Netgear VueZone VZSX2800 Wireless Camera Kit Review

Introduction If I was to go out onto the street and ask people what they thought surveillance was, I'd imagine a high percentage of those asked would answer with CCTV or constant video recordings for security. Now for the most part, this is what surveillance is however there are other applications for remote cameras, where the surveillance is not necessarily for security. Take lorries and HGV's for example, most of them today have a surveillance system built into the cab with a camera situated on the rear of the vehicle so that the driver can easily see what is behind him, whilst in other situations, cameras are used for monitoring wildlife and animals to save them from the disruption of a person being present in the area. Another area of use for remote cameras could be for monitoring a baby or young child in their bedroom once they have gone up to bed. Baby monitors are a highly popular product with today's generation of parents with new borns and infants, with the piece of mind factor there for users to see that their child is safe and well. Now whilst there are dozens of applications for cameras and monitoring applications, the biggest use for them is we all know in today's world is security. With dozens of different types of cameras and numerous environments that they are built to work in, choosing a product that is suited for your needs and user level is a somewhat daunting task and consequently home security is a rather empty market in respect to commercial use. Netgear's VueZone camera system that I'm looking at today is designed specifically for the consumer market. With such a wide variety of situations where cameras could be of an assistance, the totally wire-free system and the ability to record in low light conditions makes this system ideal for the home user, where the speed of installation and simplicity to operate and maintain is far more important than what it is at the commercial level. Packed into the box, Netgear have packed in a lot of kit and alongside the key components that the system needs to operate, the VZSX2800 bundle has two cameras, one of which is able to record video at night though the use if an infra-red light. Besides the cameras we get four semi-circular magnetic mounts for the two cameras (to allow quick and simple changes in areas covered), screws and rawlplugs for fitting the camera mounts and infra-red lamp where necessary and a quick setup guide to get you up and running in no time. Netgear quote that this system should take no time at all to get setup and running, so let's have a look and see if things are just as simple as they say they are. A Closer Look The VueZone range of cameras come in a range of kits, each with a different selection of cameras and accessories based on specific user needs and preferences. The kit we've got here focuses mainly on use inside of the home or office and as such we get two cameras, one of which has night-time recording capabilities through the use of an infra-red camera. Although the camera bundles vary between each SKU, the base station component is the same right throughout the series. Sat at the centre of each camera system, the base station is the gateway between the cameras and the end-user; wherever they are in the world. The VueZone base station requires little setup of its own and after being connected to your home network through the included patch lead it automatically connects itself to the VueZone network ready for matching up with your account. Each base station is able to support up to five cameras and per user account you can have up to three base stations registered. In total this gives us a total of fifteen cameras maximum per account - more than enough to keep the home covered from all angles. Running down the spine of the base station we have a line of blue status LEDs for power, LAN & Internet activity and activity on the VueZone network. On the back of the base station we have power and 10/100 LAN for getting the unit up and running whilst the included USB port is at this time reserved from any additional features - Netgear quote that the port is in place for any future upgrade or additional features that they may add into the VueZone service and network. Pairing up the cameras is quick and simple thanks to one-touch sync button on the top of the base station. Once pressed an LED next to the button will flash to indicate that the unit is in pairing mode and by holding a camera close to the unit and turning it on, the pairing process is automatically carried out and is complete once an LED on the camera flashes quickly for a couple of seconds. This process is repeated for each camera and after pairing the cameras are ready to be positioned around the property. Moving over to the cameras, the first thing that we note, apart from their ultra compact build is the difference in colour between the two units in this kit. As one may presume, this difference in colour does represent a difference in functionality between the two bodies. Whilst both cameras feature the same 2MP CMOS sensor, passive infra-red (PIR) motion sensor, fixed-focus field of view of 110° (corner to corner) and a maximum recording resolution of 640 x 480; the grey unit in addition is capable of recording images in low light conditions when paired up with the included infra-red lamp. Powered by two CR123 photo batteries, the cameras are able to run for up to six months at a time during typical day-to-day use, although I will note at this point that continuous recording can result in the batteries running flat in under an hour - they are designed for momentary monitoring and snapshot recording, not continual streaming. Each camera is powered by a Freescale i.MX25 series ARM9 single core processor clocked at 400MHz and this is teamed up with 16MB of flash storage and 64MB of RAM. On the back of each body is a curved plastic 'fin' which allows the cameras to attach to the magnetic mounting plates, with adjustment as simple as lifting it off the base or sliding / twisting it into position for the optimum view. Just above the camera lens is the miniature PIR sensor, to the left of which we