How Does a Baby Monitor Work
Every caring mom will go to any length to ensure their babies’ safety always. If you’re having more than one child or you have got a different bedroom for your kids you’ll want to engage the use of a baby monitor to track your baby’s actions and environment.
Baby monitor comes handy for all parents who know how to employ it. If you’re planning to buy one soon, you may care to find out how they work so you can get the most out of it.
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How a Baby Monitor Work
Although there are two types of monitor, their functions remain the same. All monitors are made of two basic components: a transmitter unit and a receiver unit. The transmitter is installed in the baby’s bedroom, while the receiver is what the parents or caregiver always carries with her to track the baby’s actions and environments.
Depending on the type of monitor you have – from audio to audio/video, or combination of the three – the transmitter is a TV-like device that transmits an image or sounds back to the receiver unit via a wireless signal. How this signal is formatted is what actually distinguishes a digital monitor from an analog one.
Analog Versus Digital: Their Distinguishing Features
The analog baby monitor uses an audio transmission that can be picked up over a long range from the home, using baby monitor receivers or a scanner receiver. Digital baby monitor, on the other hand, uses an audio wireless system such as DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications), and this is highly resistant to interference, with a range of about 300m.
One of the good things about the Digital monitor (as compared with the analog baby monitor) is the Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS), which helps in providing a great level of privacy or protection from casual or unauthorized interception.
Additionally, some digital baby monitors are multiple-camera supported and they can be used with only one handheld monitor receiver.
What To Consider When Choosing Between A Digital and Analog Monitor
Choosing between a digital and analog monitor can be a daunting task if you don’t know what to look out for in both. It’s true that the two are not without their pros and cons, understanding them will help you make the best out of your baby monitor. You may also want to read our various baby monitor reviews
To start with, you may want to factor in your lifestyle and the location of your house here too, so you’d be able to choose what suit those factors most.
Here is how the two compare side-by-side and what you should consider before choosing between a particular type of a baby monitor:
Resistance or Vulnerability To Casual or Unauthorized Interception
Everyone cares about privacy and if this is you, you may want to consider giving a preference to digital baby monitors over analog monitors. Wireless baby monitors, as you should know, use air to transmit a signal back to to the receiver and there is every possibility that the signal could be intercepted by an authorized or casual observer.
Because of this non-security of the wireless baby monitors, buying them might not be the best option for parents living in a thickly populated environment. This is so as your neighbor, who uses the same monitor as you may be able to intercept your signal. And not only will they have an unauthorized access into your audio signal, they’ll also be able to view all the video feed of the monitor.
Without being told, you should understand how dangerous this can be to your baby’s security if a criminal or unwanted person is to use this loophole against and get access into your room.
On the flip side, a digital baby monitor is, to some great extent, secure as far as resistance to casual interception is concerned. In that, most advanced or latest digital baby monitors comes with an encryption functionality on the wireless signal. This gives you a great advantage over the one without an encryption feature.
Interference From Other Wireless Devices
Interference from other wireless devices such as wireless toys, radar, microwave oven, etc. is highly possible in an analog baby monitor. Whereas, digital baby monitors are much better when it comes to this problem as they use audio wireless systems known as DECT.
Using Smartphone Apps For Baby Monitor
Today, with the help of supported Smartphone apps, you can monitor a camera-equipped device or other Smartphones. Or you can choose to use a Wi-Fi connection or Bluetooth to link a camera to a dedicated device or Smartphone. This means you don’t need to leave any smart device in your baby’s nursery or bedroom.
Wrapping Up
Now that you have all the knowledge as to how a baby monitor work, what next? Going out and buy one for your baby, right? That is a good step, anyway. But you should remember, that though all monitors work the same way (regardless of the type), there are certain key factors to consider when deciding on choosing between an analog baby monitor and a digital one.
One of the key factors you want to consider is how densely populated your area is and how close is your house to your neighbor using the same device. This is so important as you don’t want to allow signal interference or signal interception.
If you’re so concerned about this problem you may want to go for the digital monitors which are much more better when it comes to this problem.
Also, cost and health risks are another things to consider. Analog monitors are always less expensive when compared to the digital monitor. If you scare you may not be able to afford the latter, you should consider going for the former.
Health they say is wealth. There is this belief held by some parents that digital baby monitors are risky to health. Though there is no any substantive or established fact to support this, you should stay away from digital monitors if you are in this category of parents.
To round it off, as you’re set to take the plunge, don’t forget to check out our baby monitor reviews for the top rated baby monitors or you simply visit our link here for the best baby monitor to buy.