Baby Monitor Options - New Hub 2.0

I know you only have it set up for one camera, but do you know how it would function with two or more cameras? Do you have to manually switch through the feeds or can you do split screen? We always use a secondary sound monitor just for redundancy. I know that seems silly to other posters on here but wifi based monitors are always susceptible to dropping signal. Speaking of which, if it does drop signal does it automatically try and reconnect?

I actually do not think it can split the screenā€¦not currently. You have a list of cameras to choose from (each has their own password). It can save the password if you set it that way. That is a good point, would think that some would want to view multiple at the same time.

I cannot speak to it automatically reconnectingā€¦since we have not had that issue. Fortunately, the camera has not yet dropped at all. Sorry I could not help more.

Well, what seems good or cool might not be when you have a real baby to worry about. It may work out for you though. Iā€™m not trying to be a negative Nancy, just want to provide my recent experience and feelings on the subject.

Phones and tablets arenā€™t designed to sit there with the screen on for hours on end and they provide no means to get a constant audio stream. And what are you going to do when you are sleeping and donā€™t have a live audio feed? Rely on push notifications? You may not find yourself sleeping at all in that case (like me). You might want to make sure the baby is close enough to hear without a monitor while testing. It took me one night of being woken up by a crying baby through the walls where the camera didnā€™t alert us to throw my ā€œtechy egoā€ out the door and realize my childā€™s safety is more important.

IMO, none of these IP products (local or cloud) are a viable alternative to a basic radio monitor (video and/or audio). I think itā€™s irresponsible for any of these companies to advertise them as such.

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I think the concerns are valid. In my mind, I have the option of getting a traditional monitor if it does not work.

I can tell you that the concern about constant audio monitoring so far has not been an issue. This may be a function/feature of the app, but the video and audio stay on and so does the screen when on ā€œliveā€ view. We have no push notifications on because that is pointless. I actually have had the app and camera on for the last several hours as a test and can hear my wife and/or the dog when they enter the room all throughout the day. At this point, it has 100% uptime and the feed never stops. The only issue that we have to deal with is that the phone needs plugged in at night. Otherwise, at the moment (fingers crossed)ā€¦it is providing the same functionality at a lower cost and with a much, much better video quality. I think the best of the reviews for the traditional RF monitors was ā€œlow quality video resolutionā€.

If that changes, I will be sure to post!

sorry to bump a old topic but looking into this myself here and want to see how this worked out for you? did you integrate the Smartcam into ST? We are moving into a new house in about a month and a sec baby on the way in march so going to be doing a whole new setup so want to make sure I got all my ducks in a row :wink:

Hi there! Back in Sept, right after the V2 release, our baby girl was born. Four weeks prior to her birth we tried to figure out the best monitoring system.

We tried ST integration, but couldnā€™t justify adding systems between her and us. So we forgot about ST.

We tried a camera system with built in sound, two way voice, video recording, night vision, and an Android app. We found it cumbersome and slow. By the time the video came up, we were already at her side.

Then one night we were at target standing in front of the baby monitorsā€¦ Mind you we had just spent 2 hours at babies r us doing the same thing, and we were completed confused, at a loss as to how to decide. We just couldnā€™t make up our minds!

Then, we had an epiphone (however you spell it!).

We suddenly remembered that this was baby number eight! We always had a baby monitor before, never had a problem, and all of the kids survived! !

So, we picked up the box that had one listening device and two parent devicesā€¦ It was $29.99.

We took it home, plugged them in to make sure they worked and honestly we havenā€™t thought about any other monitor until I saw this post.

Just my advice, save the money on the monitor and spend it on an Amazon echo!

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this is exactly what I was looking to hear to be honest lol. My hidden agenda behind the cam as well was once it was done with baby use I could have a new toy as well (cant let my wife get wind of that) haha. but I think ultimately you are right.

I was thinking the same thingā€¦ But she put a quick end to that. Out of the blue she told me there would be NO cameras in the house that could be accessed remotelyā€¦ And if she thought for an instant that there was, every thing would be ripped (and I do mean ripped) out of the house and burnedā€¦

Sheā€™s an Irish red headā€¦ So she means it.

I just smiled and said yes my love!

