Swann SWNVK-460KH2-US NVK-460 Wi-Fi Security Kit (White)

HelloI don't write many reviews, but occasionally I run into a product that just works. I've used swann products (a hardwired system) before (maybe three years ago) and was impressed by their stability, but not their ease of use or ease of installation. I've been an engineer for quite sometime, and with my previous system I needed that experience, I finally got it up and running but it was a challenge, especially the remote monitoring with smartphones and browsers that were remote and not local to the system. But once I got it up, the system was rock solid and did what it was supposed to, usually recovering from power outages or internet outages without user intervention.So when the need for another system came up, I naturally looked at swann, except now I needed wireless cameras with all the capabilities of the hardwired system. I finally settled on the 460 system above, now I was prepared to jump through several hoops to not only get the system up and running, but also to setup the remote monitoring. Well, I am still in a state of shock, swann has apparently not been sitting on their laurels, they have redesigned not only their software but their methodology for remote access and control and so far it has worked flawlessly.The hardest part of the entire process was the actual physical mounting of the cameras, everything else including remote monitoring and control was childs play. Without unnecessarily going into detail, I followed the instructions to the letter and when I connected to what swann calls their NVR, the cameras were already online, no adjustments, no settings, when the NVR came up both of the cameras were active and transmitting. I have to admit I was impressed, but the best was yet to come. So now I'm ready to setup remote smartphone monitoring and I just knew this was going to be time consuming and challenging, requiring all my years of experience as an engineer to get it just right. Well the truth is that it took me longer to download the app then it did to get it setup. Following the instruction, I was viewing both cameras through my smartphone in minutes, so I thought well that's just great, but I am on my local wireless network, so I disconnected from the wireless network and was now getting data from my wireless provider, opened the app and both cameras were there, very, very impressive.It's only been a couple of days, but it's worked great so far and the office I'm monitoring is in a different state. If anything changes, I'll update this review, but so far, I am impressed. installation conditions: this is a small installation, covering not more than 1000 sq, feet, it is completely indoors, the cameras and the nvr are separated by a standard interior office wall (meaning wood, drywall and paint)UPDATE: 12/2/15The system is still stable and still working as advertised, could not ask for more.UPDATE - 12/8/15This is not the system to buy if you may want to add another camera in the future. I had to spend an hour on the phone waiting for Swann,... can you say caller no. 23, to find out what cameras are compatible with my system. BTW, Swann wireless systems do not do PTZ. So they told me I could order the 470 camera to work with my system. What they did not tell me is that in order to get this camera to sync up with the other two, I would have to physically wire all the cameras to my router simultaneously in order for them to sync up with the NVR. This is a huge pain, as my other cameras have been mounted on the ceiling for months, now I have to dismount them in order to add another camera. Swann you really need to fix this. I'll update this review, when I've dismounted the other cameras and seen how they sync up with the new camera and the NVR

I've been running my system now for about 9 months. My experience has been consistent with several of the negative reviews I've read here. At 9 months in, the thing barely works and some features have stopped working altogether. When it does work, it's great...but it's very inconsistent. What the past 9 months have taught me is this: this product is junk and I should have waited to invest in a quality system.First the good: Like I said, when it works, you'll have clear streaming video with audio during the day with the ability to remotely access the cameras when away from home, and the ability to record video for review later. Night time works well, but not as clearly as advertised. For an unlit area, you'll see objects as they reflect light back to the camera, but you won't see the area as if it's lit. Initial setup was really easy as well if you follow the instructions for the recommended install. I used the NVR in wireless mode so it was the wireless base station for the cameras (the recommended configuration). I'd say for a good month, the system performed reliably and generally as advertised, although I think they really stretch their marketing. I had the two cameras pointing in strategic directions, with motion sensing set to record whenever an object moved in the field of view, and email alerts setup to let me know when the motion detection was triggered. It worked fine, but I noticed that at about 20 feet away from the base station, the cameras barely had signal, but it seemed to be good enough.Then it started breaking. I started receiving A LOT of alerts saying the cameras had lost signal throughout the day and night. Sometimes they would stop, then start back up intermittently for hours at a time (on and off like every few minutes). Sometimes they would just stop completely for hours at a time until I reset power to the camera. I had significant gaps in streaming, and gaps in playback during "recorded" times. The apps are intermittent as well. Sometimes they connect and stream video, sometimes they don't. Sometimes an app on my computer doesn't work, while it works on my phone, sometimes it's the other way around. Sometimes my phone app works when I'm away from the house, sometimes it doesn't. Then, suddenly one of the camera's motion sensor function stopped working. It stopped triggering when an object in view was moving, and stopped recording. I tried to set and reset the configurations, but nothing seemed to work. I set that camera to always record, and the other seemed to continue working with motion detection triggered recording. Signal strength and streaming reliability continued to degrade over time. I tried moving the base station closer and adjusting the antennas, but it didn't help. Then, after a few months, the other camera's motion detection stopped working and I had to set it to continues record mode as well.Now, I have 2 cameras working inconsistently, with key features on both simply broken, and intermittent apps. As I sit here writing this, my computer app says there are no cameras connected to the NVR while my iPhone app is showing live streaming from both.It's junk. Wireless signal is pathetic, consistency of video streaming is pathetic, reliability of the product features is pathetic. I was thinking of buying 2 additional cameras to get some better perspectives, but I don't want to waste my money any more on this particular model. I'll save up to get something better.Now, I know there are disclaimers out there that say WiFi in general is unreliable and subject to many external influences. I get that, but I'm talking about cameras 20 feet away from their base station with barely a WiFi signal to be seen between them. That's just not ok. There is an option to change the camera system to use your home WiFi signal, and I might try that, but doing so requires me to unmount the cameras so I can connect them directly to the NVR which needs to be connected to a monitor and mouse to make the changes. Basically, I need to disassemble the system and start over.

Business & home security. Excellent product

Very impressed with how clear the picture quality is. Camera set-up is very easy. I am not a computer wiz but after a few tries and one call to customer service, I had the system up and running with no problems. Well worth the money - you will pay for more for wireless cameras but it seems like it was a wise buy.

Installed these in our business for security purposes. I'm impressed with the video and recording capabilities. Set up didn't take that long but is not quite as intuitive as I would hope for others. There is a web interface as well after initial set up. This is extremely helpful instead of using the mouse to click letters on A visual keyboard. The only downfall is that I cannot get the email alerts to work but I think with some tinkering I'll have that resolved soon

The system works good. Camera night vision is poor. Works great in the day time. The camera mounting mechanism is not flexible.I had tried Zmodo cameras before. They have excellent mounting hardware. But their recording was not that great. So I purchased the Swann system. However, they have ROOMS for improvement.

Works good once you figure out t the instructions. Phone app has issues.. .

Be careful as to set ur IP to static. Otherwise this device is capable of stealing all dhcp ip's and preventing your wifi from working