Netatmo Makes Outdoor Security Cameras Suck Less

Netatmo just announced the Netatmo Presence, a new smart outdoor security camera packed with actually useful features. In particular, this camera can detect if there’s a car in your driveway, a person waiting outside or a pet running around your garden.

The camera connects to your Wi-Fi network in order to send you push notifications on your phone so that you can see a video stream of what’s happening in front of your house. It says right on your notification screen if there’s a person, a car or an animal outside.

Camera HD-(fond sombre)-RVBIt also comes with a big white light right above it and doubles as a driveway light. If you already have an outdoor light, you can just replace it with the Netatmo Presence. But the Presence camera can also shoot infra-red video if you’d rather turn off the bright light.

Everything is customizable. You can turn off notifications and keep recording videos when there’s someone in front of your house for example. It records 1080p videos and stores them on an internal micro SD card. There’s no subscription fee and your videos don’t end up on the company’s servers.

While there are many potential use cases for this camera, it’s a security camera first and foremost. It’s also a great way to know when a delivery person left a package in front of your door. Or you can monitor when someone comes to clean your house. And of course, it can be an valuable asset when you host parties and it’s too loud to hear your doorbell.

The Presence will be available in Q3 2016 for an undisclosed price. The company is slowly but surely creating a complete lineup of connected devices for your home, from thermostats to weather stations and indoor cameras. Let’s see how Netatmo can make these devices work together in the future.

CES 2016