The Wife and I are going to have our first child next month.  I'd like to have a video camera monitoring system so I can check in on my baby while I'm away.  

I was wondering if anyone here might suggest a set-up that can be later adapted for home security use later on?  I'm guessing a network camera and telephone/tablet app might work but I have no experience.

Thanks!

I've had pretty good luck with my Hikvision cube wifi camera. You can hook a standard 12v power supply into the back of it and have it communicate with your router. Hikvision has free software you can download on your PC. They also have iOS apps. Not sure about the Android platform but I'm sure it's there too. You can set it up where you can view it with a tablet or smart phone when connected to your wifi network as well as log into it remotely from anywhere. I stumbled through all the setup by reading the CCTV forums. Maybe read up on the setup process before purchasing anything to see if you want to go that route.


Unless something has changed recently, if you buy a Hikvision camera from an authorized retailer, they're pretty expensive. If you buy one from Amazon or some other non-authorized retailer (Nelly's), Hikvision will not honor the warranty. Nelly's warrants the Hikvision cameras they sell for 3 years through them though. I've had good luck with Nelly's. They provide technical support too. They may even remote log-in to your computer and set it up for you if you're comfortable with that.




This is the 2MP version which equates to 1080 resolution. IP cameras are like AR's. You usually don't stop at one.





ETA: Read up on radio frequency emitting devices being next to a newborns crib every day. It's another one of those controversial subjects like vaccines. You could also look into hard wiring a non-wifi camera in the room and connect it to a ethernet switch. You can use POE (power over ethernet) and only have to run one ethernet cable that would transmit power and video/audio.

 

Personally running some Nest cameras and liking them so far.

This.


You can talk through it too and listen.