Review: Solwise Vesenet Homeplug Camera

Network surveillance for next to nothing... almost

Network cameras have fallen in price considerably but they can still be expensive, especially wireless products.

So at little more than £50 ex Vat, the Vesenet Homeplug Camera from Solwise appears to be remarkably good value and, although not wireless in the conventional sense, doesn’t need a network cable because it sends its pictures over the AC mains.

To be fair, you will need to buy more than just the camera. Another Homeplug compatible adapter is also required to pick up the pictures being transmitted and deposit them onto the Lan. But such adapters are not expensive.

A single-port 14Mbits/sec Vesenet adapter, for example, can be had for just £19.20 ex Vat, with a three-port switch available for £34.21 ex Vat. We were also pleased to find that we could use the camera with one of the Netgear Wall Plugged Ethernet switches that we reviewed in the November 2006 issue.

Installation is simple; the camera is simply plugged into a nearby AC socket using the 1.8m mains cable supplied and the second adapter into another socket close to either a network switch or router.

That does mean finding suitable sockets and you’re not really supposed to use extension leads, but we did and it didn’t cause any problems.

A UTP Ethernet lead is then run from the second Homeplug adapter to the switch/router and that’s everything set up. The camera and remote adapter simply find each other over the mains wiring and you’re ready to start monitoring.

The whole procedure took just a few minutes on our test network and, once installed, we were able to scan for and configure the camera using the Java-based management utility provided.

A separate tool is also provided to manage the Homeplug interfaces, and from this we were able to set the passwords used to encrypt the data being transmitted. Other than that, however, it was simply a matter of pointing a browser at the integrated web server in the camera to see the video images being streamed across the Lan. On the downside, the VGA resolution image is far from professional CCTV quality, with poor colour and jerky movement.

In fact, people walking briskly in front of the camera could hardly be seen at all. However, it’s good enough for general purpose surveillance, for example to check on callers in an unmanned reception or keep an eye on a car park.

Another drawback is that the camera itself is quite bulky and is neither water- nor vandal-proof, so it is best located indoors. A useful swivel mount and screws are provided in the box.

There’s no remote focusing, which meant sending someone equipped with a mobile phone to get it set up correctly. We would also have liked to see a built-in microphone and speaker, but at this price we can’t really complain that they’re not included.

Similarly, we were disappointed to find that the digital video recorder (DVR) utility detailed in the manual isn’t available yet and is likely to be a chargeable extra when it is eventually released. In its favour, the camera is very easy to configure and can be set up to send images to a preset email address whenever motion is detected.

Overall, although the Vesenet Homeplug is no match for a professional surveillance solution, it does a remarkably good job for very little money, time or effort at all.