This Video Demonstrates The Future Of Door And Home Security

You may have seen a little while ago a video and post on social media that grabbed the attention of our industry. Just in case you didn’t see it, this is the video:

What you’re watching there are two scrotes of society failing to break into a door thanks to an Ultion door cylinder, brilliantly filmed on the Ring door bell and camera security system. I wrote about the Ring door bell product not so long ago, you can catch up on that post here if you wish.

Ring is far more than a door bell. In fact it is a series of home security products. The centrepiece is though a WiFi enable camera and speaker system that you attach to a house wall. It detects movement an alerts you on your phone if someone or something is close by. You can get a live feed on to your phone, and speak to the undesirable scoping out your door to warn them to bugger off. Even from a beach in Australia. There is of course an actual door bell, and again once that is pressed an alert is sent to your phone and you can tell the parcel delivery company not to just bung your fragile package over the back gate.

It’s not just a door bell. Ring, the company, also sell WiFi enable security cameras that also link to your door bell for your general security measures. Again, you can get a live feed and check to make sure the neighbour’s cat isn’t leaving you presents for when you get home. My brother has the Ring door bell and cameras set up at home and he loves them, which is easier said than done if you have ever met my brother!

But it’s not these individual products that are the big news here for me, rather, when together, they give a home a complete, or as close as possible for a normal residential home, security package.

Hardware combining with tech

This video is a perfect example of my point. You have the hardware in the door, in this case the Ultion door cylinder, doing the actual job of keeping the turds out of that home. You then have the tech, the Ring products, doing the job of catching the arses in the act and hopefully have the footage used as evidence in the hope that the police can catch them before they hit another target.

For me, this is where installers could seek to crowbar a new niche in the market. Of course many will already be familiar with the Ultion door cylinder, many already fit them by buying direct or through fabricators. But there is a a link between products like Ring and installers, especially when it comes to doors. I think installers should be looking at products like this as a bolt-on to other products they sell. As a way to improve their security offering further. Not only by selling higher quality hardware products, but to back those up with tech that is easy to install, easy to sell, and easy for the home owner to operate.

This is they way home security is going to go. Smart lock makers August over in the US now have their own camera system similar to Ring, and Nest have just introduced their own camera products too. More and more tech companies are piling into the home security market, and this is an affiliation the window and door sector has always had a natural link with.

The key will be for our companies to be able to buy and sell these sorts of products at reasonable prices, bearing in mind home owners know they could just go online and buy them for the same price if no slightly cheaper. The hurdle will be for installer or even fabricators to bulk buy them from the manufacturers and then be able to put a markup on them which allows them to compete direct with tech companies and not push home owners into an online sale. This is perhaps the only problem we would have as an industry.

However, I don’t think it will be long before door hardware companies, the likes of Yale, Winkhaus, MACO and so on get into the residential market with these sorts of products in an affordable and mass-market fashion. I know MACO already have a suite of door tech similar to this, and they will be perhaps the first major hardware company to break through that has a direct link with the UK fenestration market.

The video above though is the future for installers. Quality door hardware coupled with innovative security tech. Get on that particular bus now before it gets too full!