Video surveillance is no longer pertinent only to businesses or the rich. In this new era, a video surveillance system is affordable, easy to get, and beneficial – not just to corporations but to private individuals as well. With the myriads of CCTV solutions, home video security is quite achievable in virtually any household. Let’s see how a home video surveillance system can boost a home’s security with state-of-the-art CCTV solutions.

 

 

 

CRIME DETERRENT
Video surveillance has long grown from being a solely post-incident investigation tool to a deterrent that proactively makes your property a difficult target for potential burglars. In that respect, it is safe to say that a home surveillance system can be utilized to protect your place or its surroundings by turning it from temptingly easy to violate to a hard nut to crack. That goes not just for the property itself but for other valuables inside too – jewelry, money, automotive transport, any expensive possessions or just things of sentimental value. Modern CCTV systems can pierce through difficult conditions like obstructions of view, vast territories, and night-time work by using advanced technologies based on artificial intelligence.

Of course, it works equally well against other wrongdoers: for example, porch thieves that hunt down deliveries and pocket them while you’re not there; vandals that destroy or steal yard decorations; or a mysterious person that keeps on littering on the premises. The repellent factor comprises all sorts of offenses or annoying behavior, from trespassing to public urination.

Home video surveillance with proper reactions is one of the top advice for those going away on vacation or a business trip, for it allows to maintain awareness about if there is something wrong going on while you’re not there. It’s easy to feel confident and safe with Xeoma – you can check what is going on at any time.

 

NOTIFICATIONS AND REACTIONS
Even if the presence of home video surveillance cameras wasn’t enough to deter a violator, at least the system can spot events early on and set off a wide range of reactions, ranging from an email notification, a loud sound alarm, a phone push notification, to custom user-set reactions like calling 911 through an intercom or voicing a pre-recorded warning over the speakers.

Some of these reactions – like an alarm – can instantly put a stop to the violation, while others can aid in not letting the crooks get away with what they did. At the very least, video footage is a great help for filing an official complaint with the police, for the police investigation, and as forensic evidence.

 

TAKING CARE OF THE FAMILY
A home video surveillance system is also perfect for non-crime-related purposes like watching your pets over the cameras while you’re at work or on a short trip away. With simple remote access, one can use a mobile app on their smartphone to connect in 1-2-3. But it’s not just passive watching: video surveillance solutions sometimes come with the ability to collaborate with smart home systems, so it would be possible to play a recording of your voice to a pet bored at home, control the automated feeder or thermostat, etc. Surely, nothing can replace you, but at least you can make sure that the pet is as comfortable as possible.

Video cameras at home can double as nanny cameras to check on a baby from another bedroom at any time. Unlike regular baby monitors that have quite simple hardware, video surveillance systems let you use any camera of your choice which means you can select ones that work best in your environment, including at night. Another advantage of home CCTV as compared to baby monitors is the advanced video analytics: for instance, if you are tired of waking up to just any noise, instead of capturing any sounds, smart analytics can single out the sound of baby crying, and send an emergency alert in that case. If you need anything else, many VMS are always evolving, so there is a chance a request for custom development might be accepted, and a new sound type can be added (or a whole other analytical feature, for that matter).

Speaking of kids, home surveillance can help get an unbiased recap of how well a babysitter is treating the child when you’re not looking, which is particularly invaluable with kids that are too young or otherwise unable to inform their parent if something is odd. Video surveillance can also help keep tabs on children of bigger age who are already ok staying at home by themselves. Parents can “peek in” from time to time using a mobile phone app, or just set the system to send notifications with images or videos whenever there is something strange going on. What kind of ‘strange’ can video surveillance spot? Let’s talk more about it in the next paragraph.

Home video surveillance is frequently used as a means to take care of the elderly family members who want to live independently despite their age. Non-invasive yet all-seeing video surveillance cameras can help you check in on your relatives to make sure they are doing alright. Besides, there are advanced features in contemporary CCTV software that can detect:

* Excessive number of people in the house – with the Crowd Detector / Face Recognition.
* If a person faints, falls down – with the Skip and Fall Detector.
* Scream or shots – with the Sound Events Detector.
* Someone loitering around the house – with the Loitering Detector.

Also, cameras can ‘see’ if a delivery person is trespassing by stepping away from the house runway to go around the house, and similar indirect indicators of what might turn into concerning events.

 

VIDEO SURVEILLANCE FOR FUN
Along with the more serious purposes described above, a home video surveillance system can be used for fun, too! For example, it helps get rare animals in your backyard on tape and make funny compilations. It yields timelapse videos of plants growing and blooming, or cool guides of how your home renovation went. Indoor video cameras can be used by a breeder to showcase their pets, their activities and treatment to potential purchasers in trust-winning endeavors. And outdoor ones can turn into a kind of a weather station, and with YouTube Streaming modules, they can broadcast the current weather situation to a weather channel vlog of yours, 24/7.

The scope of application of home video surveillance systems is truly diverse and immense. Whatever your home video surveillance needs are, chances are high that state-of-the-art CCTV solutions already have it!

