By Nathan Fall

You want to be safe, smart, and have a handle on the homestead even when you’re not around. You’ve decided to get a camera system.  What’s the worst way to go about it? We’ve got you covered.

First of all, if we’re going to do this wrong, let’s do it spectacularly.

• Don’t do any research. Trust whatever you’re told, trust the labels and do not look up reviews. You can’t live your life based on other people’s experiences, right?
• Do it yourself. Sure, you’re a neurosurgeon and not a trained, certified technician but what does that matter? You can figure it out on your own and have a cutting edge solution. If it breaks or malfunctions, you can service it yourself! Easy peasy.
• Construct an analog system. Rather than going with the modern standard, IP based cameras, go for the cheapest solution -- analog! Sure it won’t age well and requires things like a DVR (we’ll get to that in a moment) but it will be fine. You don’t want to be able to look through your cameras with your smartphone, PC, or tablet anyways.
• Settle for a DVR. You don’t need cloud storage for your cameras. Just settle for a DVR! It doesn’t let you remotely access your stored video but that’s not a big deal. If it dies, it might be weeks before you notice, but again -- how important is that?
• Hire a less-than-reputable company. There are companies that have been in the industry for twenty, even thirty years. Boring. Why not let your neighbor’s cousin put in your cameras for you?
• Disregard camera encryption. Who’s going to look through your cameras anyways? Yes, cybersecurity is a growing issue but why worry about it? I’m sure it will be fine.
• Here’s the big one. Settle for just cameras and don’t integrate them with anything else. Sure, video cameras won’t call the police if your neighbor breaks into your shed. Sure, they won’t call the fire department if your house burns. Why worry about that, though, when you can see it happening? Don’t worry about pairing other cost-effective ways of securing your house with your cameras. Just use cameras -- it’ll be fine.

It hurt to write this. All too often, we have someone come into the office that fell for one or many of the above lines of logic and deeply regretted it. At ASI, we take very seriously the mission of protecting you and your property. If you’re exploring your options, let’s have a conversation about the safest, wisest and most efficient way of giving you peace of mind, quality of life and outstanding home security