Brent Barker:
It's kind of funny. I've got a few service providers I work with in Wisconsin and Canada, and I've seen pictures of bears going past their yards. One of our executives here at Calix that lives in the northeast had a bear actually walked by his door. He showed that video at Connections. And it wasn't just your oh, there's a little bear, it was a fairly large bear. So they use our cameras quite frequently when they go outside just to make sure, hey, we have a bear present.

Laura Seney:
Welcome to Connected Conversations, the official podcast of Kosciusko Connect. Kosciusko Connect is a subsidiary of Kosciusko REMC. Since 2021, we have been providing fast, reliable fiber to the home internet service to rural portions of northern Indiana.
On Connected Conversations, we talk about fiber internet technology, community and how to navigate the digital world in which we live. I am your host, Laura Seney. Thank you for connecting with us today.

Laura Seney:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Connected Conversations. Today we are going to be talking about Arlo Security Camera Systems. Kosciusko Connect now offers Arlo security camera packages and installation along with our internet services.
Our guest today is Brent Barker, Senior Success Engagement Manager with Calix. Hello, Brent. How are you?

Brent Barker:
Doing very well this morning, thank you, Laura.

Laura Seney
Thank you for coming and being willing to talk to us today. Can you tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself and what your role is at Calix, and how Calix is working with Kosciusko Connect?

Brent Barker:
Absolutely. As a Success Engagement Manager for our Smart Life Portfolio of Services, my specialty is with Arlo. So I will work with BSPs such as Kosciusko when they elect to sign on for a new service like Arlo, and make sure there's a seamless launch of the service, and then also a ramp of that service moving forward.

Laura Seney:
So I have a few questions about Arlo security cameras, and we can go ahead and dive into those.
What are the top things to look for in a camera security system?

Brent Barker:
I mean, probably the top two things are going to be just ease of use of the system. We don't want something that's going to be overly complicated that's hard for people to understand. I mean, some of it's easy to use. It's going to fit their day to day lives is going to be key.
The other thing that I really look for is the clarity of the cameras. As you can imagine, if you were to do a search on Amazon, you'd have a lot of different options come up. So having something that's going to perform well and be clear where you can actually make out what's on the video is going to be key for that too.

Laura Seney:
Ease of use is definitely important. What makes Arlo security cameras stand out from other home security options on the market?

Brent Barker:
One thing I think that helps Arlo stand out is they've really been a pioneer in wireless cameras. They were one of the first ones to offer wireless cameras. And when I say wireless, I mean both from a power and a network connectivity standpoint.
They've been doing this for several years. I can remember some of their first cameras had AA batteries. So, they've really refined this process and have a very high performing product and the service to back it up. Their app is very intuitive and something that people really appreciate with being able to manage those features and benefits.

Laura Seney:
Can you walk us through the different types of Arlo cameras available? How do they differ in terms of features and use cases?

Brent Barker:
Arlo really has a camera for just about any scenario or situation you can think of. If you can kind of imagine it, Arlo has a solution for that. They have cameras dedicated for indoor applications, and one of the nice things about that is the indoor cameras have a privacy lens.
So for example, myself, I work from home. I'm home all the time. I don't need my camera to catch me every time and record me when I go get a drink of water, or go get a snack from the kitchen or something, so you can have the indoor cameras on or off at your discretion. They have a high performing outdoor cameras as well that can be paired with solar panels or plug in power supplies that allow them to optimally keep the battery charged.
There's also some specialty cameras as well, with floodlight cameras that actually offer additional ambient light if there is a very dark area. Then the most common camera as well is going to be the video doorbell, and that's by far and wide the most common one people use, being able to keep an eye on whoever's coming and going from your home and packages that get delivered. That's really important to a lot of people.

Laura Seney:
What kind of person or home would benefit the most from an Arlo security system, in your opinion?

