MaximumPC 2007 09

reviewsTes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized

0 MAXIMUMPC September 2007

M

onitoring your home with a simple

webcam is cheap and easy, but

it’s not very effective. You can’t sit

in front of your PC watching a video win-

dow all day, and while recording the goings

on at your property might catch a criminal

in the act of breaking and entering, it could

be hours or days before you find out about

it. These new products can alert you the

instant something goes awry.

—Michael Brown

wilife lukwerks

surveillance starter kit

We nearly slapped WiLife’s Spy Camera

Starter Kit with a Geek Tested: Disapproved

label when we checked it out in our May

2007 issue. The camera was poorly dis-

guised in the massive body of a fugly digital

clock. But the company’s software was

so impressive that we called in its Indoor

Camera Starter Kit ($300) and an add-on

outdoor camera ($230) for a full review.

Each of WiLife’s cameras uses

HomePlug powerline networking, so you

need only plug the cameras into wall outlets,

hook a USB receiver to your PC, and install

the software. We had a two-camera system

up and working within 15 minutes.

The interior camera comes with a

desktop stand, a wall/ceiling mount, and

a suction cup for mounting to a window.

The exterior model mounts to a wall or the

ceiling. Both cameras are expensive, but

each is outfitted with an onboard 400MHz

DSP that compresses and encodes video

to WMV9 format before it’s ever sent to

your PC.

WiLife’s software can manage up to six

cameras simultaneously with motion-acti-

vated video recording, and it can send text

or video-clip alerts to your smartphone or

email address whenever it detects unex-

pected activity. You can also establish

up to 16 tracking zones for each camera,

which enables them to ignore cars travel-

ing on the street, for instance, but activate

when someone approaches your door.

WiLife also provides a free online account,

so you can monitor your cameras from any

web-enabled device.

WiLife is a fabulous video-surveillance

system—and we dig the fact that there are no

monthly fees—but its scope is limited: We’d

like to see the company expand this product

into a more complete home-control system.

icontrol

advanced

starter kit^

This month, we also

reviewed the larger of

iControl’s two starter

kits, which consists of a

wireless camera, a motion

detector, an Intermatic

Z-Wave lamp module, a

door/window detector,

a motion detector, a

keychain remote, and a control module

that plugs into your wireless router.

The starter kit is just that: It can be

expanded with more than a dozen addi-

tional components, including smoke and

water detectors, freeze sensors, thermo-

stats, and more. While the WiLife system

is limited to video cameras, cameras are

but one aspect of iControl’s product: It

moves far beyond monitoring visual events

in and around your home, enabling you to

control your home’s lighting and climate

over the Internet. It also comes with a fea-

ture we’re not nearly as enthused about:

a $15-per-month (or $150 per year) sub-

scription fee.

The WiLife system is limited to gen-

erating alerts when its cameras detect

motion; iControl’s software is more sophis-

ticated: It can not only generate an alert

based on readings from any of its sensors,

but also alert you when an expected event

doesn’t happen. If your front door doesn’t

open by 3:00 PM, for instance, you can

program the system to send a notification

to your PC or smartphone that your child

hasn’t arrived home from school.

IControl’s system is much broader than

WiLife’s and it’s entirely web based, so

you don’t need to install a software client

on your PC. But that $15 per month ser-

vice charge is hard to swallow.

PC Peekaboo!

The latest in home-surveillance high jinks

the icontrol’s wireless video cameras still depend on wires for power.

wilife’s surveillance cameras are good, but the software that

manages them is brilliant.

$300, http://www.wilife.com

WILIFE survEILLancE kIt

videodroMe

Excellent software, strong

cameras, easy to deploy.

shock treatMent^9

Spendy, limited

to video surveillance.

$250, http://www.icontrol.com

IcontroL advancEd startEr kIt

watching

Delivers much more than

just video surveillance.

Being watched^7

Video surveillance segment is

weaker than WiLife’s offering;

monthly subscription fee.