There are so, so many smart-home cameras on the market, all competing to be the eyes and ears of your home. They all have similar features, similar specs, and similar prices (around $200). The problem is that the cameras can’t monitor every room in your home (unless you live in a studio), and so the cost of keeping an eye on your home starts to soar — and that’s without the cloud fees that are sometimes required to store footage.
Zmodo founded in 2009 and headquartered in China, makes security cameras and is aiming to have eyes in every area of your house. It currently has its Replay cameras on the market, but it’s relaunching them as a set of four wireless cameras, plus a box with a terabyte of storage that records a month’s worth of video. There are two indoor cameras and two outdoor ones, all which have 720p resolution and night vision.
Along with the relaunch is a revamped app that’s meant to work with a few other upcoming products from Zmodo. “Currently in the market we’re seeing a lot of companies are just focusing on one-room solutions,” Sandra Crawford, a marketing and communications specialist at Zmodo, tells Digital Trends. “We found people really want to monitor multiple zones and see everything.” The Replay covers a lot of zones, but the Greet — a video doorbell — is made specifically for the front door.
The $150 Wi-Fi connected bell replaces homeowners’ existing doorbell and has 8GB of internal storage. That translates to about six months’ worth of recording if you have 10 people stopping by a day. (So popular!) It’s motion activated, so even if someone doesn’t ring your bell, the camera will start recording.
What sets it apart from competitors Skybell (no cloud storage) and Ring ($3 a month) is that because of its internal storage, Greet doesn’t require a monthly fee, but you can still record video. “Such a crucial feature shouldn’t be held ransom,” says Crawford.
Of course, Zmodo will soon have its own $250 camera/hub, Pivot, with all the bells and whistles, too. The 1080p camera comes with two door and window sensors and has built-in humidity and temperature sensors. With 64GB of storage, the Pivot also has night vision and the ability to swivel 360 degrees.
Zmodo recently built a 8,600-square-foot manufacturing and research facility in Shenzhen, China. From there, it hopes to launch all the products you’ll need to control your smart home — whether you want to do piece by piece or as a whole system.
