

Ask HN: Ideas We'd Like to Fund No 15,how implement it otheshelf product? - umen

hello all
im looking again in the great Y Combinator ideas list and noticed this section 16 that talking about of the shelf security like companies like ADT are doing , i dont understand who can such product be "of the shelf product" what i missing here ?
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byoung2
Look at the prices here:
[http://www.adt.com/for_your_home/products_services/security_...](http://www.adt.com/for_your_home/products_services/security_systems)

An ADT (or similar) security system is going to cost you $300-500 to install,
and $40/month. Since most households who can afford such security systems
likely already have broadband, always-on internet, and the members likely have
smartphones with data, it is possible to offer a cheaper alternative that
builds on services they are already paying for. Any hardware for the system
could also be built using standard "off-the-shelf" components.

Off the top of my head, I can imagine instead of hardwiring door/window
sensors, motion detectors, cameras, and microphones you could connect them all
via wi-fi. And instead of having a 24 hour monitoring center, you could have a
cloud-based app that routes alerts directly to the owner's smartphone.

This way, the $500 of equipment become $100, and the $40 monthly monitoring
fee becomes $10.

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tocomment
This is intriguing but how would you handle a power outage, or an Internet
outage, or WiFI just randomly flaking out?

How does the ADT system work? Some kind of dedicated line?

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byoung2
Obviously I haven't figured out all the kinks, since I only gave it 5 minutes
thought, but you're right, whoever does this will have to plan for all of
those occurrences. My parents have an ADT system, and it just uses the regular
phone line to dial in to the monitoring center. The rub was that my parents
didn't have a regular phone line, they had Time Warner Digital Phone service.
So everytime there was a hiccup in the digital connection, the alarm assumed
someone had cut the hardline, and it dialed in when service came back up. That
resulted in a phone call to confirm everything was all right. They ended up
switching back to regular phone service just for the alarm.

I think for the younger generation, alarms with phone line connections won't
work anyway. Over half of my friends/coworkers don't have a landline phone.
But they all have smartphones and broadband. Companies will have to find a way
to have a reliable system that works with broadband.

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lsc
I guess you could ship a box full of motion detectors and stuff, (I imagine
the parts are pretty cheap) and have consumers do the install, or alternately,
set up a network of "certified installers" who will go do it for a hundred and
fifty bucks.

the easy part is setting up a callcenter to handle the alarms going off. You
probably also need to coordinate with local police departments so they know
what is going on when they get a call from you. (alternately, you could
contract with local private security firms.)

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tocomment
link?

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byoung2
<http://www.ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

