Toledo Area Sees Rise in Use of Home Surveillance
Habitec Security Featured in the Toledo Blade Concerning Home Security Cameras
By JULIE M. McKINNON
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Maybe you want to deter burglars with unobtrusive yet visible cameras outside your home, or at least provide police with recorded evidence to help catch criminals.
Perhaps you want to check in on your elderly mother while you’re at work. Or maybe you want to ensure your children aren’t messing with the gun safe or playing unsupervised around the backyard swimming pool.
Those are some reasons growing numbers of local residents are installing video-security systems as prices have fallen in the last couple of years. Fear of rising crime also plays a part in the increased use of home security surveillance systems, and the technology is being tooled for homeowner use, local installation companies say.
Toledoan Amy Licata had a $700 system with two outdoor cameras installed by Guardian Alarm Co. on her family’s house last week; one camera is trained on the backyard, the other the front. The cameras, which record whenever motion is detected, will pick up activity outside both of the Licatas’ children’s bedrooms, too.
“I always worry more about the kids more than anything, so I wanted to make sure they were safe,” Mrs. Licata said.
Home systems using digital video recorders maintaining footage a couple of weeks have been around for a while, but, even at half the price of two years ago, they can cost thousands of dollars. The advent of cheaper Internet protocol cameras systems, starting at less than $500 installed, has led to more residents adding video-security systems, said officials at Habitec Security Inc. in Sylvania Township.
Habitec has a secure Web site where residents can view live Internet camera feeds through smart phones and computers, a service that starts at $10 a month per camera.
The cameras can record short clips posted to the Web site when motion is detected or an alarm is triggered, and text messages or e-mails can be sent to homeowners, company officials said.
“People are getting more and more interested in security,” said John Smythe, Habitec president. “People are more interested in seeing their homes when they’re away.”
Added Pat Ehrsam, service manager at Habitec, of an IP camera home surveillance system: “It’s very simple. Anyone can operate it … Video is just becoming more and more a part of our lives.”
Officials at both Habitec and Guardian, a Southfield, Mich., firm with a Toledo office, said their main market for residential use remains alarm systems.
But numbers for home video surveillance systems are growing, and they are popping up beyond upscale homes, they said.
Surveillance systems areabout 10 percent of Guardian’s residential business in the Toledo area, up from about 1 percent five years ago. The company installs seven to 10 home video surveillance systems a month in the Toledo area, said David Goldstein, president.
Customers are not fazed by monthly surveillance fees that can run $60 for multiple cameras, which is higher than those for alarms, Mr. Goldstein said.
“People are willing to pay two to three times as much to watch their homes than to secure them,” he said.
A number of factors play into prices and monthly fees for video surveillance systems, including the type of equipment, number of cameras, how video is recorded and stored, and other services. Cameras can be fixed on one spot, for example, or have the ability to be panned around by a resident checking a room.
A surveillance system with two Internet-viewing cameras can be installed for as low as about $300, with monthly fees of roughly $25, and will make snippets of footage available on the Internet. More expensive DVR systems with multiple cameras, which typically start around $1,500 to $2,000 and roughly $40 monthly fees, record a couple of weeks of footage on the home equipment and also can be monitored through the Internet.
Mrs. Licata, the Toledo mother of two, said she and her husband had considered getting a video surveillance system for a while, and Guardian’s $35 fee includes full maintenance along with Internet access to check live feeds. Costs have come down, and their older child, 2-year-old Luca, having learned to to open doors was another reason to get a system installed, she said.
“It’s just for safety,” Mrs. Licata said. “It gives me that peace of mind.”
Honeywell International Inc., which offers various security systems, has doubled sales of home video surveillance equipment in two years. Overall numbers still are small, but declining prices for cameras and the proliferation of smart phones have helped make systems attractive, said Gordon Hope, general manager of Honeywell’s AlarmNet business. “It’s very early, very early,” Mr. Hope said. “But we are certainly seeing an increase in activity.”
At Video Security & Surveillance Systems in Toledo, commercial installations are about the same, but business in residential systems has doubled within the last two years as prices have dropped to less than $1,000, said Michael Wegren, owner, who would not give specific figures.
“It has been on the rise for probably the last year and a half,” he said.
Even some renters have put in video systems with the permission of property owners, although most systems are installed in middle-class and upper-class houses, Mr. Wegren said.
For some customers, crime is not the prime reason for having video surveillance systems installed. They use them to keep track of elderly relatives living with them or to check on children, some installers said.
“There is some demand for it coming recently from [increased] vandalism or people who have small children, especially people who have swimming pools,” said Mike Latscha, vice president of Home Guard Security Systems in Whitehouse.
Habitec has installed some video surveillance systems at house construction sites in an effort to prevent theft of copper and other building supplies, said Mr. Smythe, the company president. Second homes are another popular place for installing video surveillance systems, he said.
Sometimes the systems catch activity outside a homeowner’s purview.
In June, video surveillance cameras at a South Toledo home captured some images of the theft of a neighbor’s 9-year-old shepherd, lab, and Rottweiler mix. The dog survived two 45-caliber bullet wounds during the incident, and two people have been charged with animal cruelty.
Do-it-yourselfers also have alternatives.
For example, Toledo-area Best Buy stores in the last month have started carrying indoor security camera systems, which cost about $300 and allow monitoring through the Internet. Best Buy also carries indoor/outdoor security camera systems on its Web site.
Dan Bollin, president of Toledo’s Eagle Creek Builders and Transtar Electric, said he has been outfitting houses for eight years with structured cabling wiring, which allows for installation of video surveillance systems.
Such systems still are most common in houses starting at $350,000, he said.
“More people are more concerned today with security,” Mr. Bollin said.
http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20100801/BUSINESS10/7310366/-1/BUSINESS
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