Directed Enters Home Monitoring Market Via ‘Easy Transition’ of Viper Brand
Directed has become the latest company to go after the mainstream home security market, launching Viper Home, a monitoring service expandable to home control that leverages the company’s connected car technology. Service providers including AT&T, Comcast and Cox are extending their broadband connections to get into home control and security, while Home Depot is using its relationship with do-it-yourself homeowners for its line of security and lighting products. Similarly, Viper sees a natural integration of connected car and home technologies, Viper Vice President-Product Development James Turner told us.
"It’s an easy transition to jump from the car to the home, especially in a DIY or self-monitoring environment,” Turner said, saying the Viper brand is “synonymous with security in vehicles.” Viper is building Viper Home off its SmartStart product, using connectivity based on a GSM modem and an optional GPS add-on. With a vehicle delivering geographical location in relation to the house, “there are a lot of features we can enable in the future,” he said. Among the near-term updates will be location-based features enabling users to have the ViperConnect app automatically set a home’s HVAC system to a predetermined temperature, turn on lights and unlock a connected door, for instance. The Viper website shows GE products enabling such features as “coming soon."
Viper is selling the home product exclusively through Best Buy initially, Turner said. In the next phase of distribution the company will focus on regional retailers. Viper’s traditional 12-volt dealers have expertise in car stereo, remote start, security and smartphone integration, he said, but connected home products aren’t currently “in their sweet spot,” he said. “It’s definitely someplace we would end up going eventually,” he said.
A Viper Home starter pack ($229.99) includes a central hub that connects to a router, an indoor motion detector and a magnetic door/window sensor. Viper Home integrates with the Viper SmartStart car security app through the new ViperConnect app, Turner said. Viper calls it the “world’s first all-in-one home and car security monitoring solution for the smartphone.” Consumers can get a preview of how the products work via ViperConnect apps available at iTunes and Google Play, he noted.
At the basic level Viper Home service is free, and users can get a week’s record of monitoring activity accessible via smartphone or up to eight key fobs. For $9.99 a month, users get 60 days of monitoring activity, access to home control features via a Z-Wave bridge and video monitoring, which includes a five-second video clip if a sensor triggers a recording or 40 seconds of user-initiated viewing into the home. Optional add-ons for Viper Home include Wi-Fi cameras ($149), door and window sensors ($24.99 each) and motion sensors ($49.99). A system accommodates up to eight cameras, Turner said. Directed makes the camera leveraging the company’s experience with manufacturing backup cameras, Turner said. The home Wi-Fi camera also integrates a motion sensor.
Motion sensors won’t detect motion from bodies weighing less than 80 pounds based on an infrared measurement of body temperature, Turner said, so most pets won’t be able to set off a sensor. If there’s a disruption in power or Internet connection, the hub sends a message warning of the interruption, Turner said. The do-it-yourself starter system is said to be user installable within 15 minutes with no tools required.