SECURITYCAMERAS
ISSUE 378|COMPUTERSHOPPER|AUGUST 2019 103
Ĵ~LjĚĦĴ~ŚLcamera, fittingly called the
Hive Camera, was abasic affair that could
only record to an SD card. Its successor,
the Hive View,ismuch more in line with
modern expectations forasmart security
camera, able to save recordings in the cloud
and awayfrom prying hands.
Asingle camera costs £179,with 24
hours of footage history available forfree.
An extra £4 per month, however,will get you
30 days of footage history and 25% off the
cost of any cameras when bought together,
so if 24 hours doesn’t sound like enough then
it’s best to get the subscription up front.
The physical design of the Hive View is
fabulous. It’s beautifully built and looks
much more modern and attractive than
most home security cameras. The camera
unit attaches to the stand magnetically and
allows the camera to be adjusted up and
down, and the base is magnetic too, so the
camera can be attached to metal surfaces as
well as placed on shelves, in asimilar wayto
the TP-Link Kasa Cam KC120.
Power is supplied via along USB cable that
can be plugged intoeither the base or the
camera, and once set up and connected to
your home Wi-Fi, the View records 1080p
footage through its 130° wide-angle lens.
There’s no weatherproofing; this is an
indoor-only camera.
ACTION CAM
Setup is alot easier than it was at launch –
now,you can do it all through the Hive app.
Once up and running, you’ll find the camera
listed in the app as well, alongside any other
Hive smart home products you might have.
Here,you can view alive video stream,
manage your camera’s settings (from
adjusting motion sensitivity to the resolution
at which video clips are streamed and
recorded) and view video clips, which have
been triggered by motion and audio events.
The Hive View can be set to record and
stream at 720p (down from 1080p), which
could be handy if your internet connection
can’t handle Full HD.
Beyond video clip recording and live
streaming, however,there aren’t many
extra features. One,called Hive Actions,
allows you to link different Hive devices.
Forexample,when the camera detects
motion, it can trigger your Hive light bulb
to switch on foraset amount of time,and
you can combine these actions to create
much more complex actions.
HIVE
View
★★★★★
£̋Ͷ9•From http://www.ʗʡѮȝʗomȝ.com
VERDICT
It’swonderfullydesigned,buttheViewsuffersfrom
unreliablemotiondetectionanddelayednotifications
That’s about it,
however.The app can’t be
disabled and enabled based
on the GPS position of your
phone,unlike Nest Home/Away
Assist, which can tell when you’ve
leftthe house and when you
come home again by tapping
intoyour phone’s sensors.
Instead, you have can
only use aschedule.
Video clips can
be downloaded
to your phone,so
that you can save
any evidence that
you need.SPOTTHE DIFFERENCE
We tested the View in different scenarios with
mixed results. First, the good news: it was
great having alive feed from the camera that
includes audio (only when enabled through
the settings), and the app’s vertical timeline
makes it simple to identify and playback
motion-triggered clips.At 1080p,recordings have plenty of detail
and are sharp enough to make out facial
details, although the sensor sometimes
struggled to cope in backlit scenes,
making people look very dark.
There are other drawbacks, too.
Once you’ve tapped anewly created
clip,itcan take several minutes
before you’re able to access it.
Motion detection, too, was very
poor.The View is supposed
to have person
detection,meaning
the motion sensor
is only triggered
when it detects a
moving person and not
just apet or awindblown plant, but when we
walked past adoorwaywell within the
camera’s field of view,itfailed to recognise
anything had moved at all.
Night vision mode is much more
impressive.The View can still pick up plenty
of detail in the dark, and night mode kicks in
automatically as soon as the lights turn off.
Phone notifications are good when they
work, but half the time we ended up waiting
in vain forone to pop up.This, according to
Hive,isafeature: it doesn’t want to
overcrowd your notification area, so you’ll
only receive anotification every 30 minutes.
We appreciatethe sentiment, and the app will
still log everything, but if abreak-in was
occurring we’d rather be informed straight
away. The only waytomake sure this happens
is to have the app open constantly,asnew
detected motions pop up automatically,but
that’s not really afeasible workaround.LOST SIGHT
The View maynot be the first security
camera Hive has produced but it’s definitely
an improvement in terms of style and
features. However,ithas some serious
shortcomings as well. The motion detection
is patchy,and Hive’s choice of when to
displayanotification is illogical.
That’s highly unfortunate, as the View
could have been afantastic wayofgetting
high-end functionality foralot less than the
Arlo Pro 2orthe D-Link DCS-2802KT. As it
turns out, if you want that level of quality,
you’ll simply have to paymore,although the
Kasa Cam KC120 is an attractive alternative
at £76. It, too, has aflexible magnetic stand,
and footage is saved in the cloud fortwice
as long as with the View.