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Part 2 of Choosing a Video Surveillance Solution for Your Home

This blog will pick up where we left off last month, kicking off a series on choosing the right video surveillance system and cameras for your Park City, UT, home. In this installment, we're going deeper into three critical aspects of these solutions and what you should look for. How and where your footage is stored, how you control the system, and how well it can detect events are all essential factors in separating one solution from another. 

Ready? Please keep reading below.

Choosing the Right Security Camera System for Your Home

This month, we will start a three-part blog series on a critical issue for your Salt Lake City, UT, home—keeping it safe. Fortunately, today's smart technology makes that task easier and more cost-efficient than ever. Much of it is made possible by the power of smart cameras that now have features for residential use that, not long ago, were the exclusive province of commercial surveillance systems. 

Quite a few solutions exist in the realm of security cameras. This first blog of the series will cover what you should look for and avoid in these security camera systems. Stay tuned to this space later this month as we cover video surveillance and integrated smart security systems. Ready? Please stay with us!

Whole-Home Audio

What do we mean by whole-home audio? With audio, it means being able to call up virtually any audio or music you want to enjoy in any room or area of your home with consummate ease and control. If you’re ever frustrated by multiple remote controls, inputs, and different audio settings across your house, you might like this concept. Whole-home audio gives you one consistent way to access all your music and sound sources. Pick a music streaming service and artist, album, radio station, or playlist, and pick the rooms you want to play it. Adjust the volume as desired in each area. Mute an area to take a call. Or have each part of your family enjoy what they want in different areas. Let the kids rock out in the game room while you enjoy Norah Jones in the living room.

How is all that magic done? It starts with a powerful Control4 controller like the EA-5 or CA-10. This is the brain that can control your smart home but also has built-in media distribution capabilities. It can route high-resolution music to all parts of your home and has native support for popular streaming services like Pandora, Tidal, and Spotify. If you have your own digital music library on a hard drive, you can access it through the built-in music server, too. Additional inputs let you listen to other sources like a CD player or turntable, or even sound from a TV. For control, you can use the excellent Neeo remote, a Control4 Touchscreen, a smartphone app, and even a wall-mounted keypad.

Smarter, Simpler Automation

Once upon a time, powerful whole-home automation systems had to be programmed for everything. If you wanted saved automation for watching TV, you might have a scene that lowered the shades, dimmed the lights, started the AV system, and set the temperature to a preferred setting. If you wanted to change that, you’d have to call an integrator like us! However, Control4's When >> Then personalization puts the power of sophisticated programming in your hands, with no technical skill needed. Want to kick off a sequence of things when your garage door opens as you arrive? Turn off the security alarm and cameras, turn on the hallway lights and kitchen lights, start a soothing music playlist, and have the garage door close automatically after 5 minutes. Need to fine-tune the sequence? Do it yourself on your laptop; it's that easy but oh so powerful.

SEE ALSO: Set the Lighting Scene for Any Occasion with Control4

Whole-Home Security

When you have one integrated control point for lights, window treatments, climate, AV, and security cameras, every smart asset in your home can participate in keeping it safe. For example, Control4 systems have a feature called Mockupancy, which simulates your activity within your house to give the illusion that your home is occupied while you’re away. Your Control4 system can manipulate lights, sound systems, TV, and motorized window treatments in a randomized yet natural pattern that will keep anyone casing your property guessing. If someone does intrude, your home can go into action. If a smart camera detects motion around one of your entries, all the lights can go on, you can sound a warning that the intruder is being recorded, and an ear-piercing alarm can go off. Your system can inform you too, and you can have the option of calling the authorities.

A Surveillance System Installation Does More Than Deter Crime

Let’s try an exercise. Ask the next person you see why they think a home surveillance system is important. Now, was their answer “to protect homes from criminal activity” or something of the sort? We’d bet so. This answer is overwhelmingly the number one reason why homeowners believe they should invest in a surveillance system installation, and they’re right to believe so.

According to several studies, surveillance systems help reduce crime by at least 50%. But that’s not all they do. You can wring out so much more from your surveillance system to assist you in several other ways. Read below for four unique ways to maximize the potential of your surveillance system.

Always Know What’s Happening at Home

Do you worry that you forgot to lock your door when you left the house in a hurry? Or that you neglected to hit the garage opener button in your car as you took the kids to school? It often happens to many people, especially with hectic family schedules and work demands.

The good news is that today's smart security technology has come to the rescue. There's no need to fret, as a security camera system can easily keep an eye on what’s going on in your home in Salt Lake City, UT and the surrounding areas

While the cameras can give you a bird's eye view (or whatever view you want) of your property, indoors and out, other smart features will put your mind at ease too.