Oh, sure -- you've got oodles of options when it comes to
webcams, particularly the security types that are meant to monitor your home, garage or underground lair. But by and large, the ones already out there are difficult to install, pricey and impossible to troubleshoot. Dropcam's aiming to make things far simpler with its barebones Echo, which is the outfit's second-ever product. Essentially, it's a wireless Dropcam (original) with audio support added in, and after you've got it mounted and streaming, you can sign up for a (partially paid) Dropcam.com service to access remote viewing via PC, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad (other devices are "coming soon"), and automatic alerts can be pushed to your iDevice whenever motion is detected. There's even the ability to review up to 30 days of footage on a timeline, and Dropcam makes it easy to generate video clips for permanent storage, too. It's on sale now for $279, representing an $80 premium over the video-only model.
posted June 17th 2010 12:00PM
Spy on!
Convenient but expensive. I wonder what the wiring is like. It needs video, audio and possibly network right? Or does it have integrated wi-fi I wonder.
Great for parents that use babysitters.
Yes, Dropcam and Dropcam Echo both have integrated wi-fi and work over 802.11b/g.
@avirani Great thank you. I was looking on the website right now and came across that very same information. :)
This product reminds me of that old spammer X10.
The iPhone access is awesome. Here is a better breakdown of the prices.
The Hardware=====
$199 per Dropcam and you can have multiple accessible from one account.
$279 per Dropcam Echo.
The Services======
You get free live viewing (no recording) with every camera.
$8.95 a month gives you 7 days of recording and E-mail/Mobile alerts when motion is detected. (You can download all the videos if you like.)
$24.95 a month gives you 30 days of recording.
I don't think its that bad. I really like the iPhone access. I've been watching the public cameras they have for testing and it seems to work well enough. I'm seriously considering it. Even the free service would be convenient to check if the alarm goes off and I get a notification I can check on the house myself.
@avirani Amir...I apologize I had no idea it was you. :X And here I am talking about the free service. I feel like such a cheap bastard now that I know you are one of the founders!
But to be honest that is what I am contemplating. I am not wealthy by any means but security is a concern of mine. (Lower middle class I would guess which is why I am concerned. As time goes on our neighborhood gets exponentially worse as all the people from more urban areas move in. We had an attempted break in recently and the alarm system we installed after the fact gives us piece of mind now. These remote cameras would give us another.
Do you ever plan on including an external night vision camera?
If I'm paranoid enough to install cameras around my house (I am and I did) why would I want to pay some service to store the data offsite? I want to host that kind of thing myself. I spent $400 on the Vue system and quickly sent it back because of the same requirement. See Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/09/switched-on-towards-telepresences-tipping-point/
@scriptalias
My guess is that Dropcam is focusing on making it easier for users that don't know how, or simply want to avoid hosting data on their own. Some folks that are more familiar with server management may not want to take the time/energy/effort to do it themselves. Reading more on the product shows that the camera is just a plug and play set-up process. I can think of a lot of moms that would appreciate that. Although, admittedly, techy trolls in their caves are likely crying at the simplicity of it all.
@scriptalias They do bring up a valid concern though on the CNet review. If you are watching your home, hosting the data yourself and someone breaks in to steal your computer...
We could argue that hosting OUTSIDE is more secure. Secure for your data, mind you we are not even touching on the privacy concerns.
(Don't install one in the bedroom.) Or the kitchen if you're that kind of person! ;)
From the looks of it the iphone app is just showing an mjpeg stream... I want rtsp already!
@mrsayao It's H.264. We don't use MJPEG at all.
@gduffy Sweet! Thanks for the clarification! I guess it would also help if I read the camera specs........... thanks again.
Charging for me having access to my own camera is a fail. The price for the camera is fine, and they can charge 20 for the iphone App, but no monthly fees thanks.
@tosvus Live viewing is free! We only charge for recording plans, because the storage costs us money.
@gduffy Hey Greg, congrats on the post on engadget. I read through the CNet article you have a link to on your home page and I noticed that it gave some information that was out of date. Mainly the audio and notification capabilities of the current feature set.
