outdoor intercom

[osa]

So in all of my old houses we've had intercoms and I'm struggling to find anything with the same functionality control4 compatible. Basically I want to be able to adjust a door bell chime in every room (silent in baby room, quite in the master etc), be able to answer the door in every room and to talk to or monitor individual or multiple rooms. Now this I could achieve with the e.g. Doorbird doorbell and multiple control4 touchscreens, but it leaves the backyard & garage, where putting a touchscreen would be a waste due to harsh weather condition.

So before I could get out of the pool and quickly talk to the visitor at the door, ask somebody inside for the towel or put the unit on monitor and hear the kids in the yard. Now my only option not to miss a delivery is to keep the phone by the pool and hope I'll hear one push-up notification and scream for the towel? Not to mention I can't call pool crowd to dinner or watch/listen the kids playing? Anybody was able to figure it all out? Or is downgrading to on-q intercom my only option?

[eggzlot]

11 hours ago, osa said:

So in all of my old houses we've had intercoms and I'm struggling to find anything with the same functionality control4 compatible. Basically I want to be able to adjust a door bell chime in every room (silent in baby room, quite in the master etc), be able to answer the door in every room and to talk to or monitor individual or multiple rooms. Now this I could achieve with the e.g. Doorbird doorbell and multiple control4 touchscreens, but it leaves the backyard & garage, where putting a touchscreen would be a waste due to harsh weather condition.

So before I could get out of the pool and quickly talk to the visitor at the door, ask somebody inside for the towel or put the unit on monitor and hear the kids in the yard. Now my only option not to miss a delivery is to keep the phone by the pool and hope I'll hear one push-up notification and scream for the towel? Not to mention I can't call pool crowd to dinner or watch/listen the kids playing? Anybody was able to figure it all out? Or is downgrading to on-q intercom my only option?

I am trying to understand your situation - do you need to see a screen/video feed while in the backyard and garage, or just ability to call a room from those two areas or be called in that area.  If just the ability to be in the garage or backyard and call a touchscreen or receive a call from a touchscreen/able to talk to the person at the front door you can look at Holovision: http://eholovision.com/11744-2/

The 300 series and 600 series can be mounted to a goose neck pole or built into a stone wall so those could be used in the backyard.  They are advertised for driveway entry but no reason you could not use it in your backyard near a pool.  Some models have cameras, others are just pure voice/speaker.  I have a 400 series at my front door and it works perfectly fine within a c4 environment with the driver by Houselogix for the Vio SIP https://www.houselogix.com/shop/holovision-vio-control4-driver

[osa]

3 hours ago, eggzlot said:

do you need to see a screen/video feed while in the backyard and garage, or just ability to call a room from those two areas or be called in that area. 

I think you got it right. I need to be able to talk both ways (e.g. yard-room-yard), be able to hear the chime in the yard/garage and talk to the visitor, and be able to monitor the outside (e.g. see and hear what's going on at the pool when I'm inside AND at least hear what's going on in the baby room when I'm in the yard). Last but not least I want to be able to call the whole house for dinner (including backyard) with a push of a button.

Thanks a lot for the link. This might be exactly what I need. Their site is down and most links don't open, were you able to integrate those units with C4 touchscreens inside the house or do you use your phone for video monitoring?

 

Thanks!

[eggzlot]

15 hours ago, osa said:

I think you got it right. I need to be able to talk both ways (e.g. yard-room-yard), be able to hear the chime in the yard/garage and talk to the visitor, and be able to monitor the outside (e.g. see and hear what's going on at the pool when I'm inside AND at least hear what's going on in the baby room when I'm in the yard). Last but not least I want to be able to call the whole house for dinner (including backyard) with a push of a button.

Thanks a lot for the link. This might be exactly what I need. Their site is down and most links don't open, were you able to integrate those units with C4 touchscreens inside the house or do you use your phone for video monitoring?

 

Thanks!

That is my review of the 400 series door station.

Yes it integrates.  When someone rings the doorbell my c4 touchscreens get the video feed and an audio feed so I can speak to who is at the front door.  The C4 touchscreens will ring like a telephone when someone rings the doorbell, so its not a door chime, but its a sound effect so you know its ringing.

I believe I could use the touchscreen inside to call to the door station outside.  I have no practice use for that, I always get inbound calls from the door station into my house, or I use the touchscreen functionality to call another room/touchscreen to find someone in the house.  I have yet to use a touch screen to call the door station - would you like me to try and test that for you?  I would assume it would work and if it does and you put the door station on auto answer, if you called out to the pool area it would start to pick up audio ASAP.  You could put a camera out by the pool too if the door station location is not ideal for a camera.  With the C4 door station proxy you can pick any camera to show up when you call a SIP enabled device.

[osa]

Thanks so much Eggzlor for sharing your experience with the door station! It's really hard getting started with C4 trying to piece it together and your input was very valuable.

As much as I like the door station (one of the models can even call the phone direct, but don't think that one integrates with C4), I don't think it's gonna work as intercom by the pool or in the garage simply because somebody would have to answer the call inside the house (e.g. I couldn't just ask for help with the groceries from the garage). I also wouldn't be able to hear the doorbell ringing when by the pool or in the garage. It's strange to me that nobody brought this up. I enjoyed having old style intercoms and would think new ones would offer same and more functionalities. 

Does anybody have an intercom in their garage or backyard? Can new touchscreens withstand AZ sun & dust??

[eggzlot]

On 6/6/2016 at 6:55 PM, osa said:

Thanks so much Eggzlor for sharing your experience with the door station! It's really hard getting started with C4 trying to piece it together and your input was very valuable.

As much as I like the door station (one of the models can even call the phone direct, but don't think that one integrates with C4), I don't think it's gonna work as intercom by the pool or in the garage simply because somebody would have to answer the call inside the house (e.g. I couldn't just ask for help with the groceries from the garage). I also wouldn't be able to hear the doorbell ringing when by the pool or in the garage. It's strange to me that nobody brought this up. I enjoyed having old style intercoms and would think new ones would offer same and more functionalities. 

Does anybody have an intercom in their garage or backyard? Can new touchscreens withstand AZ sun & dust??

sorry for the delayed response.  work and life have been busy.  So I just tested....I went to a touchscreen in my bedroom, in the intercom menu I hit my doorstation and my fiance was outside at the front door and we were able to talk to each other and I could see her from my touchscreen.  So yes, you can do doorstation > touchscreen or touchscreen > doorstation.

Hope that answers your question.