Brent Barker:
Security cameras are one of those rare services that can appeal to just about anybody, honestly. But I think probably the people that it pertains to, probably most are, people that have kids in the home if you get a lot of packages delivered, just being able to have that peace of mind that things are good.
And then if you're any time you're away from home, whether it's you're going to work during the day or you're traveling for vacation or something, being able to stay connected to your home and protected really matters to a lot of people.

Laura Seney:
Can you explain how Arlo's cloud storage works? Is there a limit to how much footage someone can store?

Brent Barker:
The cloud storage is a very nice feature for Arlo, so instead of having local storage for the cameras, all the footage is stored in the cloud, so there is no worry about local storage being compromised or anything like that. And it's a 30 day rolling storage, so it doesn't matter if you have three events or 3000 events, it's going to store 30 days worth and it's a rolling loop.If you have your cameras installed the first 30 days, all your footage is there. And on day 31, the footage from day one is dropped off, as new footage is added. It's very easy to save clips to your device, to be able to share them with people or police or whatever is needed them.

Laura Seney:
How does Arlo's AI powered motion detection work, and what makes it more effective than traditional motion sensors?

Brent Barker:
I kind of look at Arlo's motion detection and they kind of turn as a smart notification. So it's good to be able to catch motion, but being able to identify what that motion is, is really what sets Arlo apart from others in this area. Being able to accurately tell the difference between a person and animal, a vehicle, or even know when a package has been delivered with the accuracy that they do is very incredible to me on how accurate it is.
I'm kind of smart home automation geek, if you will, and I've got 11 of these cameras at my house currently in various areas, and just being able to scroll through my feeds and being able to sort through if I want to look at just people that have arrived or packages or vehicles that can actually sort and look through these different motions.
So it's very nice being able to kind of filter through all those notifications and know which one is which.

Laura Seney:
Yeah, I'm sure me just being able to filter out tree branches or the wind or people just walking by and being able to hone in on exactly what you want seems really helpful and really important in a security camera system.
How accurate and reliable is Arlo's motion detection in real world scenarios? Do you ever face issues with it triggering false alarms?

Brent Barker:
With the 11 cameras that I have in my home, I really don't see any of that. I'm sure there's probably a couple false alarms that I don't recognize just from the amount of cameras and footage that I have, but again, the accuracy of it is really just amazing.
If there were false alarm issues, with my 11 cameras, I would have noticed it at some point in time. And not everything's 100% fail safe, but I will say this is a very high performing technology.

Laura Seney:
That's encouraging to hear and provides good motivation for wanting to choose Arlo. Can Arlo cameras function well in extreme weather conditions, including rain, snow, heat, freezing temperatures?

Brent Barker:
Yeah, so all of the outdoor cameras are built I believe iP67 rated. So they're made to withstand the rain, snow, precipitation, humidity, things like that. As far as temperature wise, they have an operating temperature range of -4°F to 113°F. So they can work in a variety of temperatures. Now, here in northern Indiana, we do see times whenever the temperature does drop below -4 for maybe a short period of time. And during that time frame the camera will go offline. Some people are concerned about that, but this isn't an issue that would be exclusive to Arlo or Kosciusko Connect by any stretch. If you look at any provider in this space and I'm talking about competitors like Ring, Blink, Nest, they're all going to have the same low operating temperature. So it's just a by product of the wireless cameras and the technology today with the batteries that they use, that they will not work at those lower temperatures.

Laura Seney:
That makes sense. And once the temperature rises back up to a level, the camera just starts working normally again?

Brent Barker:
They come right back up on their own, assuming they have a suitable battery charge left.

Laura Seney:
It leads into the next question of how long to the batteries typically last on Arlo's wireless cameras, and are there tips for extending battery life?

Brent Barker:
The direction from Arlo they give a rating of approximately four months. Now, as you can imagine, there's a lot of variables when it comes to how long a battery is going to last in the camera. It could be the amount of activity, the amount of time the camera is being used, temperature. There's a lot of variables that can impact that. One of the nice things about the camera is offered by Kosciusko on the outdoor cameras, they're paired with solar panels. So what a solar panel does, it's going to trickle charge of that battery to ensure it's got a charge at all times. So your end user is not going to have to worry about having to go out and climb a ladder to recharge a camera or battery. It's just going to be a seamless performing camera for them.

