monitored burglar alarm
Video is captured in 720p, but looks surprisingly good. It's also quite smooth, and never suffered choppiness in my testing—despite the fact that the camera only operates on the 2. 4GHz band. When analyzing footage captured with an adjacent 1080p Logi Circle, which supports the 5GHz band, the SimpliCam's video quality was comparable. Sound captured is a bit muffled, but certainly audible, though the camera does not currently support two way audio. Night vision footage is clear and motion detection sensitivity can be adjusted in the app. Motion detection is based on heat signature so the camera can discern the difference between, say, a spinning fan, a small dog, and an actual moving person who's breaking in to your home. Recently added, Alexa voice control lets you arm your system or check on its
status on Amazon Echo devices. Enabling the SimpliSafe Home Control skill in the Alexa app is simple, and commands like "Alexa, tell SimpliSafe I'm leaving" to arm the system in Away mode, "Alexa, tell SimpliSafe good night" to arm the system in Home mode, and "Alexa, ask SimpliSafe if my home is secure" to get system status worked
well in testing. There was little lag between the voice command and the base station announcing status or changes in system modes. The Alexa integration only works with the new SimpliSafe hardware, and the system can't be disarmed via voice for obvious reasons.
