New Home Build - Planning Security
Greetings.
As posted in General, my wife and I are building a new home in Colorado. We have some young children and though we are in a semi-private HOA community we still want a good security setup for both "security" and "awareness". We had a home in the woods of NH before and had a number of surprises when someone would just show up on our deck for a delivery or a visit and we didn't like being surprised.
We are currently planning on getting a DSC PowerSeries panel. We have not decided on specific one yet. We will be talking to DSC of course but I wanted to start here for information on HS compatibility and control.
First, if we have the HS SEL-Pro box, how does HS directly communicate with DSC? Will it be over our home network or do they need to be located close enough to each other for a direct cable connection (using one of the few ports on the SEL box)?
I have seen EnvisaLink discussed with regard to interfacing DSC but I'm not too familiar with how that may or may not fit in.
Also, do you typically still install the DSC control by your main door (for any times that HS is not available for example) but use HS for direct control of all security functions most of the time?
We will likely have two main HSTouch panels in the home. HSTouch on our Android phones will be secondary use only.
We are looking at having some of the following as initial security setup:
I would like to be able to use HS to have various levels of secuirty. For example, when we are home we still want perimiter monitoring and alerting but don't care about internal. If the kids are outside playing then I want driveway alerting but not external doors or motion. At night we want all external alerts but internal motion only in certain areas we don't expect movement. If we're away everything is on alert.
If anything does alert we will have in-house and text alerts sent based on what it was and how important it may be.
We would like to be able to view the security cameras on the HSTouch centers or onto a TV we're viewing (we'll be using Kodi on dedicated home-theater PCs) if something alerts.
It would be great if we could have one or two photos taken from a security camera and sent as part of the alert if someone comes to the gate or external door or sets off the driveway sensor.
After initial setup I don't want to have to work directly with the DSC panel unless something changes or needs to be updated. I would like to be able to use HS ( SEL-Pro ) handle all of the various armed/disarmed states and alerting.
So...am I missing anything important here or making any stupid assumptions?
As always, thanks in advance for any feedback and suggestions.
-Lawrence
As posted in General, my wife and I are building a new home in Colorado. We have some young children and though we are in a semi-private HOA community we still want a good security setup for both "security" and "awareness". We had a home in the woods of NH before and had a number of surprises when someone would just show up on our deck for a delivery or a visit and we didn't like being surprised.
We are currently planning on getting a DSC PowerSeries panel. We have not decided on specific one yet. We will be talking to DSC of course but I wanted to start here for information on HS compatibility and control.
First, if we have the HS SEL-Pro box, how does HS directly communicate with DSC? Will it be over our home network or do they need to be located close enough to each other for a direct cable connection (using one of the few ports on the SEL box)?
I have seen EnvisaLink discussed with regard to interfacing DSC but I'm not too familiar with how that may or may not fit in.
Also, do you typically still install the DSC control by your main door (for any times that HS is not available for example) but use HS for direct control of all security functions most of the time?
We will likely have two main HSTouch panels in the home. HSTouch on our Android phones will be secondary use only.
We are looking at having some of the following as initial security setup:
- Driveway monitor
- Lock on our "courtyard" (small enclosed area leading to front door) gate that we would like remote and local control of and also have a camera monitor (maybe too far for zWave but I can run power & network).
- zWave locks on 3-4 external doors
- Motion sensor and wired IP cam near each of those three doors
- Monitoring and control for two garage doors
- Montion sensor and IP cam for garage
- Motion sensor and IP cam for basement
- Window open/close sensors for 10-12 windows intiailly
- Montion sensors for a few more interior zones
- Glass break sensors ( probably 2-4 )
- Multiple smoke/heat/co2 detectors
I would like to be able to use HS to have various levels of secuirty. For example, when we are home we still want perimiter monitoring and alerting but don't care about internal. If the kids are outside playing then I want driveway alerting but not external doors or motion. At night we want all external alerts but internal motion only in certain areas we don't expect movement. If we're away everything is on alert.
If anything does alert we will have in-house and text alerts sent based on what it was and how important it may be.
We would like to be able to view the security cameras on the HSTouch centers or onto a TV we're viewing (we'll be using Kodi on dedicated home-theater PCs) if something alerts.
It would be great if we could have one or two photos taken from a security camera and sent as part of the alert if someone comes to the gate or external door or sets off the driveway sensor.
After initial setup I don't want to have to work directly with the DSC panel unless something changes or needs to be updated. I would like to be able to use HS ( SEL-Pro ) handle all of the various armed/disarmed states and alerting.
So...am I missing anything important here or making any stupid assumptions?
As always, thanks in advance for any feedback and suggestions.
-Lawrence
) so it would seem that between DSC output and various other data from zWave devices I could set up some a lot of options in HS. But if ZoneMinder or similar offer some valuable functionality I hate to recreate the wheel.
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