Frequently Asked Questions

Video cameras over the net is often a problem as camera manufacturers don’t usually consider security; they assume it will all be on a local network.

We’ve put together a solution that ensures all your footage is transmitted over secure links. Your web and mobile apps are secured by the same technology your bank uses!

Part of our service is to assist you in providing high-resolution footage to the Police if necessary. This means we have to have access to your footage.

However only authorised Safer Homes NZ staff have this access and we will only access your footage either on your request, to assist you with a service enquiry, or for ensuring your service is running correctly when required.

Most people have heard of CCTV. Generally used in stores or large business sites, CCTV involves a recording unit and several cameras on-site.

Cloud CCTV is a little different. The main part is that the recording equipment is hosted by us, so you don’t have to worry about it, and no one can steal it if they break into your place (that wouldn’t be all that useful).

The other main difference is that because we host the equipment, we can make it more cost effective for you, especially with only one or two cameras.

Typically we think our solution is good for 1 or 2 cameras, but if you’re looking for something larger we recommend you consider a more general CCTV solution. We work closely with and recommend Impact Alarms who deal in commercial solutions. If you’re unsure, talk to us and we can help recommend the best solution to meet your needs.

No, a camera is not a replacement for an alarm system. The two serve different purposes although they do complement each other.

A security alarm is an active system alerts you at the time someone is in your house, has an audible alarm to draw attention from others and scare off an intruder, and if monitored and allows notification and response by a guard or the police.

A surveillance camera, on the other hand, is a passive system that records footage that can be great as evidence for later review, however, other than a visual deterrent it doesn’t help in the case someone does break into your house at the time.

Overall we recommend the combination of an alarm system and a security camera for maximum protection and peace of mind.

We’re setup to be able to provide national coverage, however, we’re concentrating on Hawke’s Bay for the moment. If you’re outside Hawke’s Bay please still feel free to get in touch and we can discuss on a case by case basis.

Motion detection suffers from 2 regular issues.

Either it’s too sensitive, and you get alerts every time a fly goes past. This is not only annoying but over time means you stop paying attention to alerts.

Otherwise, it’s not sensitive enough and takes a little while to kick in. Meanwhile, you miss the key frames where there is a clear face shot, or other identifying marks could be seen.

Either way, we think that the best solution is to just record the lot and not risk missing the good bits!

Well, you may be able to, but there are a few reasons you would be better with us.

We offer constant recording to an offsite server. If you buy your own camera and record it to a server in your house you risk that server being stolen if someone breaks in; that won’t be much help identifying the person who broke in…

We also install the camera and manage the servers. This allows us to provide the service to you for much less than you could set it all up yourself. And you don’t have to worry about the technicalities of how it works, or opening up your home connection so you can view cameras on the go which may leave you vulnerable to attack.

Besides all this, we select and provide professional grade cameras which provide high-quality footage. And by recording constantly we ensure you don’t suffer from the age-old problem of motion detection where you may miss the key frames where the best shot is, or you get too many false alerts.

Constant streaming of camera footage requires enough bandwidth for the data stream, but also you still need to have some spare for all the normal stuff you want to do! We recommend a minimum of 10Mbps upload speed which is typically associated with Fibre. If you can’t get Fibre but can get VDSL, we may be able to help. If you’re stuck with ADSL, we’re sorry to say this may not be the solution for you.

Your camera will be recording to the cloud 24/7. While actual usage can vary, we recommend that you have an unlimited plan to ensure you don’t hit any data cap which may impede the service working (or cost you more money!)