When comparing Canary All-in-one Home Security vs Icontrol Networks Piper NV, the Slant community recommends Canary All-in-one Home Security for most people. In the question“What are the best home-security cameras?” Canary All-in-one Home Security is ranked 1st while Icontrol Networks Piper NV is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose Canary All-in-one Home Security is:
The Canary has a viewing angle of 147 degrees, letting it see more than competing products. The 1080p resolution is crisp, and allows for digital zooming up to 3X. There are 12 infra-red LEDs that work as part of the night vision to keep recording even after the lights have gone out.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Quality video, even when dark
The Canary has a viewing angle of 147 degrees, letting it see more than competing products. The 1080p resolution is crisp, and allows for digital zooming up to 3X. There are 12 infra-red LEDs that work as part of the night vision to keep recording even after the lights have gone out.
Pro Automatic recording
The Canary can utilize your phone's GPS to turn on and off automatically depending on where you are (when you're at home it will enter private mode, but when you leave it will activate). If you live with others, all they need to do is install the app and it won't activate when they're home either.
Pro Air quality sensors
There are sensors which help determine the quality of the air, including: temperature, humidity, and particles in the air. While it can't do anything about these itself, it is a useful tool for monitoring.
Pro Great microphone
The microphone captures crystal clear audio. This is extremely beneficial if there is motion detected, but the subject moves out of the vision of the camera, as you can still somewhat tell whats going on.
Pro Warning siren
The Canary Security System is equipped with a siren which is rated at 90dB (similar to that of city traffic or a subway at 200ft). While not ridiculously loud, it should do the job to scare the heebie jeebies out of anybody not expecting it.
Pro IFTTT functionality
Pro Built-in siren
The siren is very loud - rated at 105dB (louder than a snowmobile or motorcycle). It's loud enough to scare off virtually any intruder.
Pro Tracks the weather
With a temperature and humidity sensors on-board, the Piper NV can give you a good idea of what the interior 'weather' is like. It can also track outdoor temperature, and will warn you of local weather alerts.
Pro Great Android/iOS apps
The apps are simple to use, and designed to make sure the most important stuff can be accessed the quickest. Any important actions will give you feedback from the Piper NV itself so you can rest assured each action goes through.
Small details are included in the app as well - from adjustable motion sensitivity (for shadows, animals, and other small movements) to a trusted circle of contacts that will be notified each time an alert is triggered.
All features worked as advertised, notifications were delivered quickly, and the camera is very responsive to actions performed in the apps.
Pro Talk & listen supported
The Piper NV has both a microphone and speaker, letting you have a conversation with a person in front of the Piper while you are elsewhere with your phone. This can be handy for conversations with babysitters, deliverymen, or even talking with your children when you're away.
Pro Great video quality
The 1080p camera allows for up to 10X digital zoom. Without zooming, the picture is very crisp and clear which is immensely helpful when figuring out who is on the camera and what they're doing. The digital zoom will reduce this clarity, but allows for a close-up inspection of any small details.
The device can also tilt and pan - unique features that let you get the best angles of view.
Pro Night vision tracks even in pitch black
The NV in Piper NV stands for night vision. This product included infra-red LEDs that illuminate pitch black rooms so that the camera can still see (although human eye's can't detect this light).
Pro Wide-angle lense
With a full 180 degrees of vision, this camera can be placed on a wall and see everything around it. Because its fish-eye design, the edges of the image will be slightly warped, however this is required for such a high field of view.
Pro Can be set up to control light within a household
Z-Wave controller is built in.
Pro Built-in motion detector
Has a proper IR motion sensor, so does not image analysis to detect motion. This is very useful as it avoids the false alarms that many other camera are subject to when clouds change the lighting conditions.
Cons
Con No local storage
All of the recordings are stored directly on the cloud, and there is no local storage available.
Con Not mountable
This system will need a table or stand to sit on - there isn't an included wall or ceiling mount. You perhaps could fashion your own, however remember to mount it upright as the camera doesn't rotate.
Con Expensive subscription plan
The free plan is limited - your history will only go back 12 hours, with 5 available bookbarks and you can download 3 videos.
The $5/month ($49 annually) plan increases this to a 2 day history, 25 bookmarks, and unlimited downloads.
For $10/month ($99 annually) you get 7 day history, 100 bookmarks and still get unlimited downloads.
The most expensive plan at $30/month ($299 annually) gives you a 30 day timeline with unlimited bookmarks and downloads.
Con Lacks a speaker
While there is a microphone to listen to sounds, there is no speaker and thus this system lacks the ability to hold a conversation with the person on the other side.
Con Lots of false alarms
The motion detection is very sensitive - so sensitive that it only takes shadows moving or branches swaying in the wind to trick it into sending a false alarm. In the future Canary is going to add a sensitivity slider, however this hasn't been implemented yet.
Con IFTT NO LONGER SUPPORTED
They cancelled all their IFTT integrations and hung all their customers out to dry.
Con No web app
Web apps can be handy if your phone is dead or misplaced at the time. They also allow access from any computer using just a login and password, which can be useful if you've run out of data on your phone and are out of Wi-Fi range. This also means that Windows Phone or Blackberry devices won't be able to control the Piper NV.
Con No removable local storage
There is no removable local storage available on the Piper NV - all media is immediately uploaded to the Piper cloud. This online storage is free, but is limited to 1000 clips before it starts overwriting old clips. If the camera is offline when a clip recorded, the video is stored on the device and uploaded once online again.
