Video Door Phone

As one of the Securitygem’s articles reasonably pointed out, we are all witnessing today the so-called door bell automation - the process of automating your door controlled by Android or iOS devices.

video door phone suppliers

I’m talking here about the Smart Bell or Video Door Phone, if you please, since there is a plethora of names which this device goes by. Just to name a few: IP door phone, IP door bell, IP video based door bell, IP intercom, Door bell camera, WiFi IP Video Door Bell – with some of them referring to a slightly different product concept than another.

The idea of the electronic doorman is not new to the market. Intercoms have been present since 1950 to make consumers’ life easier and safer. With the development of digital communications technology in 1980s, it became possible for the house owners to not only talk, but also see visitors at their door and then make decision whether to grant them access or not.

From the end user’s point of view, there are a few main disadvantages of such devices. One, both analog and digital intercoms are complex hardwired devices that have to be installed by a contractor during the initial construction of a building. Two, this solution doesn’t provide mobility. Once the door bell button is pushed, the only option the user has is walking to the indoor phone unit to proceed with the further communication.

These two problems were partially eliminated after the wide application of wireless intercoms that allowed people to communicate via radio waves. Most of these devices work straight out of the box and unlike the traditional analog “brother” give the user a room to move around the house or even the back yard. Yet, this technology also brought a lot of complains about the voice quality caused by disturbance created by the nearby electrical equipment and the short receiving range. The wireless intercom with portable receiver turned out to be not that mobile after all which brings us to the next step in the doorphone technology.

IP Video Door Phone is a new type of intercom system that came into picture in the past 3-5 years. Following the boom of IP telephony technology development, SIP protocol was applied for the door phones supporting both voice and video transmission.

The main breakthrough and the biggest benefit of the IP solution are right here – the user is capable of answering his door from any location. Doorphones finally evolved to using telephone technology for greeting the arriving visitors, seeing them and even openning the door without even being anywhere around the entrance to our houses.

Yet again, if we take a look at the IP Video Door Phone suppliers market, we can see the same thing happening again – the product is simply inaccessible for an average user. The IP solution is hardwired and in most cases requires professional installation. Not only that: most of the IP video intercoms only work with premise based servers that, in its turn, would require some setup procedure. This makes manufacturers and solution providers to team up with the system integrators and installation companies to reach to the end user. Besides, the described on-premise solution is still more attractive for the business use.

Finally, around 2013, it became clear that the whole doorphone market segment remains uncovered. Lots of houses were built with no preinstalled wiring and lots of private users would like to do the installation on their own without paying extra few hundred bucks to the professional installer.

And this is when we come across the concept of the WiFi-enabled video door phone suppliers or more likely video door camera that communicates with Android or iOS devices and doesn't require any wiring for installation. 

One of the first steps in this filed were made in early 2014 by Doorbot and Skybell and they were not very successful. Today both companies have launched the second generation of their doorphones with Doorbot even changing the name to Ring.

Today there are a lot of players on the DIY market with most of them being based (originated from or using the technology of) IP Video Surveillance. No wonder that most of the DIY products are getting complains regarding the voice quality.  

This brings me to the second part of my article which will be interesting for the security and home automation companies that are currently planning to enrich their product offer by a new doorphone device. The following solutions might be just what you are looking for.

I’m talking here about the Smart Bell System by Tecom Co., Ltd. The solutions provided by this company include premise enabled door phone system, as well as the Cloud video door phone.

Over the past 4-5 years, Tecom has been developing eHome and IP intercom products. With 30% market share in Taiwan, company also counts multiple installations of her intercoms in Taiwan, China and Australia.

If we look at the retrospective, we’ll see that Tecom is very mature in applying SIP technology. She is the telecommunication division of TECO Group. Founded in 1980, the company has ever since been Taiwan’s leading provider of telecom equipment (60% market share). Internationally Tecom is a well known OEM/ODM manufacturer of phones and phone systems providing her services to Tier 1 brands, such as Avaya, Cisco, Panasonic, AT&T, etc.

When it comes to the IP Video Doorphone, Tecom’s potential OEM/ODM customers have quite a few options to choose from. The supplier delivers a complete end-to-end service for consumer, business, and apartment/condo markets.

Tecom’s T-300 is the smartphone associated IP video door phone suppliers system. Aimed for utilizing the existing IP networks, T-300 is a good a turn-key solution for offices and apartments offering the full range of components – on-premise SIP server, outdoor unit, indoor intercom station (tablet), and the mobile App for remote use.

For the Consumer market, Tecom has developed Cloud solution that includes door phone, chime, indoor tablet unit and the mobile App for iOS and Android devices. Tecom even took care of the potential customers’ headache like finding the back end service provider for their door entry product. Tecom’s own cloud server is performing the real time P2P video calls, NAT traversal, enhanced RTP, information storage, account management and system settings.   

The door phone device itself deserves a few words. Referring to the multiple names that the door phone device goes by, Tecom’s solution definitely has to be called a “Door Phone”. For better understanding, think of it as a Lynux based IP video phone reduced to the size of a door bell. High-performance HD video camera is responsible for the pure image quality. Wide range of basic components, including the ISP, H.264 codec, MPEG4/JPEG codec, video capture, display controller, Ethernet controller, light and IR sensors, and motion detector guarantees smooth operation and good user experience. For those of you being very sensitive to the sound quality, Tecom provides a full-duplex conversation in her door phone, powered by G.711 (A/u-law) and G.729 audio codec, and ensures packet loss concealment and echo suppression.

Among the basic features of the device let me name a few: real time video phone call, tracking visitors by taking automatic snapshots or by manually taking photos, built-in RFID sensor (optional), interface that works with electronic locks, connection to the existing doorbell circuit for power supply or PoE connection to choose from, and of course the in-house built application for iOS and Android devices. 

Door phone industry is rapidly developing with the new players coming into light every day. When looking for a new solution, new product, new supplier, it’s definitely worth considering their technology base and experience. After all, the security of our customers is the number one priority. 

Visit: https://www.brihaspathi.com/video-door-phones.html