Pro 2 Is It Possible To Set Up Areas Where The Camera Will Not Look For Motion?

[Usmaak]

My Ring cameras allow me to set up zones where the camera will look for motion and all other areas are ignored.  It doesn't work perfectly, but it does work.  Is there any way to do this?  I see a way to set up activity zones, but it seems to only want to do it when plugged in.  These cameras will be outdoors and battery powered.  There is a lot of vehicle activity on my street and I don't want the cameras to pick up passing cars.

Thanks.

[TomMac]

Zones need the ac adapter / powered ... ( there may have been a FW change to correct , not sure )

Remember that the cameras will pick up to a max of 25 ft for people, so avoid roads by aiming down a bit to allow higher sense levels for people ( and avoid false triggers )

[Usmaak]

Interesting.  I will give that a try.  I wonder why Ring is able to do the zones on battery power, but Arlo Pro 2 isn't.

[jguerdat]

I don't have Ring so can't say for sure but it's possible that Ring is using the same strategy as Arlo Smart where the servers are post-processing what the camera sees to determine if it's in the zone. Smart is usable on any of the battery-operated Arlo cameras.

[Usmaak]

My understanding was that it just doesn't sense in the areas that aren't in the selected zones.  But really, I don't know enough about this technology to know if that even makes sense.  The only Ring device that I have is the doorbell and while I like it, it has just enough issues that I decided to look elsewhere for cameras.

I want the cameras to detect the sidewalk, but not the street, and that might be asking too much of any battery powered system.  I have until 1/31/2019 to figure out if this system is right for me.  I've been avoiding getting hardwired cameras because it'd involve drilling holes in my house.  I might end up having to go that route.  These things are going to be placed high enough up that I don't want to have to change the batteries all of the time because they're constantly being set off.  We get hundreds of cars down our street per day.

[jguerdat]

Read the FAQs here on best camera positioning practices. Basically, rotate the camera down so the street isn't even in the view.

[st_shaw]

Subscribing to Arlo Smart will allow you to set up "cloud activity zones" on battery power. These will limit motion detection alerts to activity inside a defined area.  However, the analysis is done in the cloud, so the data must be transmitted from your camera and you will see an impact on battery life if there is motion detected outside the zone but still inside the camera's field of view. Careful camera positioning is still a good idea.