One thing I wasn't clear on though was that they mentioned that only 2 cameras were allowed. On your website it says "multiple" but doesn't give a solid number that I could find. Is there a limit to how many cameras you can have and can you view the live stream from two or more simultaneous locations?
A few more quick questions if you have time...
Can multiple people view the same stream without making your camera publicly accessible?
Can you share your stream with someone else that doesn't have a camera?
@HektikLyfe Oh cool I just found the answer to my sharing question on the support section. Still no go on the camera limit though.
@HektikLyfe Thanks! We'll update the home page link soon. Hopefully Josh at CNet will be interested in doing a review of the Echo soon.
The number of cameras we support is generally limited by the customer's bandwidth. We recommend 2-3 on a low-end DSL, but you can do much more on high end cable or fiber. Also, you can link Dropcams in multiple locations to one account.
As you found on the support site, we support explicit sharing controls for your cameras, you choose the folks you want to share with by entering their email and you can enable/disable these shares at any time.
@gduffy Multiple locations :) I was wondering about that. That would come in really handy to monitor my parents home if they go on travel a LOT easier. Though knowing my father...he'd be a little unnerved by it. :) Thanks.
I had a few other questions I posted below. I don't want to repost here though because some people would start throwing some capital letters in my direction for duplicate posts. Do you think you could take a look at them? You have already answered Q#1 but the others I can't find answers to.
@gduffy My apologies, that makes the whole thing a lot more interesting! (free live view online, that is)
iPaedocam
1. How many cameras can you have per account?
2. Can the camera swivel and if so how much? (Can you install it upside down on the ceiling and turn it upside down?)
3. How secure is our media?
4. Any plans for Android support?
@HektikLyfe Oh and do the cameras support work with WPA or other secured networks?
@HektikLyfe
1. Answered above, limited by available bandwidth per install location (multiple locations can be viewed all in one account)
2. Cameras swivel pretty much any direction, can definitely hang from ceiling.
3. Dropcam streams are encrypted and stored in our secure data center. We take data privacy very seriously -- it's a core ethic of the company.
4. Android support coming real soon. 1/3 of our company are Android users. :)
WPA2, WPA, WEP, and open wifi networks are supported. Additionally, the streams are secured/encrypted regardless of what Wi-Fi security option you have available (including none).
@gduffy Awesome thank you. I think I will be picking up a video only Dropcam for now to see how I like the system then I may get the more expensive Echo later on if I like what I see.
Help you guys get some furniture in that place man its pretty bleak. What the heck are you guys doing in there at 3 in the morning! XD
http://skjm.com/icam/
Been using their iCam software for about 6 months now. It cost 5 dollars for the iPhone app. It does require a computer to run the iCamServ software but that software is free and the service is free. Otherwise, I don't see what this provides in addition to that.
@r1cht3r I've been looking into it for a little while now and I can see a few things that it offers that the iCam solution does not.
1. You don't have to have a computer running constantly or near your camera. (No laptops hanging precariously off a bookshelf or ratty USB extension cables all across the wall.
2. Off-site storage. (If someone breaks in and steals your computer...)
3. Recording motion. (iCam only streams from the look of it.)
4. Multiple user access.
5. Virtually unlimited cameras.
6. Wi-fi cameras...
I could go on but it does provide things iCam does not and also has a free service equivalent to the iCam package that does do more.
Though I aggree, if you already have the hardware, iCam is a cheaper solution. Unless you are setting up 3 or 4 cameras, each with their own laptop or desktop to serve the video.
@HektikLyfe thanks for the great comparison. iCam is cool for sure, but Dropcams definitely require less upkeep. It's also good to note the power difference between our 5W (max) camera and a PC chugging 100s of watts :)
@HektikLyfe iCam does record motion events with push notification. As well, it does support wireless cameras. I currently have 3 cameras connected to a windows VM running on my linux server. You do have to run an individual service for each camera, but they memory requirements are low and I don't have any problems with that configuration. The off-site storage is a bonus though, I missed that part in my first read.
