More and more people are opting to add features to their homes that transform their backyards into a full-on staycation destination. From fancy outdoor kitchens to elaborate play structures to swimming pools, homeowners want to relax and have a good time without having to leave the safety and security of their own homes.
The swimming pool popularity surge
Swimming pools in particular have seen skyrocketing demand lately—one company reported a 200% increase in orders in just 60 days, while others are booking appointments more than a year out.
If you have a swimming pool in your backyard—or are planning to put one in soon—pool safety should be a top priority, especially if you have children in your home. With pool alerts, you can enjoy your backyard pools while keeping them safer.
Let’s be neighbors.
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What are pool alerts?
Pool alert is a free beta feature for the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro that pool owners can opt into. Here’s how it works:
Pool alert lets you create an additional detection zone around an area in the camera’s field of view, such as a pool, pond, or outbuilding. If the security camera detects activity in that zone, it can notify you in real-time that someone is in that detection zone.
By extending the protection of your Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro to additional areas, pool owners can have the peace of mind that you’ll be notified in real-time if someone enters a specific area of your property.
Keep in mind that in order to benefit from pool alerts, you’ll need the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro. This camera is an impressive security feature in its own right. Its artificial intelligence-powered Smart Deter feature can identify and deter lurkers in your property. The camera automatically plays a loud warning tone and illuminates an LED light on the camera, letting the lurker know they’ve been spotted.
Customers who want to enable pool alerts should remember that as a beta feature, it may not always work perfectly and may not always detect someone entering the detection zone. Pool alerts may experience the occasional bug as the team continues to evolve and make the feature even better.
How do pool alerts work?
If you have the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro, you can easily enable pool alerts in the Vivint app. Under the camera settings for your Outdoor Camera Pro, tap to enable pool alert. You can then define and label the additional custom detection zone around your pool (or the area you want to protect, such as a pond or driveway).
Once this area is set and the pool alert capability is enabled, if a person is detected in the zone it will trigger the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro to automatically record a clip and send a “Person Detected” notification to your phone. You’ll know when someone enters the pool area so you can intervene if necessary.
And if you want to check in on your pool from inside or while you’re away from home, you can always open the Vivint app to view the live stream of your camera’s footage. Having the Outdoor Camera Pro can be like having a second set of eyes keeping watch over your swimming pool.
Why you need pool alerts
There are plenty of reasons anyone living near a body of water—or any area you want to keep a closer eye on—would want a pool alert.
Safety
When it comes to swimming pools, there’s no denying that they can be dangerous—especially to small children. In addition to the potential for accidental drowning (which is the number one cause of death for children ages one to four), emergency rooms treat an average of 6400 children each year for pool-related accidents.
Any parent of young children knows it doesn’t take long for them to sneak away unnoticed, and having additional alerts in place can make your pool safer while bringing you peace of mind.
It should be noted that no device can—or should—ever take the place of adult supervision in a pool or any other situation. However, taking extra measures of precaution around swimming pools can make the pool a safer place in general for everyone.
The CDC recommends a number of measures homeowners can take to improve pool safety and help prevent accidents around swimming pools, including:
Installing four-sided fencing around your pool. (Most states also have laws requiring pool fences, so be sure to check your city’s building codes to ensure your fence is compliant.)
Choosing a fence with self-closing, self-locking gates
Installing devices that alert you if someone enters the pool area
Making sure young children who are in water always have adult supervision, with adults acting as lifeguards and remaining within reach at all times
Covering the pool with a child-proof pool cover when not in use
You can also add a pool alert to other potentially unsafe areas you don’t want unauthorized people in. For example, if you’re working on a project in your yard and there are dangerous tools out or conditions are unsafe for people, you can set up an alert for your camera system to notify you if anyone goes into the work zone. A driveway or detached garage are other examples that can benefit from the additional safety monitoring a pool alert provides.
Enhanced security
Pool alerts provide an extra layer of security and protection on your property. With the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro, you already have the benefit of an extra set of eyes on your property.
Since pool alerts don’t need to be used exclusively around a pool or body of water, you can extend the watchful eye of the Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro by adding the additional detection around any off-limit areas. So if you have valuable tools in your shed you want to keep an eye on or want to make sure no one enters an area where your livestock or pets live, you can add a pool alert for enhanced security.
The Vivint Outdoor Camera Pro can also distinguish between people and animals, so you don’t have to worry about getting notifications if an animal wanders into the detection zone.
Stay informed about your home
Most homeowners want to know what’s going on with their home at any given time. Because pool alerts allow you to receive a notification when a person is detected, you can always know what’s going on around your property. This is especially important in areas that may pose a danger to other people, especially children.
With the Vivint app, you can view a livestream of your camera feeds from anywhere you have Wi-Fi or data connection. No matter where you are, you’ll know what’s going on.
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