We have added an Echo Show to the living room and the Echo has taken residence in my room. The reason for is a show is that mum finds she sleeps better in the living room but sometimes gets concerned about dad who is not the quietest of sleepers. She can now get a view of the bedroom with “Alexa, show the bedroom” as well as being able to control the lights without reaching for a remote – well she can when she remembers the things name – I might try “computer” instead of “Alexa” in there. I was disappointed with the baby monitor I put in the bedroom as night vision is not that good even with an extra infra red light and I’m tempted to change it for another of the Annke POEs we have here – that would mean grovelling around in the roof though… To that end, I had a play with Monocle last night and got it working, via its gateway program, with the Hikvision and Annke cameras we have. As a beta system and one with a possible pricing scheme at a later date, it’s future is uncertain here. On the other hand, it does offer a relatively straightforward solution to adding cameras which may not have their own skill but do support the standard rtsp protocol to Alexa.
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