can just make out a small hole. In this hole is a tiny blue LED which, as mentioned above, flashes to indicate the camera is paired to the case station. The LED however only flashes during the power on / sync stage of operation and remains off at all other times to save on power and to deter any attention. On the underside of the body we have a tiny power switch that sits flush with the body to avoid being accidentally turned off and a catch to release the battery cover towards the rear of the unit. Removing the battery cover obviously allows for the batteries to be replaced, however on top of this we also find the cameras ID printed, handy for when you have a number of cameras paired and you discover the batteries on one unit are running low. To give the grey bodied camera its 'night vision' capability Netgear include an infra-red LED lamp which automatically turns on/off based on the current light conditions. The lamp comes in three parts and is designed, like the camera mounts, to make installation quick and simple. The lamp itself is able to either sit on a flat surface as seen below, or for more optimum illumination it can be wall / ceiling mounted via a removable base plate which easily locks back on to the lamp. To fine tune the lamps position, a twist lock barrel and elbow joint are provided. The power cable for the light comes in three sections. Working from the lamp to the plug we first get a short ~10cm length of cable with a DC jack on the end into which connects a long power cable and finally the cable connects to the AC adaptor (local to your region) On the front of the lamp, 48 infra-red LEDs are able to illuminate an area up to 25 feet away and in the middle is a light sensor which turns the light off during daylight hours. Whilst the cameras are able to operate outside through the use of the specially designed outdoor shell (available separate), the night-vision lamp is for indoor use only - shining it out of a window will allow for night vision cameras positioned outside to operate. Once fully setup, the cameras themselves need to physical maintenance apart from battery changes when required. The wire-free design means the cameras can be moved from one position to another in seconds and additional cameras can be unboxed, connected and positioned in a matter of minutes. Web Based User Interface & Setup Before we get on to the mobile and web-based portals for monitoring your cameras, there is a very simple admin page that I strongly advise that you take a look at before continuing on to the next step. In most environments users will find that there VueZone base station will have its IP address set via DHCP (by default), although in some situations the user will require a static IP to be assigned along with a few other network IP addresses. Through this area the system password can also be changed and this is virtually a must for everyone. IP settings aside, to view the images that the camera captures requires you to register yourself with the VueZone network and as a taster to the full feature set, Netgear give you a 30 day access to the Premier user pack (of which I will come to later on). After you're registered you can log on to the web portal from anywhere in the world and remotely view live camera feeds and motion triggered video clips (when activated). The library tab displays all the stored video clips that have been captured. The settings tab allows each camera to be individually setup for scheduled recording periods or motion detection recording and alerts. Within the motion detection settings fine tuning options are on offer to define the recording period of video capture, the sensitivity of the PIR sensor and a list of up to ten emails address where motion alerts can be sent to along with a snapshot image of what the camera as seen. In addition to the camera settings, the web portal also gives access to various service settings and diagnostic checks as well as displaying the amount of cloud storage that is available for motion triggered recordings. Mobile Application & Email Alerts With the motion detection enabled, the VueZone system records, uploads and sends an email to the listed addresses in a matter of seconds. Whilst the web access portal gives full access to the VueZone system, a mobile app for iOS and Android devices provides a simple and easy interface through which you can live-view each of the cameras connected to your account. On top of being able to get an overview of what each camera is capturing, you can pull up a view of each camera individually during which you can manually set the camera recording or take a snapshot image of what is going on. Whilst there is no ability to adjust the overall system settings, the mobile app does allow for the individual camera settings to be adjusted. Final Thoughts Pricing Netgear's VueZone cameras are available in a number of different kits as mentioned towards the start of this review, however I'm going to focus on the pricing of this kit for the moment. With the VZSX2800 hot on to the market we find a number of online outlets stocking the product with US pricing set at $229.99 from Frys and $199.99 from Best Buy. In the UK, Scan has the kit for £239.14 whilst Amazon UK has prices starting at £208.73. On top of the purchase cost of the cameras we find that out of the box you have little more than the ability to set up and view two cameras - no recording included in the free subscription. Above the free access, there are two service plans available, the Premier Plan which supports one base station and up to five cameras and the Elite Plan which offers three times the number of base stations and cameras. The upgraded services can be paid for monthly or as an annual subscription and this is handled directly through Netgear. The premier pack will set you back $49.99/yr or $4.99/mth in the US and £34.99/yr or £3.99/mth in the UK. Upgrading to the Elite pack will see prices of $99.99/yr or £9.99/mth and £69.99/yr or £6.99/mth respectively. Overview [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEF-RyL4fHc[/youtube] When I take a look at the VueZone range of cameras and what they have to offer, I want to break