within or outside of your home in merely minutes.

One of the more clever things about the Stick Up Cam is its flexible, built-in stand, which lets you either identify it on a shelf or mantle inside or invert it and speedily install it under an awning outside with just three screws, as I've done. It tin can also be positioned to mount the camera flat against a wall.

From at that place, the Stick Upwardly Cam behaves very similarly to Ring'due south popular video doorbells: it connects to your habitation Wi-Fi network, records clips and provides push alerts to your telephone when information technology detects movement, and has a two-manner microphone and speaker so yous tin can communicate with someone who is in forepart of the camera with your telephone or Amazon Echo Prove. Yous can customize the range for the motion detection likewise as the time of solar day when you'll get alerts so yous don't get pinged all day long if it's well-nigh a busy entryway. Band'southward app provides a style to view clips that are captured past the camera every bit well every bit adjust its motion detection and alarm settings. The Stick Up Cam allows you to go motion alerts, view the alive feed, and use the ii-manner communication features out of the box. But to review whatsoever recordings, you'll need to pay for Ring'southward Protect deject service, which starts at $3 per month or $30 per yr.

I mounted the Stick Upward Cam above a deck on the side of my house, which seems to brand the most sense for this kind of production. I tin can have it monitor an entryway — the door to my deck — without the need to install a full doorbell that won't e'er be used. The Stick Up Cam uses the same bombardment every bit the Ring Video Doorbell and Video Doorbell 2, and in my testing, it should last nigh three months between charges. Ring too sells a wired version of the Stick Up Cam and i that comes with a solar panel, simply both of those require more complicated installs. Changing the bombardment doesn't even require taking the camera downwards from its mount, but if you're putting in a spot that's way high up and difficult to attain, you might want to consider just getting the wired version and deal with the extra install process at the beginning.

Smart Lighting

The new Smart Lighting line is Band'south first production of this kind, coming from the company's conquering of lighting company Mr Beams. Simplified, the Smart Lighting line is a set of outside lights and motion detectors for your home that are connected to the internet, so you tin manage them and get notifications from them in the Ring app. They function a lot similar Ring'southward diverse outdoor cameras, without the whole camera function.

The line includes floodlights, spotlights, a light to mount on steps, a move detector, and pathlights for a walkway. All of the lights can run on battery power and wirelessly communicate with the necessary $49.99 Smart Lighting Bridge to connect them to the net through your home Wi-Fi network. At that place's also a transformer that can exist installed on existing landscape lighting to connect that to Ring's organisation.

I've been testing the Pathlights, which are available in a two-pack with the Bridge included for $79.99 or standalone for $29.99, as well equally the $24.99 Smart Lighting Movement Sensor. The Pathlights really have move sensors built into them, so they don't need the secondary sensor, but if you want to trigger them from farther distances or effectually bullheaded corners, the movement sensor tin can do that wirelessly.

*The Ring Smart Lighting Pathlight has adjustable effulgence and 360 degrees of lighting. It also has a built-in motion sensor.*

The Pathlights run on four D-cell batteries for up to a twelvemonth, according to Ring, and they provide 360 degrees of lighting. You can suit the brightness, timeout duration, and when they plough on and off through the Ring app.

The Smart Lighting system is like shooting fish in a barrel to set — you do it all through the Ring app, and it tin be up and running in minutes — and requires no wiring or fourth dimension-consuming installation process. Merely compared to standard motion-sensing lights yous tin purchase, they are expensive. The real worth of the Smart Lighting organization is found when it'southward paired with Ring's other products, like the video doorbells or cameras. Yous can use the motion detectors on the Smart Lighting products to trigger mobile alerts or the cameras to start recording clips, or yous tin can control them with voice commands to Amazon'southward Alexa assistant.

*The Band Smart Lighting Bridge is necessary to connect the lights to the internet and control them with the app.*

Since I didn't really need to apply the Motion Sensor to turn on the lights, I stuck information technology in my mailbox (well-nigh 70 anxiety from where I take the bridge set upwardly in my living room) and set information technology to give me push alerts whenever it detected motion. This has reliably worked to allow me know when the mail has arrived and has been more than reliable than the Zigbee contact sensors I've used in the past for the aforementioned purpose. Ring says it is using a proprietary RF protocol to connect the lights to the span, which provides longer distances and more than reliable connectivity.

Overall, the Smart Lighting system's value is in its ease of utilize and expansive connectivity. Y'all'd be hard-pressed to find another connected lighting organisation that's this accessibly priced and like shooting fish in a barrel to install.

Peephole Cam

*The Ring Door View Cam tin can be installed in identify of a standard peephole viewer.*

Ring is peradventure best known for its video doorbells, which allow you get alerts when the bell is rung, see who'due south at your door, and speak to them through your phone. But even though information technology has an extensive line of wired and bombardment operated versions, none of those are particularly useful for apartment dwellers.

That's where the $199 Peephole Cam (formerly Door View Cam) comes in. It's basically a Ring Video Doorbell 2 that tin be mounted on the peephole of a door without damaging the door itself. You can remove the Peephole Cam when you move out and replace the original peephole without leaving a marker.

Much like the Video Doorbell 2, the Peephole Cam is a 1080p photographic camera with nighttime vision and motion detection. It runs on a rechargeable bombardment (the aforementioned 1 as the Stick Up Cam and Ring'due south other video doorbells), and it allows for two-way communication through your telephone.

Cleverly, the Peephole Cam preserves the ability to wait through the peephole to see who's in that location, so you don't accept to pull your phone out just to see who's on the other side of the door. There'southward also a embrace on the inside of the door to prevent someone from looking dorsum through it at yous.

*You tin however wait through the peephole when the Door View Cam is installed or cake the view with a privacy shield.*

Band says it takes as few equally five minutes to install the Peephole Cam. Based on my testing with a demo door, I agree, provided your door's thickness is between 34mm (about 1.3 inches) and 55mm (about two.2 inches). The Peephole Cam comes with all of the tools and hardware you need to set information technology up.

Similar the other video doorbells Band makes, yous tin can adapt the zones for motion detection on the Peephole Cam, which tin can help foreclose imitation triggers if in that location's a lot of human foot traffic in front of your door. Information technology's also possible to configure "privacy zones," which volition prevent the camera from recording areas you specify, such as a neighbour'due south entryway.

At $200, the Peephole Cam is a footling harder to justify compared to Band'south more permanent video doorbells, as it is only actually useful to flat dwellers who take regular visitors at their door and not ones with an external buzzer or lobby in their building. But it does provide an option for those who tin't use a traditional video doorbell that requires a permanent installation.

The overarching theme with Ring's product releases this year is ease of installation and use. You can get other video doorbells (though you lot'll accept a difficult time finding another option that works on batteries), security cameras, and landscape / security lighting for a lot less than what Ring charges, only you'll likely take to deal with much more than complicated wiring power and connectivity, if connectivity is even an option. And so you won't have the integration across the whole organization that Ring is offering. Band'due south combination of wire-free installation and integration across its entire line of products is tough to beat, even if it does cost more at the first.

Update, 7:45PM ET, October 8th, 2019: Since the original publication of this article, Ring has changed the name of the Door View Cam to the Peephole Cam. It is otherwise the same product, simply now with a name that makes a flake more sense. We've updated the references to the device throughout.

Photography past Dan Seifert / The Verge

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Source: https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/9/20686488/ring-stick-up-cam-smart-lighting-door-view-review-test-price-specs-features

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