If you're planning a few trips away over the festive period, being able to
check up on your home may sound like a tempting proposal.
Network cameras, unlike standard web cams, provide you with live video
footage and are accessible from any internet-connected PC without the need for
your home PC to be switched on.
The rather unimaginatively named Mpeg4 Pan/Tilt Internet Camera from Peak
(available in the UK through Spot On UK) is a relatively cheap network camera, but one that
comes with a decent set of features.
With an Apple-white design, the camera looks pretty slick and will hook up to
your router either via a standard Ethernet cable or a wireless connection.
Unlike many other similarly priced network cameras, it also has the ability to
pan its lens 170¡ă horizontally and 135¡ă vertically, giving you a decent field of
view.
We gave both the wired Ethernet and wireless connections a go and didn't
experience any problems getting it to talk to the router. The software
interface, accessed via a standard web browser, is reasonably uncluttered with
the live video window taking up the majority of the home page.
Settings such as camera angle, brightness, audio and zoom sitting on the
right, while the various menu shortcuts are placed along the top of the screen;
hovering over one brings up further options, which can be a pain if you've got
an over-sensitive mouse.
Video quality, in general, is acceptable but doesn't compare well against the
quality offered by more expensive network cameras such as the Axis 212 PTZ.
Although a zoom option is available from the main window, this isn't an optical
zoom function so basically just increases the pixel size. Indeed, zooming in
even a small amount vastly reduces picture quality, making it a rather pointless
feature and not one we see many people making use of.
The lens can be shifted either using the horizontal and vertical navigation
bars or by simply clicking on an area of the live video to centre on. The camera
is quick to respond to movement requests, but the motor is rather noisy so if
you're keeping tabs on an intruder they'll soon know the game's up.
While on the subject of noise, it's worth noting the camera houses an
internal microphone. But the audio we experienced was of a very poor quality and
frequently cut out altogether.
If you plan to use the camera to monitor for intrusions, you can designate up
to three motion-detection zones. If movement is detected in any of these zones
the alarm will be triggered; all other movement will be ignored.
A schedule can be set up to only activate the detection at certain times and
on specific days of the week. Video or snapshot files (various resolutions are
available) can be emailed or transferred to a network folder but, unlike most
other network cameras, uploading to an ftp site isn't supported.
The main problem we have with this internet camera is the interface. For
example, setting up email notifications when movement is detected proved a real
task, and one that wasn't helped by the lack of an error logging system or even
a simple error code database. Other limitations, such as the lack of ftp
support, are disappointing.
That said, if you're after a cheap network camera, the pan and tilt lens of
this Peak model will no doubt appeal.
HIGH-end Video Server Module board W1860
