Front door A/V intercom

Yet another item I’m trying to plan is a front door audio/video intercom. When the doorbell is pressed I want the ability to see, hear, and talk to the person at the front door. Probably not a simple analog intercom for the audio, but something that I will combine (someway) with an IP camera above the door. I really have no clue on how best to handle this and what products to consider. All of the cameras I’m considering have two way audio capabilities. Should I just use the two way audio in the camera (wired to the doorbell switch area) or try to mesh it with some other dedicated system? I see this as two sets of equipment problems, but first I’ll detail my planned system somewhat to give some perspective. A search shows several other people trying to do variations on this.

Planned Equipment:
HAI OP II panel
While I don’t have anything against other HAI “modules” I’m not currently planning on using their other stuff like IP cameras, HI-FI2, or touchscreens. This eliminates their intercom option.
I do plan on having Android tablets (prefered) or iPad tablets mounted around the house.
I’ll have a Nuvo grand concerto whole house audio system.

Equipment at the door:
I figure I need a speaker, microphone, and doorbell switch. Sounds simple enough. I could always make my own, but I’m looking for something that looks real nice with high WAF. Single gang or double gang box? What is on the market?

Equipment in the server room:
If I can use the IP camera for two way audio this would seem to be the simplest way to go. I would use the camera manufacturers NVR software or possibly 3[sup]rd[/sup] party software. The details of how this software would trigger and start audio/video feeds to my tablets is unclear. I’m guessing some kind of automation code running on a PC. Can the HAI panel and HAI terminals (with speaker/microphone option) handle this two way audio? If I did not use the camera’s audio capabilities how else could I handle this?

Thanks

Aiphone.

I wouldn't necessarily use a separate camera above the door, but a straightforward video intercom unit rather than brew my own. Work smarter instead of harder (and trying to get 3-4 vendor's equipment to function properly together).

Did you look at the one that HAI offers? It's a 3rd party device made by 2N that they've incorporated, but it's a standard sip-based camera/phone. It's really slick - I've been eyeballing it lately.

I know you said you weren't really thinking of going the HAI route for the reasons you stated - but this one could be used totally independent of the HAI panel and interfaced with something else. They even have an iPhone app built so you can see your doorbell and respond from anywhere.

Thanks for replying you two. You've both been great sources of info as I learn what HA currently has to offer. I don't always take your advice, but I'm always better informed.

The Aiphone is a pretty intense system. Great for commercial applications. Appears the smaller JF series would be the closest to fit my needs. However its a stand alone proprietary system. Its not going to integrate into anything beyond a total of 3 of their wall monitors. And it costs well over $1000.

The 2N Helios VoIP/server intercoms I find on their web site are beautiful! But I get back into the very high cost issues again since besides this device it also forces me to go with the HAI 5.7e/10pe touchscreens. I will have the IP camera above the door area anyway for security reasons, so it seems logical (and cost effective) to at least try to use it for the "someones at the door" video.

So I'm back to my original questions. At the very least I'd like to find a nice speaker, microphone, pushbutton switch with high WAF.

What I was trying to say about the 2N/Helio one was that you don't need to go all HAI to use that - it uses standard sip audio/video, and there are a million sip video clients out there. There are also encoders/decoders that can take a SIP video stream and convert it into other types, even analog. It can be your normal camera for other viewing/recording as well.

I know there's quite a few of us that run VOIP systems in our homes - it's very simple and low cost; so integrating a SIP client like the Helios that can call all the phones around the house is a simple way to go, or it can be easily converted out using low cost linksys adapters to be able to appear as their own phone line on a multi-line phone, or call existing phones, etc...

Otherwise, Channel Vision makes some; DoorbellFon, and others exist - depends on how you want the intercom to work - will it call the house phones, or what do you want it to do?

The cheap ($127 USD) IP HD camera OS that i am playing with has SIP integration, I have not played with it though.

The company also makes video VOIP phones though.

If you want to DIY something like this you can purchase the a camera board with the SIP integration built in for around $50-75 USD these days. Very small footprint. Here going to test one replacing the newer camera boards that I installed in the Optex combo cameras.

