So THIS is what makes the Hive View Outdoor Camera really smart! Report From CES 2019
note: This post is sponsored and as usual 100% of this review is my own
It’s that time of year again where fellow tech geeks from around the world flock to Las Vegas for the world’s largest electronics show: CES. This mega show is like the looking glass that shows us the kind of tech we could expect to find in our lives at some point. It’s a glance into the future across all categories including Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Robots, Smart Cars, Drones, and Smart Home.
I love is seeing how companies grow every year at CES adding more products and services to their offering. One of my favorite Smart Home companies doing exactly that is Hive.
A couple of years ago when I first installed Hive it was already ahead of its time by not only being wireless but by allowing its customers to pay a monthly service fee instead of thousands of dollars up front for all the hardware. Perfect!
Hive didn’t stop there either and Hive has continuously evolved their both their app and their smart home tech.
The app has received new upgraded features such as Action so now I can set my coffee machine to automatically switch on when the motion sensor is triggered in the garage so that the coffee is ready as soon as I walk into the house. I can set my Hive system to Vacation Mode so it randomly switches lights on and off. Living in Dallas, Texas where the weather can be extreme its awesome being able to set the thermostat while on the way home from the app so its nice and cool when we get in and doesn’t need to be constantly running costing me money.
But wait – there is more!
Hive added the Hive View home camera where you can keep your eye on your home from anywhere in the world. The camera can also be taken off its stand and moved around allowing you to keep an eye on your kids playing outside while you cook dinner for example. Then simply clip it back onto its stand via its magnetic mount and its ready to keep guard again inside.
Following on the success of the home camera, Hive has introduced the Hive View Outdoor camera which now completes the smart home picture and really provides that extra layer of security for peace-of-mind.
Smart Tech in the Hive View Outdoor Camera
The Hive View Outdoor is weatherproof and can stream its video feed at 1080 HP. It obviously works during the day and switches to night vision during low light conditions. With its 130 degrees viewing angle, you are able to capture a lot and with its 8x digital zoom, you can get close to anything that looks suspicious.
Hive has integrated smart facilities too such as allowing the camera to listen to sounds and record those. The Hive View Outdoor can also detect people or motion and instantly notify you as soon as it picks up anything. I have my camera set up to notify me if there is a person walking towards my house which works perfectly when I am expecting a delivery. Not only can I see that it arrives, but I am also able to talk with the delivery person asking him/ her to hide the package if I know I am not going to be home soon.
The recordings are kept for 24 hours but if you have the Hive Video Playback Membership then the recordings are kept for 30 days in the cloud. Keeping footage in the cloud also means that if the camera is smashed or stolen, the footage isn’t lost.
Since I have the Hive Hub, I can link my camera to my other Hive devices so now when the camera detects a person or a motion, it can switch on lights and switch on the TV or any other action combination that I can come up with. This is brilliant for making it seem like you are still home just in case that person walking really slowly by the house isn’t just a walking their dog…
Finally, at a touch of a button on my phone, I can watch live footage of what’s going on outside my home.
So in summary:
A smart home isn’t just gadgets for the sake of having gadgets. With Hive you really do get one complete system that manages your home from one central app which works seamlessly with each other device on the Hive network. And that’s the key to having a holistic smart home that solution instead of a lot of disparaged gadgets.
Click here more information on the Hive Outdoor camera.