How long before Dropcam get's in trouble for allowing one of their employees spy on people?
@Critic2029 Ahhh, the Macbook/school fiasco. A valid concern. I would just keep the cameras out of the bathrooms and bedrooms for now. ;)
So you are using the AVHS software that AXIS provides since it is a AXIS camera. My question is how many frames per second is your system capable of?
@Spooner404 On their website it says 30fps.
@HektikLyfe Yes, if your computer/iphone is on the same network the camera is on. but streaming across the network to hit the Axis AVHS server then back to you will be around 1-3fps live view. But the determing factor is their recording frame rate. Dropcam isn't the only company in the market with this technology and the ones that shine the most are the ones that have the higher recording frame rate of 5fps+.
@Spooner404 Our backend is proprietary and it's lightyears ahead of AVHS.
Check out our demo site and our iPhone app, if you like 5fps you'll really like our H.264 at 30fps -- no plugin installs or crappy MJPEG.
@gduffy Will there be support for megapixel cameras in the future?
@HektikLyfe - I follow your logic. Storing the servers on site definitely wouldn't be the best idea.
ICam almost does the same thing for free
@Zeroexe43 Almost but not quite. Those additional features really are worth the barrier of entry. (For me at least.)
The camera is a little expensive but the streaming is free and so is the app. Plus I don't have to have a 1000W computer running constantly running up my bill.
I rate this idea a miss. What's needed is a camera that can be seen by the iphone's own transceivers, giving a live image. Perhaps multi-channel split/switchable. So you can view/record via a dash cam, baby cam, spy cam, etc., and turn your 3Gs into a FaceTime caller.
@BuzzMega "What's needed?" XD This is a home security solution. Setting up a camera you can access with your iPhone when you are close enough to the camera seems like a very niche application.
Though probably fun to play with it doesn't seem marketable at all.
Nice AVHS-GUI, but why do they hide the Axis roots? Axis offers pretty good quality, no reason to hide it :)
I guess we'll see many more of these "tweaked" AVHS providers now that all newer Axis cameras an video encoders have the AVHS client in their default firmware.
@hihi We are not using AVHS. It's just not consumer-friendly.
Dropcam is a different class of product because we built the software for consumers from top to bottom. Easy setup, no maintenance, amazing viewing experience.
@r1cht3r Pretty cool solution. I think it would be fun to mess with that but when it comes to a product that is easy to market, "plug and play" by definition, I think these guys are onto something. All you need is power and a relatively painless configuration and account creation and bam, you have grandparents making sure no one is stealing their butter pecan Breyer's from their home freezer while they are on a Florida vacation.
Add the cost of your server hardware, the electricity costs of all combined and the price of the cameras. I imagine the price is not that different if not more expensive in the long run than the free option.
The strange thing for me is when I visit the drop cam site on my iPod touch it says I need flash to view the demo.
@mjones41 you need to download the Dropcam iPhone/iTouch app from the App store to view video on the iPhone. We'll put a notice about this in the website for mobile browsers, sorry for the confusion.
This looks exactly like the Axis M1054 camera http://www.axis.com/products/cam_m1054/
@nickbolton
I think it's like an M1031, they even used an official Axis PR photo :)
Does the audio work with the iphone app? That seems to be the missing feature of all ip cams with iphone apps. I have yet to find one iphone app that will let you view live video and audio from an ip camera. I'd be very impressed if Dropcam has has sorted the live audio with iphone. The delay with Apple's "Http Live Streaming" is at least 30 seconds, too long for use as security or baby monitor.
@nickelneck yes the app does support live audio and it's much less latency than 30 seconds.
@gduffy
Thanks for the quick reply. You should really highlight the audio w / iphone feature. This is a huge breakthrough. Any plans on releasing the the iphone app with the option to connect to other branded/supported cams.
Either way, I am very impressed. Can't wait to try a demo site on my phone.
Make the software for android and you got yourself a deal.