There was an interesting little something amongst the bills and junk mail this week. We took possession of this Panasonic Smart Home starter kit on Saturday. It’s a home monitoring and security system that lets you keep an eye on your home (and pets!) whilst you’re out.
The starter kit comprises a smart hub, indoor camera, two door/window sensors and a smart plug which allows you to switch on lights, radio etc from a remote location. There are other components you can buy to extend the system including motion sensor, outdoor camera, siren and, soon to hit the market, a water leak sensor – something we’ll be investing in considering our history!
Before attempting to set the system up, we watched the 5-minute video tutorial which made the process look very simple.
Sure enough, five minutes was about right for me to download the app to my iPhone and link it to the house wi-fi network.
Within another five minutes, the hub and the camera were set up and ‘talking’ to each other.
In the case of the door sensors, all that was needed was to insert the batteries, attach the double-sided sticky tape, line up & attach the two parts of the sensor – one on the door and one on the door frame, press a button… and that was it – another five minutes per door!
We positioned the camera so that we could see into the sitting room, the kitchen and up the stairs to the rest of the house. For such a small, unobtrusive unit it gives a surprisingly wide-angled view and high-definition live video footage. It even allows you to take still images (see my example below) which you can save to your smart phone/tablet and share via text message or email.
Our dog Fudge normally sleeps on that leather sofa to the right when were out (well, that’s where we usually find him on our return anyway). Evidence suggests that he gets up to naughtiness too – like jumping up at the cooker & work surfaces to the left. Soon we’ll have photographic evidence and he’ll be put forward for a doggy criminal trial!