Review on SMONET Security 8 Channel Recording Surveillance by Pete Hahn

For my money this SMONET 5MP security system is absolutely best in class. Installation and setup are quick and easy, and picture quality is crisp and clear day or night. Installation was easy. This is a PoE (Power over Ethernet) system, so I ran new CAT 5e cables. I made a plywood drill guide to precisely drill screw and cable holes in my soffits. After installing the cameras and CAT5 cables, all that remains is to connect the NVR. Since I mostly watch live videos or play them on the go, the app is an essential part. The phone app is great. The app also supports remote control of PTZ cameras (pan/tilt/zoom) if you want to add one or more cameras to your system. The system comes with 4 PoE cameras, but the NVR supports up to 8, giving you room for upgrades. The playback function is also excellent. Jump quickly and easily to the period you want to play. Simply touch the date and then select a block of time (recordings are saved in blocks of approximately 1 hour). Drag the slider to find the exact time period you want to play back, then tap the camera icon to take a photo or the movie icon to start recording video. I wish there was a 30 second forward/backward option as it would be a little easier to find the exact moment of interest. Photos and videos are saved in local storage, you can play hard drive videos remotely anytime and anywhere. The system also supports push notifications to your phone. You can choose which cameras will send alerts and choose parts of their fields of view to ignore to reduce false alarms. Motion detection is very sensitive, so I'd recommend only picking key areas like steps and mailbox covers. Notifications are almost instantaneous. In conclusion, I would recommend this product to friends, family and co-workers. The ease of installation is incredible, just plug and play. Whether you need to go through walls or into the attic is up to the homeowner and has nothing to do with plug and play functionality.