hi i'm scott newnam ceo of audio advice if you're watching this video you likely are buying a new
home or remodeling and considering your security options audio advice is north carolina's number
one smart home integrator and is also a full licensed security company so i'm going to talk
about both stand-alone security as well as how it relates to smart home capabilities
if you're outside of north carolina 99 of what i cover in this video will also apply to you
let's start with outlining the state of the home security market in general there
are two types of security system providers the first are the national chains like adt and cpi
the second are local security companies like audio advice and many others in general this market is
a relatively commoditized market meaning that the product provided and the cost of installing
a system and the monthly monitoring costs are approximately the same whether you use a national
chain or a local provider the national chains tend to have a slightly higher monthly cost by maybe
five to ten dollars per month to pay for their mass marketing but in general the cost and product
are largely the same the primary difference between the national players and specialty local
companies is that the national players largely use wireless contacts for their doors and windows
because they can be installed very quickly without running wires during a pre-wire however these tend
not to go over well with interior designers they also require continual changing of batteries and
are susceptible to wireless interference so they are not as reliable as a wired system if you are
building a home from scratch i would highly recommend you pre-wire all high-risk doors
and windows such as ground floor entry doors this looks better is more reliable and more hassle-free
long-term in the old days of security if your alarm went off the system would dial out over
your land phone line now all serious systems called monitoring station over wireless communications
which obviously works whether you have a landline or not for most of you watching this video you are
likely going to use a specialty security company versus a national chain because you probably want
a higher level of service and probably want it integrated into a professional smart home system
it's worth noting that most security companies utilize centralized monitoring stations meaning
whichever company you choose as your provider the actual people answering the phone are usually the
same people it's just simpler to have a large monitoring company providing that service behind
the scenes for the various security companies the other major leap forward in security has been the
interactive and remote management capabilities all of the major systems today provide the ability to
remotely arm and disarm and check on your system at any time most security systems will enable you
to do very basic smart home capabilities like a door lock or turning on and off a light however
for most high-end homes the security systems are connected into a full
smart home system which provides a way more expansive experience than the security systems
can do on their own to get a sense of what a full professional smart home system can do jump over
to audioadvice.com and watch our video tour at the smart homes page in the video we cover all of the
major smart home systems as well as show you them in action one of the things you will see in the
video is how a great integration between security and smart homes can turn off your lights lock
doors and turn off your televisions etc when the security system is set when implemented correctly
this makes this simple one button press to arm your system an incredibly powerful tool
it used to be people hardly ever set their security systems so when they did
they often accidentally set off a false alarm for audio advice signature series smart home customers
we have made this process completely seamless you simply hit your away button every time you leave
your home the rest handles itself the system also knows when you set your alarm to the home position
for night time so it does not turn off the televisions but the end result is that what
used to be a mundane security system is now an interface to amazing control of your home
now let me switch to talk about cameras for a while let's start with doorbell cameras most
people have heard of nest and ring doorbells which enable you to answer your doorbell from a phone
the top smart home systems like control4 have a more luxury version of these doorbells which have
incredible video capabilities enable both cloud and local recording and they have form factors
designed for high-end homes in general the cheaper cloud-based cameras and those that you would buy
in a box at a discount club have cheaper chipsets night vision etc so most luxury homes will use
higher performance cameras that will last longer and capture a much better picture
similar to a dslr camera versus a simple point and click then of course there's how you record
video historically the cheaper solutions would do a basic cloud recording which had the advantage of
easy access at any time but were bested by local network video recorders that record lots of video
at high resolution on a drive in your home so you did not have to rely on the internet to record at
audio advice we offer a combined solution that allows you to record your video on a local nvr
plus provide cloud recording for things like doorbells for fast access to historical clips i
personally really like this solution that has the best of both worlds in summary if you're building
or remodeling and considering home security i would highly encourage you to find a highly reviewed
local security company who is less interested in the recurring revenue that you may find in a
big chain and more in a relationship with their customers if you're going to have a smart home
i would find a provider who's both a top smart home company and security provider having one
company install and configure both your systems will simplify your world and make sure someone
is thinking through everything holistically if you live in north carolina and are building or
remodeling and have any questions on smart homes or security or cameras give us a call or stop into
one of our raleigh or charlotte showrooms you can also learn more about smart homes
lighting motorized shades and more at our smart home page at audioadvice.com thanks for watching