Resideo Lyric Alarm System Vs. Qolsys IQ Panel 2 Plus

Hey DIY-ers, I'm Jorge from Alarm Grid. Today, we're going to be talking about the Resideo Lyric Controller and the Qolsys IQ2 Plus Panels. Now, both of these systems are some of the most advanced systems that are out in the market right now, they both offer a whole lot of features that you guys can start incorporating into your security and home ecosystem as far as Z-Wave and home automation goals. And honestly, when you're choosing between both of these systems it just comes down to preference and the different features that they have to offer, and I'm going to go ahead and get into that right now. The first thing on that I want to touch base on is the similarity between the panel. So off to my right here, I have the Lyrics System 7 inch screen display, and off to my left here, I have the IQ2 Plus, again, same 7 inch display. As you can see, the lyrics system is a little bit thicker, comes off the wall a little bit more, and the IQ2 Plus is a little more tablet shaped, right? It's a flat tablet looking device, and they both have a camera at the front. If you look at the center of the IQ2 Plus and the center of the Lyric they both have a built-in camera. So basically, whenever you disarm the system the camera takes a picture and it sends it to whatever interactive app you have with the monitoring plan that you're using, and they both also have a built-in 85 decibels sounder. When the alarm goes off to sounder sounds off at 85 decibels if you want to kind of measurement of what that sounds like it's about the same sound as you honking your car horn, and they both offer encryption with the sensors. So the Lyrics system works with 345 megahertz Honeywell and 2GIG sensors, and it is also compatible with the SiX Series sensors which are 128-bit encrypted AES. The IQ2 Plus Panels all have PowerG built-in, which also support 128-bit encryption sensors, and if you get the correct version of the IQ2 Plus because there's three different ones, if you get the one that has the S-Line daughterboard card, it also works with the 319.5 rolling code encryption that the S-Line sensors have as well. Now, going back to the encryption on the panels, the main difference between the Lyric and the IQ2 is that the IQ2, there's three different versions which is what I was mentioning before. The Lyric just has one version-- that one version works with the Honeywell sensors or 2GIG sensors which transmit at 345 megahertz, and it also works with the SiX Series which are 128-bit encrypted. And then the IQ2 comes in three different flavors, it comes every single one includes the PowerG Sensors which are the encrypted sensors, and then every other-- like the three panels they all come with the PowerG, and then the main difference is that each panel has a different daughterboard card built-in. So for instance, there's one with PowerG and DSC sensors. There's another one with PowerG and Honeywell and 2GIG. There's another one with PowerG and Interlogix and S-Line. All right, so there's three different ones. Now, what makes these panels stand out from each other are the advanced features. For instance, the Lyric works with HomeKit, so if you're an iOS house, an Apple house, you guys might find yourselves wanting to go with the Lyric because the Lyric integrates with HomeKit. Now, what this means for you iOS users over there is-- if you guys have HomeKit, and you guys want a system that works with, the Lyric is the one to want to go with. If you guys have HomeKit devices such as lights, locks, thermostats, you can actually use the HomeKit app and the Lyric system to bridge that gap that you-- maybe couldn't have done before. For instance, the Lyric doesn't work with those HomeKit devices directly. However, if you enable the HomeKit and you get monitored, you can actually go ahead and use that HomeKit app to integrate these lights, locks, thermostats with the Lyric system. So whenever the Lyric goes arm away, you guys can use your HomeKit lights cause scenes, cause reactions to whatever the Lyric is triggering. Now, the cool thing with the IQ2, it doesn't work with HomeKit, but it does have partitioning. So by partitioning what I mean by that is basically you're able to control an arm as a certain zone in your house, or a certain group of sensors in your house independently from the rest of the system. So some people might have an office in their house and you might want to partition that off as a partition one. So basically, you can arm your office space sensors, door sensors, whatever it is independently from the rest of the house. So that's something cool that the IQ2 has. It also has facial recognition with the camera. So if it doesn't recognize your face while you're trying to disarm, it will not allow you, or it will actually send you a signal to the app and to the central station. It also has Bluetooth disarming, so if you guys have Bluetooth enabled and you guys get within a certain range of the system it will automatically disarm the system. And it also has on some Alarm.com compatible cameras, it actually