Yes, Aiphone is commercial grade, however it would be rock solid and stable. They offer both IP based and standard. You can also send analog cameras into them to be viewed on their monitors, so in theory you could split the video if you really wanted to run that way. You'd also be able to have outputs/inputs based on the units themselves. They're not as closed a product as you would think.


There's a few other manufacturers out there with similar products, Nutone, Optex and others, but for true reliability and durability...look to see what places use, it's generally Aiphone, Viking or Stentophone.

Mr Spock said:

While I don’t have anything against other HAI “modules” I’m not currently planning on using their other stuff like IP cameras, HI-FI2, or touchscreens. This eliminates their intercom option.

Click to expand...

How does that eliminate the 2N intercom option?

Figuring out how to install the door station so that it communicates with other systems ('integration') is tough - at least it has been for me. If there was an off-the-shelf solution, I think you should consider it strongly.

Make sure you 'overwire' the front door location - don't just install cables for what you plan. If you decide on one solution, and you can't get it to work well, you'll want to have the extra cables for flexibility.

Any plans for an electric door strike or motorized lock at the front door? If aesthetics are important, and you don't want battery issues, you might opt for the electric strike.

When I first started researching front door stations, I dismissed Aiphone, because I thought they looked like crap. But they have some newer models which are quite attractive.

Wow, didn't realize Aiphone has IP intercoms. I think I need to revisit Aiphone - was considering holovision and Siedle.

Yep, Aiphone has quite a few IP based units, all work quite well.

The largest item to consider is what system, as IP does have it's limitations, and most other manufacturers have somewhat specific wiring requirements, and most tend to be non-twisted parallel pairs, non-multi conductor construction.

We have Siedle in a few sites, it seems like their products aren't as weathertight or bulletproof as others. Not good when the housing may have a heater pad to extend operating range but it fills up with water because of the "european" design and how the unit mounts to the backplane.

Wow, much to consider here.

I know nothing of SIP and assumed the Helios would only interface to the HAI ecosystem or some other expensive proprietary system. I need to do more research on this. I think this whole intercom function will be more of a long term plan (year or two), so I have time to get it right.

What I really want is to have tablets hard mounted to 3 or 4 locations in the house. When the doorbell is pushed the tablets will show the image and audio from the front door. With push of a soft button the person inside the house can speak to the person at the door. Probably half duplex. The tablets will be used for a wide variety of HA functions, this intercom is just one of many.

The landline phones will be POTS (analog). Probably won't even use them much, just for the HAI panel to dial out when it needs to. Not VoIP or SIP. I'm not planning on using the phones for this A/V intercom.

So my current thoughts are to use the IP camera for video and two way audio. I can feed the speaker and microphone wires from the camera to the doorbell switch area, where the speaker and microphone will be with the doorbell switch. The doorbell switch will be DPST, so I can take one of the switch poles and wire it to the cameras digital input. When the switch is pushed the camera will know, start recording, and the camera NVR software will push out the video and audio to the tablets. I may be assuming too much on the NVR software functionality, not sure yet. I'm planning on adding either Mainlobby or CQC to the mix and may have to do some custom software coding to make this all work.

To cover myself now on wiring I'm planning on:
1) A CAT5 from the doorbell switch area to the server room.
2) A CAT5 between camera and doorbell switch area.
3) A CAT5 from the camera to the server room.

Enough?

I'd pull some non category cable from the door station inside to be safe, but that's me.

For what you want to do, it sounds like a good Stentofone project, but probably won't be cost friendly if you want to brew some of your own.

The Viking E-60-BK is very close to what I'm looking for. It's designed to work with their own proprietary system. The only information I can find from their web site indicates the mic and speaker amplifiers are on the units circuit board. If I can get the schematic from Viking I think I can make this work. Cost is about $300, more than I hoped but I can live with it.

WAF approved

Thanks guys.

Even though you may be looking to hack your unit, I'd strongly recommend getting the units with EWP, which basically equates to epoxy or silicon potting the board.

:hesaid:

I had one problematic install with an all-in-one intercom/card reader/elevator call buttons - several outages in the first few months alone from water entry, spiders, etc. I don't know who spec'd it (I think it was the door people) but I got tired of the calls to fix it.