Laura Seney:
For someone looking to purchase their first security camera, what would you recommend they consider when choosing Arlo?

Brent Barker:
I would look at just what I'm concerned about around my home. Like I mentioned earlier, I think the whole system really starts off with your video doorbell. People are most concerned, I think, with who's coming to their home visitors, the deliveries, kids coming from school, things like that. I think that's kind of a good starting point. And then to be able to supplement that with the additional cameras that Arlo offers, if you've got a back patio, a playground, myself, I've got a driveway where my kids park their cars, so it's nice peace of mind for me that I know that, hey, their cars are secure.
Not to worry if somebody tries to break into them or anything. We've got footage of that. And then the nice mix of the indoor cameras as well. So whenever we're gone, we can keep an eye on our pets, see how lazy they are. Mine just go from the couch to the chair back and forth, so not a lot of excitement with my indoor cameras.

Laura Seney:
What are some common myths and misconceptions about Arlo cameras that you'd like to clear up?

Brent Barker:
I don't know if there's a whole lot of misconceptions. The only one I would say is you're really only limited by your imagination. People think, well, I can't have a camera here because it's too far away from my house or it's outside my house. The only real limitation is your Wi-Fi signal strength. And with the high performing RGs or residential gateways and mesh units that Kosciusko Connect provides, you can have these cameras outside the home as well. There are outdoor Wi-Fi units too, so if you can see if you can imagine it Kosciusko would have a solution for that. And that's something that's really rare, I think when you look at a service provider, to be able to offer a connected and protected experience outside the home. So if you have places, maybe there's a pool house, playground, pool itself, a shed that maybe has a farm equipment in it or something like that, being able to have not only connection out there for devices, but protection for cameras and everything is really a great service.

Laura Seney:
Can you share a success story or a situation where Arlo cameras have provided peace of mind, or helped catch an intruder?

Brent Barker:
Personally, I don't really have one in that regard, but again, me kind of being a home automation geek. This is my third round of cameras that I've had installed in my home, so appreciate my wife being so understanding as I try out new technologies and everything. But right before we had our cameras installed, one of them that I replaced with Arlo had actually caught somebody trying to break into my truck. It was just a high school kid looking for easy opportunity, simply walked by my truck, tried the car doors, and just walked onto the next driveway. The kind of the bad thing about that, I kind of caught that on video, but it was so hard to make out who that was that the cameras were older, the resolution wasn't great. Once I have these Arlo cameras that are HD and 2K, it's easy for me to pick that up now and actually be able to zoom in before the image starts to pixelate. So again, that's the important part I mentioned before, is having that clear picture to be able to see what you're seeing clearly.

Laura Seney:
That's a great success story of why people should have these cameras and why it's great to pick Arlo, because they have that higher resolution where you can give that footage to law enforcement and they can really see who it is. And it's amazing to when you start talking to people about cameras. And it's important to just kind of ask those open ended questions to find out what they are interested in as far as areas around their home, because while these are people, think of them as security cameras, I think of them as a smart home or lifestyle camera because there's a lot of applications that you can use these cameras for that don't necessarily pertain to security.

Laura Seney:
What are some examples of that of lifestyle things that people are using them for?

Brent Barker:
So we're seeing an emergence of people wanting to have more indoor cameras, not only for kids and pets, but let's say if you've got an elderly relative, whether they live with them or they're on their own and you, maybe you're not able to be there all the time. Having an indoor camera to be able to look in, just to kind of see how they're doing, receive notifications with their movement and everything. That's a big one to me, as well as just being able to be connected when you're not home. So if you want to check in on your pets or just your property, check in on deliveries, that may be a little bit of a security, but just being connected when you're not there is a big part of it.

Laura Seney:
And Arlo includes where you can speak through the camera. Correct?