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We had our baby and successfully use the smartcam. The wife really has taken to it and we have not had any problems or downtime. Quite frankly, friends who went the typical route have used it/seen on our phones and were jealous of the features.

One BIG CAVEAT. Our wifi network has little to no downtime and is exceptionally reliable. It seems like most complaints after troubleshooting appear to be network issues, not hardware. If you have wife reliability issues I would go the traditional route and give up some of the features. If you have a reliable network, then I would say the smartcam is a solid buy.

We primarily use the samsung smartcam app for viewing the baby. It is integrated with ST but not for regular use. I have routines setup to record video with certain triggers on other devices. Works like a charm.

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Here is my 2 cents. I have used a commercial electronics baby monitor for all of one night. It hissed and popped and had terrible interference. The screen was tiny and it cost way too much money. I bought a foscam ip camera and ip monitor app on android and have never looked back. This combination gives some of the best audio I have found. There is no extra hissing or popping or any additional interference. Everything just works. Regarding the original post, there is no reason to integrate with ST. Get the phone app, leave the app on at all times during the night and sleep soundly knowing you can wake up and check if you hear something out of the ordinary. Oh and then you can use the camera later around the house as a security camera.

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Looks like the OP has his solution. For anybody else doing research, figured iā€™d throw my 2 cents in.

Our requirements were similar with the addition of wanting it to be accessible from anywhere since I travel a decent amount andi still want to see little man. This immediately ruled out normal baby monitors. We ended up with a dual solution with an Angelcare for movement and audio and a Foscam F19821 with the Baby Monitor for IP Camera (by Tiny Cam) on our Apple devices. In day-to-day use we only use the video at night on an ipad on the nightstand and to check on him when he makes noise during naps to see if hes actually up or just stirring. The app is nice because it has a squelch setting to not disturb us at night. Itā€™s also good if i want to take the dog for a quick walk around the block that is just out of range of the Angelcare. The WAF is high once itā€™s setup, which is nice. We liked it enough that we just ordered a Foscam C1 for baby #2ā€™s room coming in March.

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thanks for all the input. def got a lot to mull over.

I think theyā€™re called ā€œundocumented featuresā€. :stuck_out_tongue:

LOLā€¦I swear I did not mean that (for my wife looking over my shoulderā€¦)

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Having set up couple Smartthings systems for couple of my clients and having a baby being born in the next couple months here is the plan I am going with. Going to use the system as both security and baby monitor
I plan on getting the start package and two samsung cameras
Getting one camera for the babyā€™s room and use my old tablet as a permanent monitor when home.
Going to place the motion sensor either under the crib or somewhere near the door so that I can be alerted in case the cat walks in the room uninvited. I already have Hue lights that I will set to trigger red (or whatever color) when breach has occurred.
Going to get second camera for the rear door we mainly use. The two door sensors will be attached to the front and rear doors.
Will get the Minimote from AEON and program a button for baby monitoring initiation, one for whole alarm and one for turning off alerts and why not one to turn on the lights.
As well I plan on using my current logitech remote as well to do those same functions from downstairs

Now my coworker made a good comment which was what about for when we go to a friendā€™s or family house, we also need something to travel with, So I may end up with also a dedicated baby monitorā€¦ darn you travelling features!!

I use a hikvision poe camera on both my kids with an angelcare monitor. I would never trust something so precious to a cloud or Internet. A real audio baby monitor alerts you to any interference and issue such as power loss. You cannot trust smartthings for that.

Please donā€™t try to use ST for anything more than extra monitoring. Traditional monitors work amazingly well still.

Also a hint to those worrying about cam freezes, enable clock overlay with seconds and you will know if your cam is frozen or not.

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isriam, I am planning a similar setup but with a Motorola audio only monitor. Are you also recording the rtsp feed and trans-coding it anywhere? I have been looking at solutions for recording for a couple of days now, but have not found any software solutions that I really enjoy, and going the node.js route with rtsp-recorder just seems like too much work :wink:

I wanted to hijack thisā€¦

Baby #1 is coming in June, and I am too exploring options. My brother has the Samsung SmartCam Pro HD, and he swears by it. He has absolutely 0 integration. However, I plan on integrating it to ST; I also thing that we may find use for the camera as the baby grows. My sister in law is gifting us her spare baby monitored which adds portability when travelling.

Any additional feedback on that Samsung Smartcam?