Scheduled activity zones

[shanc]

This question was asked in 2019 but still has not bee resolved. IMHO, it is an excellent question because we have had neighbours whose car was stolen overnight. The perps were briefly seen to have been on the footpath which our camera doesn't cover (because it is public access). Our street is very quiet most times.

However, if there was a feature to allow me to designate an activity zone which included the street from say midnight to 5 am, then I would have included the street in the activity zone for this period and quite likely caught the perps' faces.

This feature would be an absolutely valuable one to have, so why doesn't Arlo enable it?

[StephenB]

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@shanc wrote:

However, if there was a feature to allow me to designate an activity zone which included the street from say midnight to 5 am, then I would have included the street in the activity zone for this period and quite likely caught the perps' faces.

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Hard to say - the motion detection range for the Pro 4 is spec'd at 25 feet.  While it often can detect vehicles that are further away, it's not that likely to have been triggered by people.  You could test this if you like, using the motion detection test while moving in that area.

That said, I do see some value in being able to schedule activity zones.  Also some other features - smart notifications, and perhaps the spotlight.

[shanc]

I'm not sure you have understood or answered my question, sorry.

[StephenB]

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@shanc wrote:

I'm not sure you have understood or answered my question, sorry.

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I believe I did, but you can try asking again with different wording.

This is a user-to-user forum, and I don't work for Arlo.  So I have no information on how they view the feature request of scheduling activity zones.  I do see some value in providing that feature, as I said above.

But I am doubtful that it would have helped in your specific situation, since I suspect the street is too far away from the camera for it to detect people moving there.

[shanc]

Thanks but I am not sure how more specific I can get. Thank you for sharing your thoughts though - appreciated.

They've said that the feature is under consideration. We shall see.

[StephenB]

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@shanc wrote:

Thanks but I am not sure how more specific I can get.

Likewise.

May I suggest this test:

1. Briefly remove the activity zones from the camera (preferrably at night)
2. Walk along the route you think the perps used
3. See what recordings you get.

[shanc]

That’s the first thing we did. It ended up capturing all the movement on the street, the footpath and on our driveway. Then the next day, the camera battery drained to almost 50% with all movements being recorded. My phone nearly went berserk with the notifications as well, all day, from 4 am until late. Arlo agreed that it wasn’t the solution. 

Hence my request for timed activity zones, allowing all notifications during the timed window.

I appreciate your suggestions but am really more looking for a solution from Arlo itself. The community post is to flag the request as per their suggestion to start that process. 

[StephenB]

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@shanc wrote:

The community post is to flag the request as per their suggestion to start that process. 

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I'm tagging the mods ( @JamesC and @ShayneS ) since they are the ones who can pass on your feedback to the development folks.

Note Arlo almost never commits to any new features here, they generally just acknowledge the feedback.

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@shanc wrote:

Then the next day, the camera battery drained to almost 50% with all movements being recorded.

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Just an FYI here - activity zones do NOT affect battery life.  The camera streams video to the cloud whenever motion is detected (whether in-zone or out-of-zone).  Then the cloud will supress recordings and notifications that are out-of-zone.  So the camera behaves exactly the same way, whether zones are configured or not.

So the battery drain you saw is a bit of a mystery.

BTW, if you use a base station, you could add local storage to it.  Out-of-zone recordings are stored locally, and are just supressed in the cloud.

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@shanc wrote:

 My phone nearly went berserk with the notifications as well, all day, from 4 am until late. Arlo agreed that it wasn’t the solution. 

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Another potential solution might be an option to always record out-of-zone motion in the cloud, and only supress the notifications.

Maybe Arlo could do both???

[shanc]

@StephenB wrote "Just an FYI here - activity zones do NOT affect battery life.  The camera streams video to the cloud whenever motion is detected (whether in-zone or out-of-zone).  Then the cloud will supress recordings and notifications that are out-of-zone.  So the camera behaves exactly the same way, whether zones are configured or not."

I actually didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know. Have disabled the smart zone this morning and will monitor the battery use. If the battery doesn't drain too fast (and it should not based on what you have suggested), then I can disable all notifications and keep it as is.