Roku is moving deeper into the smart home space with two new battery-powered security cameras. This means you can place the Roku Battery Camera and Roku Battery Camera Plus almost anywhere.
The first camera lasts up to six months on a single charge, while the Roku Battery Camera Plus can last up to several years before you need to recharge. Optionally, you can install a solar panel, so you may never have to manually charge the batteries.
These cameras are designed for simplicity. A step-by-step guide on your phone will help you set them up. They provide a full-color 1080p image and have a color night vision mode. Other features include motion detection and alerts. You can also create schedules for the cameras.
Of course, you can also monitor what the cameras are seeing from the Roku Smart Home app or the web, as well as from your Roku TV and streaming devices. With the Roku Cameras app on your TV, you can view a carousel of camera feeds that change cyclically or periodically based on motion events. There’s a picture-in-picture option in case you want to watch TV and keep an eye on what’s going on in and around your home. However, the cameras lack support for microSD cards for local storage; if you want to store video clips in the cloud (or receive notifications when objects are detected), you will need to pay for a subscription.
Roku has not yet announced prices for the cameras. They will be available in the coming months and will join devices such as the Indoor Security Camera in the Roku lineup. At Wednesday’s event, the company also unveiled its latest streaming set-top boxes and announced new TVs and feature updates.
