Ring security cameras offer a wide array of features as well as peace of mind when it comes to monitoring and protecting your home and loved ones. It’s important though, to know how to properly place your cameras around your home.
Considerations like these determine where and how your cameras should be placed:
- Large yards.
- Dark corners obscured by trees.
- Narrow alleyways.
- One-story vs. a two-story home.
- Power availability.
Here are some of the most common things people use security cameras for:
- Securing areas of the property that are concealed or would otherwise make an inviting entry point such as a basement door or a copse of trees that conceals a part of a fence.
- Covering obvious routes of entry such as the front or back door or first floor windows.
- Monitoring backyards, barns, or sheds for unwanted animal activity.
- Watching for suspicious activity or unusual traffic outside your home.
- Keeping an eye on vehicles to prevent theft or vandalism.
This article will give you details on how to use these considerations to place your security cameras and go into many of the most common mistakes people make when setting their cameras up.
You can also learn more about Ring Security Cameras here.
How to start your security plan
If you’ve looked through the Ring Security Camera Buyer’s Guide then you may already have created a map of your home and yards (be sure to include any large features such as trees or a pool) and figured out exactly how and why you want to view each area. This will become your security plan.
We have a sample map below:
Once you’ve finished laying out the map of your property, you can now use it to figure out where to place your security cameras in ways that fit the needs of that particular area.
When you’ve finished, you should have a map that looks something like this:
We’ve listed which cameras we selected for this scenario and why we selected them below. This should give you an example of the kind of thought to put into your own camera placement:
- Camera 1 - Stick Up Cam Battery: This camera was placed on the shed in the backyard. From there it can fill in a blind spot on camera 3 and watch the backyard fence for invading raccoons. The Stick Up Cam battery was chosen because of a lack of power outlets on the shed.
- Camera 2 - Stick Up Cam Battery: That yard is where the owners’ dog stays during the day while they’re at work. Therefore, they selected a Stick Up Cam Battery for that side of the house as they were less worried about break ins on that side than they were about monitoring the dog.
- Camera 3 - Floodlight Cam: This camera does much of the heavy lifting when it comes to monitoring the backyard. At night it watches for intruders and can scare them off with its dual spotlights. During the day it can be used to monitor what’s going on in the pool.
- Camera 4 - Stick Up Cam Wired: Unlike the other side yard, this one only has a single wooden gate without a string lock on it. As the more vulnerable of the two sides of the house, the owners decided having a steady supply of power would be very important and went with a Stick Up Cam Wired.
- Camera 5 - Spotlight Cam: This camera is placed to keep an eye on the driveway and front yard, covering the area not seen by the Ring Video Doorbell. The Spotlight and motion detection features will flood the driveway with light at night, startling intruders and making it safer for the homeowners when they get out of their cars at night.
- Ring Video Doorbell 4: The front door is the single most common entry point for break-ins, it’s where you’ll catch package thieves, and where you'll want to know who’s standing there before you answer the door. This is exactly what Ring Video Doorbells were made for!
The rest of this article will provide some general tips on where and how to set up your cameras along with some recommendations on the best ways to use each model of Ring camera.
How to use your security cameras
Obviously everybody’s situation is different, indeed, every individual’s needs will be different depending where they’re setting up their cameras. Here are a few general tips to consider as you draw your cameras on the map:.
- Try to set up your cameras so people travel horizontally, not vertically: Your Ring camera sensors are better at catching movement and faces if they’re traveling horizontally across the camera’s field of view. People traveling directly toward or away from the camera may not trigger a motion alert as quickly.
- Don’t try to make your camera do too much: Ring security cameras can do a lot, but don’t try to get them to monitor too much at one time. If you need to monitor a yard, the cars across the street, and a driveway, that probably calls for multiple cameras.
- Think like a burglar and secure obvious points of entry and valuables: The most common points of entry for a break-in are the following:
- Front door
- Back door
- Side doors or first floor windows out of sight of the street
- Garages
- Basements and basement staircases
- Second floor windows
- Make sure all of these points are covered by cameras and other security systems. You should also secure valuables such as safes and jewelry by covering areas where thieves are likely to look such as the halls outside master bedrooms and offices.
