Am I expecting too much from ARLO

[rdilauro]

6 Months ago we started out with 2 ARLO Pros, and 6 ARLO Ultra to monitor our Beach, Marina, Golf and Tennis areas.  Since then I took over and have installed about 10 more ARLO cameras, including 2 ARLO Go2 Cellular cameras to monitor our boat storage area.

Up until now, we only had a person who would look at videos when there was a reported problem.  Because of that many of our camera batteries went to 0% of the cameras stayed offline.   I am trying to correct that.  However, since I am a member of the community and not an employee, I should not have access to any videos.  I have no desire to look at them.  I want to check the technical status of each camera.    I am creating a number of email filters for our master ARLO email account so that I will get those that I am interested in.  So far, I've got the low battery status working.  But I will continue to work on filters.

I have 5 different functional areas (Golf, Tennis, Club, Marina, etc)  that have folks with specific granted access to what they need to see.

One community member said to me, that perhaps we should be looking into a larger professional monitoring configuration.  That may be so, but so far, I have been able to do every thing I want and need to do with ARLO cameras.

Our configuration will continue to grow (Just installed two new Ultra's yesterday), so that the total management of this configuration will continue to be more involved.

Am I expecting too much from ARLO in that our configuration can not meet the requirements on an ongoing basis? It seems that more an more the need for someone to watch over the technical aspects of the cameras is more important.

Has anyone come up with or know about a total ARLO management process to control the number of cameras that I am talking about.

[StephenB · Accepted solution]

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@rdilauro wrote:

6 Months ago we started out with 2 ARLO Pros, and 6 ARLO Ultra to monitor our Beach, Marina, Golf and Tennis areas.  Since then I took over and have installed about 10 more ARLO cameras, including 2 ARLO Go2 Cellular cameras to monitor our boat storage area.

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You are aiming at a very large scale deployment - though I have seen one or two other posts here that have similar scale.

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@rdilauro wrote:

Our configuration will continue to grow (Just installed two new Ultra's yesterday), so that the total management of this configuration will continue to be more involved.

 It seems that more an more the need for someone to watch over the technical aspects of the cameras is more important.

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That is certainly going to be the case.  The more cameras you have, the more batteries need to be recharged.  Plus you will need to monitor the recordings, make sure the cameras are on-line, replace failed equipment, etc.  Whether you can sustain what you are doing now as a volunteer is a question only you can answer. 

Of course from the organization's point of view, it is also important that they be able to continue using the cameras if you needed to stop managing them.  They might need (or want) a backup for you.

On the other hand, if you all continue to use volunteer labor, the cost would be a lot higher if you switched to a professional security service.  But it might be worthwhile to get a quote, so the cost/benefit would be clear (however it turns out).  Keep in mind that a mixed strategy is possible - using both the existing Arlo cameras (managed by the organization) for some areas, plus a professional service for others.

One thing you might want to clarify first (with the organization) are the goals of the surveillance.  Many businesses that use Arlo are only arming the cameras off-hours  - detecting intrusion, and not monitoring incidents during business hours.  If that's appropriate for some (or all) of your locations, then the burden of monitoring the cameras will be lower.  Privacy concerns are also reduced.

Clarifying the goal(s) might help you size the ultimate deployment (and perhaps reduce it to control management).  It would also give you a chance to set the expectations on what the cameras can (and cannot) do.

[rdilauro]

Stephen,

I appreciate your insight into this.

I have raised this concern to the board.  They are the ones that are going to make the decision to allow me to 

manage the total camera configuration.  Our office manager has enough to do and would only view videos when required.

I am also granting access to our paid Security guard (during summer months) so that he can look at videos.  But he would not be the one managing the cameras.

The board investigate a 3rd party company to provide camera monitoring.  It was too costly and dropped