Thursday 21 May 2015

Pan & Tilt HD Camera

Pan & Tilt HD Camera

Michael Fereday puts his living room under close surveillance and records the evidence

The Internet of Things has opened up new avenues of information gathering. We can now be kept informed as to what might be occurring in our homes when we're away for whatever reason. It's relatively straightforward to set up a system that can respond to different types of activity and sent alerts to designated personel. One such product is the Pan & Tilt HD Camera from Swann.


Supplied with a choice of wall or ceiling mounting brackets if you decide against positioning the unit on a desk, this camera has both pan and tilt capabilities (hence its title) which can be controlled and adjusted remotely. The camera is attached to a base unit that contains connections for Ethernet use and mains power, plus a slot for inserting a micro-SD card to store images, and a mini-HDMI port for linking the camera to a HD television for large screen viewing. You'll need to supply both the HDMI lead and micro-SD card. There's also a screw mount fitting for attaching a supplied antenna if you plan to use the unit’s wi-fi capability.

Whether you opt for a wired or wireless connection, the Pan & Tilt camera will need to be integrated into a home network. Support is provided for WPS linking. You need to hold down a button on the base unit while activating the appropriate mode on your router to establish a connection.

You'll need to download the SwannCloud Mobile app from the App or Play Store in order to control the camera remotely. The app will need to establish a link to the camera unit. This process involves the app creating a QR code, which the camera needs to scan to set up the connection. It took me a couple of attempts before the process could be completed successfully.

The SwannCloud Mobile app divides its functionality into the four distinct areas of Home, Events, Camera and Others. I should explain that Swann defines an event as a detected incident. The initial Home screen view shows the number of cameras that have been set up, along with the number of events with links to the last two showing the date, time and type of incident.

For more information about events, which are classified under headings that include intrusion, tampering, facial recognition and offline status, you need to switch to the Events tab. You can view a scrollable list of incidences that have been detected and recorded in ten-second video files. These events are sent to your mobile device using Push technology, allowing you to view the scene and decide what action to take. With a micro-SD card inserted, these events could be viewed on a computer later.

While motion detection is tuned on by default, other features, such as intrusion or camera tampering, will need to be turned on manually via the Settings option accessed from the Camera tab. This tab also allows you to view a live stream from the camera on your mobile device. You can make adjustments remotely to the camera’s viewing position via its pan and tilt features.

I did encounter one slight problem with this camera. Shortly after setting up the device, I was advised that a firmware update was available, which would take around ten minutes to complete. However, it required several attempts over a number of days before the update could be downloaded and installed. Other than this, my experiences with this device were trouble-free. Michael Fereday

A useful tool for keeping a check on part of your home.