There are few things more annoying than having to stop what you're doing to answer the doorbell only to find it's either a pushy salesman or yet another visit from the folks down at the Kingdom Hall. Knowing who is ringing that buzzer can not only save you the hassle of dealing with door-to-door solicitors, it can help prevent a worst case scenario, such as a home intrusion. If you don't have the finances for a decent multi-camera home surveillance system like Dropcam Pro, there are alternatives.
The folks at VTech, best known for their affordable home phone systems, have recently introduced the Audio/Video Doorbell Answering System IS7121-2 ($119.95 list), a hybrid cordless phone system that includes two telephone handsets and a doorbell unit with a built-in camera and microphone. Billed as caller ID for your front porch, the IS71721-2 provides a live video feed from your front door and takes a snapshot of whomever has come a-calling, but the use of a low-end camera limits what you'll see when the bell rings and the camera angle is too narrow. On the plus side, it's a snap to install and functions flawlessly as a cordless phone system.
Design and Features
The IS7121-2 contains two handsets, a base receiver, a charger for the second handset, a doorbell with a built-in video camera and microphone, alkaline batteries, an AC transformer for the camera, rechargeable batteries for the handsets, and mounting hardware. The doorbell measures 4.7 by 1.9 by 1.5 inches (HWD) and is black with a silver doorbell button in the center of the faceplate. Above the button are a camera, two night vision infrared LEDs, and an LED indicator that lights up when the doorbell has been rung. To the right of the doorbell button is a small embedded microphone and below the button are a speaker and a silver VTech logo.
The back panel of the doorbell unit contains a gasket to keep the internal compartment dry. Here is where you can install two AA batteries to power the doorbell. You can opt to attach the transformer wires if you want to power the unit from an AC outlet, but it just complicates an otherwise easy install process and requires drilling holes and running wire to the doorbell from an outlet inside the home. The only advantage to this option is having the ability to initiate a video session via a handset (while operating on batteries, only ringing the doorbell can initiate a video session). You can also use existing doorbell wiring to have both the VTech doorbell and your existing doorbell ring simultaneously.
A lever in the rear compartment lets you manually adjust the camera lens angle up, down, left, or right. This is fine if everybody who rings the doorbell is the same height, but since you only get an 18-inch vertical viewing angle from the lens you'll only see the top of shorter people's heads or the chest area of taller people (depending on how you set the camera angle). For example, I was able to see my six-foot-tall neighbor's face when he rang the bell, but my shorter 10 year old had to jump up to be seen. Having the ability to change the lens angle remotely is a must for this camera to be truly effective.
The base station cradle offers all of the features you'd expect from a typical home phone system including digital message recording (up to 14 minutes), caller ID, call waiting, speakerphone, and speed dial. You can store up to 50 entries in the Directory and use the remote message retrieval feature to play messages from the road.
The handset is 7.5 inches long and has a rounded back and a glossy black faceplate with silver trim. There's a 1.1 by 1.4 inch color LCD screen at the top, two soft keys below the screen, five buttons in the middle (view, volume up/down, talk, off), and a number pad on the bottom with mute, speakerphone, and redial buttons. On the right side is a PTT (push-to-talk) button that also takes a snapshot while the handset is in video mode. The number pad offers blue LED backlighting.
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