allows you to livestream the video to the actual system itself. So if you guys have any Alarm.com compatible video cameras, then they can actually livestream to the actual IQ2. You used to be able to do that on the Honeywell-- on the Honeywell systems with the old legacy cameras, but those are discontinued, and the new generation cameras only work through the app. So that's just something to keep in mind if you're looking for local video on the panel, you would need to get an IQ2 Plus, and again, the livestream is only enabled if you're monitored, so just something to keep in mind. Now, not only are they different in advance features, but the interactive services that they use are completely different as well. The Lyric is a Honeywell system, so that means it uses Total Connect 2.0, and I'm sorry, I said Honeywell system is actually Resideo now, all right? And it uses Total Connect 2.0, that's the app that allows you to arm and disarm the system control Z-Wave devices, setup email, and text message notifications, it's also what you would use to look at your new generation HD cameras. The IQ2 uses Alarm.com. Alarm.com again, same thing as Total Connect 2.0, it's just a different look that allows you to arm and disarm, control your Z-Wave devices, set up email and text message notifications. You can look at the Alarm.com videos not only on the panel but through the app as well, and both systems they have geofence features, they allow you to check on the status of your sensors and of the system, and clear any alarms that you may have. Now, one thing about the Lyric system is that it does not come with the cellular communicator built-in, it only has the Wi-Fi. You do have the option of adding a cellular communicator to the system. Right now, we have the AT&T LTE and the Verizon LTE communicator is soon to come out as well for the Lyric. The IQ2 Plus comes, remember I said, it comes in three different flavors PowerG and the three different other legacy daughterboard cards. Well, it also comes with two different communicators, it will come with a Wi-Fi communicator, and then there's two versions of the three different flavors. So each single IQ2 where either come with Verizon or an AT&T LTE, and you want to make sure that you choose the one that's better-- that has the best signal in your area. So, cool thing about the IQ2 is you don't have to buy the cellular communicator separately, it's already built-in to the system. The other thing is that they both have Z-Wave built-in. The one thing is that the Lyric system has normal Z-Wave, and the IQ2 Plus has Z-Wave Plus. So, if you guys have Z-Wave Plus devices you guys can actually use those Z-Wave Plus features with the IQ2 Plus, you will not be able to use the Z-Wave Plus features with the Lyric system, because that only has normal Z-Wave. Now, let's get down to the monitoring for both of these systems. Since the IQ2 uses Alarm.com you're monitoring rates are usually going to be more, because it's using a cellular path. Alarm.com just so you guys know requires all of their customers whoever is using Alarm.com to be on a cellular path or to have a cellular path enabled. If you have a system that does Wi-Fi and cellular, yes, you can enable the Wi-Fi, but you can't run the system on Wi-Fi only it needs to be running on cellular as well. So with these systems you cannot sign up on a Wi-Fi plan that you may see in other companies or ourselves. So, if you're going to be doing an IQ2 Plus system that uses Alarm.com you're going to be signing up for one of the higher level monitoring plans because of the cellular fees and because of Alarm.com. If you get the Resideo Honeywell Lyric Controller, those you can actually run on an IP path only and sign up for the less expensive plans, and you only need to go to the higher level monitoring plans which are the cellular plans, if you add a cellular communicator to the system, but you do have the option of running internet path only. Now, granted, we always recommend using cellular as a backup communicator. Anyways just so that your monitoring is more reliable in the event that your Wi-Fi fails and if your system is only connected to Wi-Fi, well guess what? Your system won't be reporting out to anywhere if it does not have the cellular communicator built-in, so it's always recommended to add cellular to the system. So if you guys don't have any cellular communication in that area, or you just don't want to pay the high cellular monitoring fees, then you can definitely go with a Resideo alarm system or even the Lyric system which has Wi-Fi built-in, it does allow you to do internet only path. So if you guys want to do the lower price monitoring plans, internet path only, you can go ahead and get the Lyric system or any other Resideo system. If you guys have any questions at all whatsoever feel free to email us that support@alarmgrid.com. Like this video we filmed that it was helpful, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel and enable notification, so whenever we upload new videos you guys get notified. I'm Jorge, and I'll see you guys next time.