 

XEOMA FEATURES FOR HOME SURVEILLANCE:
We already mentioned that CCTV is notorious for the amazing intellectual features it offers. Xeoma is one of such multi-purpose software programs of the new generation for working with cameras that can be used in hundreds of different ways to achieve various goals flexibly.

Xeoma will help in dozens of scenarios, utilizing both simple and sophisticated features:

Are you worried about leaving your baby with a babysitter? With video surveillance’s easy remote access, you can use a mobile app to peek into the cameras and see how the baby and the nanny are doing. Same solutions can be applied to monitor pets or teenagers staying at home alone too.

 

Intrusion detection: See that the house is not broken into at night, while you’re at work, away on a vacation or on a business trip. Xeoma’s Motion Detector module allows you to detect suspicious movement in the selected area, and start recording or trigger notifications.

 

Apart from burglaries, video surveillance is also a tool to monitor surroundings 24/7 to find out who dumps trash, vandalizes your property, or is engaged in other suspicious activities. Various notifications can help a violator in the act – for example, the Sending Email module that will inform you about emergencies by email and attach pictures or videos.

 

One of the traditional surveillance application is saving video footage of events. Collect evidence to press charges against violators, or for pretrial proceeding, police investigation of incidents. Use Xeoma’s Preview and Archive module for loop recording to various drives, including network disks or cloud storage.

 

Xeoma’s remote access is a way to provide constant yet non-intrusive care over elderly relatives that still want independence. The ‘Crowd Detector’ and ‘Face Recognition’ modules can be put to use if you want to additionally recognize presence of strangers in the house, while ‘Slip and Fall Detector’ will be perpetually searching for signs that someone has fainted, and ‘Sound Events Detector’ will react to screams or gunshots. Safety doesn’t end there, inside the house: ‘Loitering Detector’ discovers if someone’s wandering in suspicious proximity of your territory for some (unreasonable) time.

 

If you are a fan of animal or bird spotting, video surveillance will send you an alert upon detecting them. Xeoma’s special ‘timelapse’ feature will compress hours, if not days, of videos into a short clip that shows plants growing, seasons changing, snow level rising, etc. It also helps view miles of regular footage in seconds, for example, if you’re looking for an event that you don’t know the time frame for.

 

‘Cross-Line Detector’ will detect if a delivery person, postman, etc. has gone to restricted areas, not just to the door. The ability to take a look at what is going on in your home or around helps keep control of courier delivery or activities of other hired workers (repairmen, cleaning services or lawn mowing, etc.) without the need for your physical presence on site. Moreover, the ‘Abandoned Objects Detector’ module can be used to react when there’s a parcel left on your porch.

 

Some disasters are not man-made. Xeoma can be on the lookout for those too. Fast detection of abnormal situations – for example, of a starting fire – will be a great addition to a home’s security arrangements. When working in combination with smart home sensors, video cameras can provide a glimpse of any issue that external sensors unveil.

 

Also:
Web Server will let you broadcast the images from your cameras to a website. This gives you the opportunity to share the image with your family or friends.
AI: “SmartHome RIF+” module can be used in a home video surveillance system, as well as “Face recognition” that can help you to be sure that no unwanted person entered the house. And “Objects detector” can be used in the yard to watch pets or – on the contrary – ignore appearance of cars/animals (such as birds or neighbour’s cats that can sneak into the yard) to avoid being bombarded with ‘unwanted’ detections.

See more of Xeoma’s features here

 

 

 

 

Interested in home surveillance and wondering how you can start? It’s easy! Just follow the steps:
1. Choose any camera you like. Guide: how to choose a camera?
2. Connect it to your computer.
3. Download and launch Xeoma on this computer. Your camera will be detected automatically.
4. Use Xeoma’s default settings or reconfigure Xeoma’s chains and modules to best fit your case. Use Motion Detector, Preview & Archive, Scheduler, notifications and many more of Xeoma’s basic or intellectual features!
Watch live images and archives, manage cameras, get notifications – be there when something important happens!
5. Purchase and activate Xeoma perpetual license to get worry-free work for as long as you want.

 

 

A wide range of Xeoma editions can be used to create a home video surveillance system, depending on the tasks: Xeoma Starter, Xeoma Lite, Xeoma Standard, or Xeoma Professional (Xeoma Pro). Extra Additional modules with artificial intelligence can also be used in demanding scenarios.
There are also Cloud service Xeoma Cloud and Repeater service (remote access) available.

See more in the spreadsheet:

*prices are valid as of September 5, 2023. See current prices here

 

Helpful information:
Easy manual on how to start working with Xeoma
Starter, Lite, Standard, Pro – what to choose? Editions comparison table
“Modbus” controllers – smart home systems and traffic light automation
Special offer for Smart Home system integrators

See also customer care questions and answers:
Xeoma Starter: is it possible to add 2 more cameras to starter license?
What is the cost to upgrade from Xeoma Starter to Xeoma Lite?
 

 

September 5, 2023