The Yale Smart Living All in One Outdoor Camera is a new product that is a stand-alone device with onboard video recording and app control via Yale View. It is a direct competitor to other cameras, such as Hive, Blink, and Arlo.
The camera comes with an IP65 rating. It also has a 160-lumen spotlight and 110db siren built-in. The built-in spotlight with adjustable brightness can be set to auto illuminate when the IR sensor detects motion, and there’s a cooked-in siren to dissuade unwanted visitors from approaching.
IP65 weather-proofing makes it a good fit for mounting outside, but it can be used indoors too, and SD card storage in the camera means that costly monthly cloud-based subscriptions can be avoided.
Event notifications can be sent to a smartphone running the Yale View app, and the camera works with Amazon Alexa via devices like the Echo Show and Echo Spot. View your live stream and control the camera directly from your Echo Show, Fire TV, Fire Stick, or Fire Tablets (Gen7 & above).To get started, enable the Yale View skill in the Amazon Alexa app to link your account and discover your cameras. To see the live stream from your Yale camera on your Alexa device, just say commands like: “Alexa, show me the Front Door”.
It was really easy to install, nothing needed but the camera, your smartphone and Wi-Fi. Connected to Wi-Fi, downloaded the App and bingo. We mounted it to the wall outside. But, in common with most security cameras it needs connecting the mains, which is a pain when mounting on a wall, particularly outside.
Quality is brilliant, the picture is very clear, you can talk to the person who is at your house, take a screenshot, it only alerts you when there is movement (and only records as well) so you don’t have to look through hours of recordings.
The Camera is available through Amazon.