Netatmo Presence (Security Camera - Overview)

Netatmo Presence

Right so last weekend I installed the Netatmo Presence and it is amazing - I am very impressed. If you are not familiar with it it is an outdoor security camera that doubles up as an outdoor security light. When I purchased the presence was on sale at Maplins for 199 GBP.



So in this review/ overview I will cover my initial journey in getting to know the Netatmo Presence.

Installation of the Netatmo Presence

Running Power

Installation took approximately 3 hours, if power had existed at the location I wanted the presence it would of taken about 20 - 30 mins if not less as it is simply a case of connecting the presence to the mains power supply (make sure you isolate power to your property at the fuse-box before you begin installation).

[caption id="attachment_71" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Junction box for Netatmo Presence[/caption]

Mounting the Presence

Mounting the Presence to the wall is no more difficult than installing an outdoor security light it can be a little fiddly while up on a ladder if on your own as you have to juggle the camera, mounting screw and rear mounting plate.

But if you were to mount an outdoor light you would be faced with the same issues. If you are not competent enough to fit the presence any electrician would be able to do it usually within the hour.

Netatmo provide easy to understand step by step instructions along with a simple installation video.

[caption id="attachment_70" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Netatmo Presence Installed in the day[/caption]

 Two bits of advice for mounting

1. Secure the mounting envelope to the presence with some tape I found without this the envelope wanted to fly away in the wind.


2. If you are mounting the light to an area that does not have an outdoor round outlet box then you need to ensure you have enough room for the light connection with the chocolate block. The black lmounting plate has little room so instead of twisting the mounting plate on as Netatmo advise, I would suggest you locate the chocolate block behind the cover then align the mounting plate on the wall bracket and secure it with the screw instead of twisting on  and then securing as recommended - it just makes it easier if space is tight.

Apart from that, once it is all connected you will need to turn the power back on and you will be ready get the final setup completed.

Connecting the Netatmo Presence to your network

Connecting the presence to your network is very straight forward, just install the app and follow the onscreen instructions. Full instructions are detailed on the Netatmo website but needless to say it is very easy and the Android app works flawlessly and much better than the 3.4 star review rating on the Playstore the only prerequisite is that you are connected to the WiFi.



Once connected the presence will probably download the latest firmware, this is indicated in the Security App.

[caption id="attachment_72" align="aligncenter" width="169"] Netatmo Presence Timeline Update[/caption]

Configuring the Netatmo Presence to your requirements

The Presence has 'enough' configuration options to satisfy. I say 'enough' as there are not too many to confuse the user.

Alerts and Recording

As you can see you can get alerts and set recording preferences for for Person, Car, Animal and Other Motion.

Floodlight Options

Again the configuration options are 'enough' that they will satisfy most needs.

Storage

As standard the Presence comes with a 16gb memory card for storing all clips that have triggered an alert in the camera. This is up gradable to 32gb if required. So far the camera has recorded about 5 days of clips and is not yet full.

Backing up the Netatmo Presence

The Presence has multiple storage options including Dropbox and FTP, if you run a local NAS then FTP is a great option especially if you do not want to purchase a DropBox account especially for the Presence, or get involved with another subscription service. As the Presence allows you to back up to a local NAS most NAS options give you the ability to backup to other cloud storage services you may have such as Google Drive, OneDrive or similar. Additional backup options provided by Netatmo would be a great addition to the package but for now it is good enough with just DropBox and FTP.

Usage of the Netatmo Presence - Initial impressions

Right so we have gone through the initial install, configuration and setup the next part is how the camera actually performs.

Alerts

Initially I was quite impressed with the Presence. The Presence has good a range of configuration options. Sending alerts to phone and PC - via chrome notifications when it detected; Cars, Animals and People.  You can configure what alerts and notifications you want to receive for the type of event. But after a day or so of usage I realised it would struggle with detecting small cars. Anyway I contacted support and the Netatmo Team were exceptional.

Support from the Natatmo Support team far better than expected

I contacted the Netatmo Support team voicing my concerns of it not detecting small cars. I was expecting them to reply and say the camera has to learn or please wait for an update coming soon. But they went beyond this, they responded to me within  about 3 hours. Explaining that they had remotely updated my Presence to a new firmware. The firmware had not officially been released to resolve this type of issue. That evening the Micra returned and the camera detected it perfectly, previously the Micra was able to drive around on the drive and the Presance would ignore it.

Night Vision from the Netatmo Presence

The vision at night is very good using the near Infrared lights. Near Infrared is a very important - as the LED's emit a soft red glow on the camera on about 4 separate Led's it does not produce any visible light to the naked eye beyond the illumination of the LED's.

But the light they produce when viewed on camera is exceptional! The presence can illuminate about 10 - 15 meters away with is more than enough for covering the front gate, cars and the edge of the garage.  Some would argue that this removes some of the stealthiness about the camera at night but i would argue that unless you are looking at it you would not know what it is until it detects you and then boom the 1000 Lumen Floodlight turns on and you end up looking straight at the camera. At that point the Camera has caught the intruders face and probably scared them off!

Sound Recording from the Natatmo Presence

The sound recording is far better than I expected. If you can see the person on the camera the chances are you will be able to hear them if they are having a conversation or walking.

Live Streaming of the Netatmo Presence

The Presence is always recording but only saves a video if it detects an event that is alert worthy. When this happens the Presence will save roughly the first 10 seconds before the event actually occurs. Because of this the Presence is always about 10 seconds behind 'Real Life'. As the Presence does not have a speaker this is not a problem as you cannot communicate with anybody like you can with some cameras. Maybe to some this is an issue but even with products like the Ring Doorbell camera which really should be instant it is 2-3 seconds behind. So the way the camera performs about 10 seconds is not an issue. In reality when an incident occurs you are not going to be watching live anyway.

Utilising the security video from the Netatmo Presence

OK - so you have got a recording you want to keep. Maybe of a visitor you had in the night in my case this was a hedgehog. If you do not have  FTP or Dropbox configured. All you have todo is go into the app find the clip and then select download. The clip will now be download in FULL 1080p. Obtaining the video via Dropbox or FTP is a little more tricky. Depending on the volume of clips for the day.  The backup is useful incase camera becomes damaged.

Video Quality of the Netatmo Presence

From looking at the alternative security cameras, the quality is very good. An optical zoom could improve things. Realistically you would want the full picture or go for a multi camera setup for even better video coverage.

Quick Summary of the Netatmo Presance

Since the Netatmo Support team manually pushed the update to the Presence the camera has performed better than anticipated. The Presence and has not missed one important event since the update.

Considering the camera has quite a low rating on Amazon and the Playstore. In reality it does not reflect the Presance's performance. Beyond functional expectations of the Presence. The camera will probably require a professional to install. If you can get beyond this hurdle, the camera is remarkably simple. I will try and follow up with a more concise review in a couple of months. So far I am very impressed!

Written by David Thacker if you have any questions do not hesitate to leave a comment or get in touch.