AVAAK Vue Personal Video Network

Have you ever wanted to install your very own video surveillance system
in your home? Do you have voyeuristic tendencies? If you've answered yes
to one or both of these questions, we have the perfect gadget for you.
The latest product from AVAAK, the Vue Personal Video Network, is a
plug-and-play video network system that let's you monitor the goings-on
in your home (or anywhere else you find yourself being paranoid about)
without the hassles of wiring and bulky installations.
The Vue Personal Video Network is touted as a wireless video
surveillance system for keeping tabs on kids, pets, and old people.
Although, given the proclivity for mischief that most people tend to
have, I have no doubts that it will find its way into some less than
appropriate applications. The system is really a combination of three
components, two wireless video cameras with peel and stick magnetic
mounts, a wireless gateway that plugs into your router or DSL/cable
modem, and the my.Vuezone.com website interface.
The Vue wireless cameras are pretty petite (about 3x1x2-in) and feature
a low-power consumption design that is supposed to give you up to a year
of operation from a single CR123 Li-ion photo battery. They shoot video
in Flash Live Video (FLV) format with a max resolution of 640×480
and will also snap still JPG images of the same quality. The backbone of
the system is something called FrameMesh technology, a redundant, packet
self-correction networking protocol that was apparently developed for
the defense department. Now doesn't that make it seem so
family-friendly? According to AVAAK, it's this technology that enables
streaming live video using wireless transmission technology and
battery-powered cameras.
The Vue Gateway is the central network hub with a 300-ft range that
syncs up with the wireless cameras in your network and streams the data
directly to the my.Vuezone.com website interface. This website is where
you manage the whole deal. From here you can view and record live remote
video from all active cameras and gateways, play recorded/stored video
and snapshots, and share the content with other users or your favorite
multimedia websites.
Overall, it seems like the Vue Personal Video Network is a relatively
painless way to set up your own Internet-accessible wireless video
surveillance network. You can add up to 50 cameras to a single network
and you can install additional Vue Gateway hubs to extend the range of
the system. The starter kit, which includes two cameras, the wireless
gateway, and one year of free access to the my.Vuezone.com monitoring
service, is $299.99. Extra cameras will run you $99.99 each. Oh yeah,
and after your free year of service is up you'll have to pay $19.95 a
year to keep it going. For more info head over to www.vuezone.com.