things down a little to better air my opinions. Starting off with the base station and the general setup process of the VueZone system, Netgear are certainly right when they say it takes very little time. From the moment of getting everything unpacked to viewing the cameras online took around 20 minutes or so and that includes the time taken to register for the VueZone services. Pairing the cameras up was also very simple and with this I can see that see that Netgear have tried to make the system as user-friendly as possible. Having tons of wires to connect and a heavy management panel is only going to lead to a poor user experience and when we look at today's users, we all want to spend the least amount of time as possible setting things up - for some it seems like a chore; for others it can be a potential nightmare. The cameras themselves I rather like, although they are not without their flaws. On the plus side we have a unit that is virtually idiot-proof to operate and it's very compact and therefore discrete. The magnetic attachment adds to the simplicity, allowing for quick adjustments to be made or a change of location entirely in a matter of seconds. On the downside though there is a price to pay for the wire free convenience. In order to maximise the battery life, the processor has to be tuned right down to minimise the power draw and consequently the image quality suffers considerably. pushing out a more 3fps at 640 x 480 to be honest is low quality by today's standards and whilst you can get double the frame rate, the quality has to suffer even more by drooping the resolution right down to 320 x 240. At this resolution its easy to make out shapes and rough objects, but sadly the closest thing to high-resolution that you will get is a snapshot image which packs a higher resolution of 1600 x 1200. Whilst the image quality is a bit disheartening, the nigh-vision mode is not that bad given the circumstances. The infra-red lamp lights up the area its in like a normal lamp would to the naked eye and fortunately there is no loss in quality when the night capable camera switches over to twilight operation. Also on the plus side is the motion trigger sensitivity. During my time with the VZSX2800 I ran the system with the motion sensors armed for a couple of nights and with the sensitivity left at its default level, the cameras were quick to pick up on the slightest bit of movement and videos were soon uploaded and my phone left popping up with alert emails to say a motion sensor had been triggered. From a security point of view in a building this is very good and I have to commend Netgear on this, although if you are using the cameras outside, I may advise turning the sensitivity down a little to save wildlife triggering a stream of alerts. There sadly is one other issue that I had with this kit and this is the wireless range. Netgear list the system with a LOS range of 300ft and in a typical home an area of approx 2,500sq.ft could be covered, however I found the range to not be as good as I was expecting. Living in a property with solid brick walls everywhere, I know that wireless signals hate me, but even with the unit running at a flat 2GHz, the cameras soon went out of range and this could be at a distance of ~30ft with only a single wall in the way. Simply put if I had have bought this kit myself and discovered this, I would be taking it back because it is not suitable for my property. Now whilst I know how wireless signals operate and can blame an amount of this on the building, there is two parts to the tale. Whilst the base station may have a strong wireless power output, it is running on mains power and we have to remember that the cameras are running off batteries and this means the power consumption has to be as low as possible. Sadly wireless range is relational to the power output of the wireless signal so whilst the base station can send out its half of the message, which the cameras can probably receive, they don't have the power to push out a strong signal back to the base station. The end result is a camera that appears to be out of range. To summarise the above, if you're in a property with lots of brick walls, you may find yourself in a similar situation to what I've experienced here. Ideally we would all have open plan properties with plasterboard walls everywhere, but the world is not quite as ideal as we would like. I can imagine by now you're after my overall view on the VueZone system. When we take all the costs, wireless signal issues and the image quality out of the equation and look at the concept of the system, Netgear have caught onto something here. The principle of a totally wire-free camera system is, to be honest brilliant. It brings basic security and the peace of mind to a wide user base without the need to spend hours getting everything setup, plugged in, configured and running. I suppose you could almost say that it is plug-and-play. The simple fact of the matter is that whilst it is an innovative product, with technology as it is today I really do think that we should be getting a whole lot more in terms of image quality and wireless reception. If the batteries are built for six months use, why not drop this back to three with a rechargeable battery design in order to free up some power for a stronger processor and more powerful wireless output. I really would like to give the VueZone an award, but for the price and the downsides outweighing the good in my eyes at this moment in time, sadly an award is off the cards for now. Pros: Wire-free camera system Very simple setup process Night vision capability Magnetic mounts allow for quick adjustments and positioning of cameras Cons: Low image resolution Wireless reception heavily limited by walls Recording and email alerts require an additional subscription package eTeknix Says: "In principle the VueZone wire-free camera system is a great product and it has the potential to go a long way, but with yesterday's image quality and the potential loss of users due to wireless coverage, Netgear have got some tweaking and tuning to do on this product range." Thanks to Netgear for providing us with this review sample.