Checking Out Rooms With A Vue
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
By Ross Rubin, Executive Director, Industry Analysis
In this economic climate, where the industry is so desperate for a new hit category, it is tempting to look at the kind of functionality available via custom installers and wonder whether any of those tasks may trickle down into an easy, affordable product. For example, today multi-room audio has effectively been solved by Sonos and one can patch together multi-room video (at least as a point solution) with a Slingbox and SlingCatcher. None of these products have been a mass-market blockbuster, but they have certainly expanded the market beyond the custom install channel and given retailers something new to bring to the discussion.
I always thought that lighting controls would break through but, alas, the requirement to open up wall plates has done much to prevent that. And then there is home surveillance. Over the years, Sony, Panasonic, D-Link, Linksys, and others have released IP-based cameras. Perhaps the most ambitious attempt to simplify home surveillance, though, came from WiLife, which created a camera system that recorded video to a PC using a HomePlug connection. The company was purchased by Logitech, which continues to sell the products.
Last month’s DEMO conference, however, saw the bar lowered even further. Avaak, has developed a low-power mesh network that it is employing in its “personal video network” dubbed Vue.
The Vue system requires no software and its cameras appear easier to connect to a wall than a picture frame. Peel the non-destructive adhesive mount backing that has a magnetic dome on the other side, and position the small, lightweight camera to your preferred position. There’s no need to keep the cameras plugged in as Avaak claims a camera will last a year given “typical use” thanks to their on-demand usage scenario and low-power radios. What that is remains to be seen, but even if Avaak is being coy and a more typical use pattern results in a six-month battery life, that’s quite workable.
At $299 for a two-camera system and a base station that connects it to the Internet, the Vue system is priced reasonably for those with a pressing need to remotely view a premises or other location where they have access to broadband. Assuming it performs well, the open question is whether consumers will opt for a solution that allows them to occasionally peek in on their premises as opposed to keeping an archive of video as the Logitech camera system does.
Tags: Avaak, home surveilance, Logitech, Lukwerks, personal video network, vue, wilife
Consumer Technology | Ross Rubin, Executive Director, Industry Analysis | 
March 26, 2009 3:04 pm
2 Comments
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First impressions of the Avaak Vue | Out of the Box — October 2, 2009 @ 12:53 pm
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By Alexander Uslontsev, April 27, 2009 @ 6:34 pm
I want to mention another “ambitious attempt” from ugolog.com, that supports ANY webcam and ANY IP camera with HTTP/FTP upload. I would love to see Vue working with Ugolog.