Brent Barker:
Correct. So all the cameras have a two way audio option. So obviously from the video doorbell the user or the person physically at the camera can instigate that conversation, press the doorbell and get a call to the person who owns that account on their phone. With outdoor cameras and the indoor cameras, let's say you look at your indoor camera and maybe pets on the furniture and shouldn't be. You could actually get on there and tell them to get down. You see somebody outside, they shouldn't be on your property. You can hey, what are you doing here? You need to leave type of thing. So that is a nice feature that you mentioned.

Laura Seney:
Nice. And do you have any funny stories from the Arlo cameras of people catching their pets doing crazy stuff?

Brent Barker:
It's kind of funny. I've got a few service providers I work with in Wisconsin and Canada, and I've seen pictures of bears going past their yards. One of our executives here at Calix lives in the northeast and had a bear actually walked by his door. He showed that video at Connections. And it wasn't just your oh, there's a little bear. It was a fairly large bear. So they use our cameras quite frequently when they go outside just to make sure, hey, we have a bear present or not. We've got some funny things too, with people falling down and different things. I haven't gotten permission to share those publicly with everybody yet from my family, but yeah, there's a certain fun aspect to it as well.

Laura Seney:
Yeah, that's my, reason for having Arlo I didn't even think about was wildlife. You know, look outside. If you're living out in one of those areas where there are bears, gotta look outside. Make sure there's not a bear before you walk out the front door.

Brent Barker:
My in-laws live in a very rural part of town, not far from us, but they recently got fiber optic service last year, and one of the first things they did, they wanted cameras when they travel in different things. And one of the cameras at points at a barn where they have a horse, it picks up deer that walk through their yard fairly regularly. It's something they weren't really aware of, but they just kind of call them the pet deer out, the pet deer here.

Laura Seney:
That's fun. They can watch the deer from their security cameras.
As we wrap up, is there anything we didn't cover that you think is important for people to know about Arlo security cameras?

Brent Barker:
I think all the information that we shared was really great. The thing that I would probably mention to the folks listening here, if you're a Kosciusko customer, this is really a tremendous value added service you can add. Being able to have this provided by Kosciusko Connect, where you don't have to go out and research cameras on your own, find the best ones, purchase them outright and get them installed. But not only get them installed, but get them installed also configured properly to where you're not getting dinged every five minutes on your phone from an activity or different things. So this is a tremendous value add. I kind of wish Kosciusko would maybe get service about three hours south, where I am at, so I could take advantage of this service.
But it really is a tremendous value add. And as your packages state, for being internet and Porch defender or Internet and Property Defender, it's not just the cameras. You're getting that high performing Wi-Fi as well and having that network protections for all your devices too. It's just a tremendous peace of mind. It really, really speaks to that defender name.

Laura Seney:
Yeah, it's really valuable to have the add on of installation of Kosciusko Connect will come out and install these cameras for you. Can you speak to that? A value of having someone come out and install the camera?

Brent Barker:
Absolutely. And again, even though I'm a technology inclined person and I've installed my own cameras, I stay pretty busy at home with my wife and kids and everything else.
If I have a provider or somebody that could provide a service like that where they could do it for me, and it's just kind of a turnkey operation where they hand me my device and here it is, here's how it works. That has a lot of value to me. And then if something happens to it, I don't have to call some unknown entity who knows where for support.
I can call Kosciusko Connect, I can call that local person that's already helped me with my internet or any other service that I have with them, and they're going to take care of it for me.

Laura Seney:
That's true. That is a really awesome service that Kosciusko Connect offers.

Brent Barker:
Very much so.

Laura Seney:
Well thank you for joining us today, Brent. I hope you have a good rest of your day.

If you would like to learn more about Arlo security cameras or have Arlo cameras installed by Kosciusko Connect, call (574) 269-0327 and our Kosciusko Connect team will be happy to assist you.

You have been listening to Connected Conversations, the official podcast of Kosciusko Connect. From all of us at Kosciusko Connect, thank you for connecting with us today.