Conventional burglar alarms and surveillance systems can be costly, especially if you opt for a monitored solution, and even then you could have to deal with false alarms in the middle of the night.
The mybusiness247 package, on the other hand, is relatively cheap, easy to install, and as well as 24-hour monitoring, lets you log in and see what’s going on from any internet-connected browser or mobile phone.
We were sent a mybusiness247 Starter kit comprising an XG1000 network system controller, plus four small Panasonic network cameras and a digital video recorder (DVR) able to record continuous video from all four cameras for up to 30 days.
Manufactured by a company called Xanboo, the XG1000 is effectively a small computer that plugs into the Lan behind the internet router with the cameras and DVR (also from Xanboo), and a set of Homeplug adapters included for those without an existing network or enough free ports.
Wireless door and window sensors can also be added (£14.95 ex Vat), together with wireless motion detectors and a siren (£30.95 ex Vat each).
A power controller (£34.95 ex Vat) is another optional extra that allows you to, for example, remotely power on/off lights, servers and other devices, plus there’s a keypad (£25.95 ex Vat) to arm/disarm the system locally.
You can also upgrade to a motorised pan/tilt/zoom camera (£177.95 ex Vat) and even add temperature and water sensors (£25.95 ex Vat each) to build your own comprehensive monitoring and surveillance system.
The extra sensors all connect wirelessly to the XG1000 and the only other hardware required is a broadband router somewhere on the Lan.
There’s no software to install. Instead, we simply registered for a remote monitoring account via the mybusiness247 website (£17.01 ex Vat per month), which enabled us to log in to the controller remotely. The XG1000 then discovered the devices we’d installed and, via the web interface, provided us with tools to arm/disarm them, check their status, configure email and text message alerts when motion was detected and so on.
We were also able to view live motion video captured by the cameras, as well as still shots and video clips, with the data stored on secure hosted servers to prevent it being erased or tampered with. The digital video recorder, however, had to be configured and managed locally, and although simple to operate, it has very noisy fans.
Finally, using a Nokia N95, we downloaded and installed a Java applet and were able to arm/disarm devices and view live video via the mobile. The experience here will, of course, depend on the speed of your connection, although using a high-speed HSDPA link, we got acceptable and very impressive results.
Indeed, our overall impression of the mybusiness247 solution was good, although we did have a few reservations. The DVR was one it is far too noisy. Another is the dependence on the broadband link if there’s any interruption in service, you’d lose all monitoring capabilities.
We were also a little concerned about the lack of differentiation between the mybusiness247 product and a similar home security solution from the same vendor. Finally, wireless networking support would have been a welcome added feature.
Still, such reservations aside, the mybusiness247 hardware worked well in our tests and the package is worth considering if you’re after a small business security and surveillance solution.
All Peripheral Devices Tags: Office, Security, Mysecurity247
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