Alarm.com: Featured on DC's FOX Affiliate (WTTG)

Host: Still ahead at 9:00 now. Home security at the tip of your fingers. We're sitting down with our tech expert, for a look at Nine App that you can use to stop thieves in their tracks or catch them right in the act. Interviewer: Well last week, police in the Richmond area arrested a realtor who was caught stealing from a home that she was supposed to be showing. The family busted her after installing cameras in their home, and that got us talking about home security and ways we can protect ourselves. Pete Erickson is a tech expert and the founder of Modev, and he joins us now live with some ideas on home protection, and really sort of this new and expanding market of, many times, things that are available just right on your smartphone, right? Pete: That's right, that's right. So we are seeing a lot of entrants into this new market. It's really more than home security. It's really family security, because it involves not only protecting your home, but knowing when your kids get home from school, or knowing if your carbon monoxide detector has gone off. There's all kinds of things we can do now with smart technologies. Interviewer: So the first thing that occurred to me when I was going down the list and looking at some of these, we are talking about, okay, you can monitor pretty much every entrance and egress to your house, . . . Pete: That's right. Interviewer: . . . you can remote-access all of your different systems, and I thought, "Gosh, that seems like an awful lot of setup." Pete: That's right. Well, it is. If you're going to go all in, it's quite a bit of setup, and there are companies out there, more traditional companies, you got the 800-pound gorilla in ADT, . . . Interviewer: Right. Pete: . . . you got newer companies that are coming up. Companies like alarm.com, it's actually a DC-based company doing very well in that, and you really do need to have a professional service provider come in and actually do that entire installation. Interviewer: So every little thing you want to be monitored or accessed remotely needs to be wired somehow. Pete: Somehow. But there are a lot of DYI entrants into this space as well, so do-it-yourself entrants, and, for example, I downloaded AtHome security system last night. It's an app I can get on my smartphone. I set up an iPad in my house, and I'm already monitoring my house. And if I see something funny, I can actually record it. All that I'm doing for free. So the apps can work right off-the-shelf for free. When you want more services, like if you want to record everything that's happening all day in the cloud, you start to pay for that. If you want more monitoring, like putting a device on your window, you start paying for those devices as well. You want some kind of central system in your house, those run generally about $200. Interviewer: So, let's talk about the plug-and-play ones that we're talking about, the really simple ones. And this one, I know you can't zoom in on it, but . . . Pete: Let's go ahead, I'll start it up here. Interviewer: Like you said, this is something you just put together last night, and we're looking at live video of your living room. Pete: Put it together last night, and basically I'm looking at my living room. If I see something interesting going on, I can actually record it right here on my smartphone. So I'm watching what's happening in my living room, I'm recording it on my smartphone. Pretty great technology in a given . . . what you would have to do previously to get a home security system. This actually has great meaning for people who live in apartments. Most break-ins happen in apartments, and if your apartment owner does not have a security system installed, you're out of luck. Well, now that's changed. If you have an Internet connection and smart devices, you can have better security in your apartment. Interviewer: Is there any concern about security, someone being able to tap into your video feed? Pete: Well, that kind of security is always a concern, but with peer-to-peer encryption technology, it's pretty good. I'm pretty sure that from my device to my own device at home, that that's an end-to-end secure connection. However, this does run over your Wi-Fi network, so you want to make sure that your Wi-Fi router is protected with security keys, and that you keep those keys to yourself. Interviewer: That's the WEP key? Pete: That's the WEP key at home. You want to make sure that you have that security encryption locked down. Interviewer: So we are showing some of these, I know that we haven't really gone through the entire run-down here. But, as you were saying, so the plug-and-play ones are great, but if you're just watching it, that would also require you to be looking at it all the time, . . . Pete: That's right. Interviewer: . . . and that's where those advanced features might be handy. Pete: That's where services like cloud recording services, so that all your data throughout the day, gets recorded in the cloud. You'll have access to that, if something does happen. Also, monitoring services, so that if a door opens you get alerted. So, what I did was totally free, but as soon as you start to want a little bit more, then you start paying. But it's a better model. It gets you in, and you can start to just expand based on what your needs are, and I think it's a great solution for a lot of people. Interviewer: And I like that some of these are great uses for perhaps that iPhone that you were going to trade in or get rid of, you can use it as a camera in your house. Pete: Absolutely. We had an old iPad sitting around, and I set it up, and now it's my security camera. So, you know, it's making good use of a lot of those devices that we all have around our house. Interviewer: What would you recommend, somebody begin like me, it's something I've been thinking about for a long time, but, like I said, I get paralyzed by choice. There's so much out there, I don't even know where to begin. Pete: I think . . . do your research, but go onto the iTunes, Android, or Microsoft app store, and download one of the free apps, get to know it a little bit. Start to . . . you know your own life, your own patterns, things that are important to you, you know your own homes. Play with them, start to get to know them a little bit, and then decide how much more you're going to want to need. And that's a great way to get started, and very cost-effective, as opposed to ordering the whole service, having a whole thing installed, and then decide that it doesn't really fit you, or you don't really like it, or you don't like the app. It's a great advantage to just download an app and try it out. Interviewer: All right, we're going to try that. Hopefully get some of this information on our website. Or, is there somewhere where folks can look you up and figure out the . . . Pete: Well, we will do a summary blog post at the modev.com. We'll try to get that up by the end of today. Interviewer: All right. modev.com, or myfoxdc.com. Back to you guys. Host: Thanks, great information.