- Consider how you’re going to power your cameras: Ring cameras are offered in a variety of models that are powered in different ways. The Ring Stick-Up Cam, for example, comes in battery-powered, plug-in, and solar-powered varieties. All have their pros and cons depending on your individual situation.
- Be sure to provide enough lighting: Many Ring Security Cameras have night vision capability. Night Vision doesn’t mean that the cameras can see in absolute darkness, however. Be sure to provide sufficient lighting so your cameras can catch people and animals moving across your property. Using the Live View at night can be enormously helpful.
How to install your security cameras properly
When you’ve decided which cameras to buy and where you’re going to place them, there are a few more things to consider:
- Make sure your cameras are placed at the right height. About nine feet off the ground outside and seven feet inside is a good rule-of-thumb for mounting security cameras. One of the most common mistakes people make when mounting their cameras is to put them too high or too low. Too high and your camera may not be at the right angle to catch people’s faces. Too low and they become vulnerable to tampering.
- Always use the Live View function to make sure your camera is at the right angle. Get a partner to help when putting up a camera by watching the Live View. Your camera won’t do you much good if it can’t catch people’s faces or if its position creates a blind spot.
- Make sure at least some of your cameras are visible: Visible cameras make great deterrents against intruders, as long as “visible” doesn’t mean “within reach and able to be tampered with.”
- Be sure to cover your driveway: You’d be amazed at how often someone who breaks in by the front door approaches by the driveway. Habit is a hard thing to break, so use that against criminals by covering the most likely approaches.
- Make sure your wifi is as strong as possible: Ring cameras work better the stronger and faster your wifi network is, so be sure and use network stretchers such as the Ring Chime Pro to make sure you have a clear and strong signal.
Click here for more information on the Ring Chime Pro.
Finally, two really important tips for placing security cameras:
- Respect people’s privacy: Don’t point your cameras in such a way as to find yourself looking into a neighbor’s window or their yard. You can check with your local municipality to learn about local regulations about recording audio and video at businesses or in public spaces. It is your responsibility to set up your Ring video recording devices in compliance with your local laws.
- Learn and obey local laws and ordinances: Your local municipal offices will have information on any local laws or ordinances that apply to putting security cameras up on your property. Depending on where you live, there may also be Housing Association tenets to take into account.
Ring Security Cameras - Click on a model:
 Ring Indoor Cam |
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Placing a Ring Indoor Cam
The Ring Indoor Cam is easily one of the most versatile security cameras when it comes to placement inside your home. While it can’t be used outdoors, it can be placed inside literally anywhere there is access to a power outlet. The compact Indoor Cam can be placed on a table or out of the way on a high bookshelf. It can also be mounted on a wall, in the corner of the room, or even on the ceiling!
The Ring Indoor Cam is a wonderful all-purpose indoor monitoring device. Use it to keep an eye on the dogs or the inside of your house while you’re at work, or even a way to monitor what’s happening while you’re home in another room. Basically the Indoor Cam works great for any purpose that doesn’t require night vision or thermal detection and can even be linked to outdoor cameras or the Ring Alarm to act as a supplemental security camera.
Placing a Ring Stickup Cam
Like the Indoor Cam, Ring’s Stick Up Cam is extremely versatile when it comes to where it can be set up. While it is slightly larger than the Indoor Cam, its small size makes it excellent for mounting on indoor walls or ceilings and its included mounting accessories make it perfect for mounting in smaller or out of the way areas outside of your home. The Stick Up Cam is particularly useful in monitoring tight, confined areas such as side yards.
If you’re looking for a general purpose camera that can cover most of your security camera needs, the Stick Up Cam is a good bet. The Stick Up Cam can easily be seen as an Indoor Cam with a few extra features. Like the Indoor Cam, the Stick Up Cam can be used as a pet-sitter or to keep an eye on the inside of your house during the day. The night vision and motion detection capabilities of the unit also allow it to act as a security camera both inside and outside your home.
Placing a Ring Stick Up Cam Elite
The Ring Stick Up Cam Elite trades some versatility in where it can be located for greater reliability in terms of power and image transmission. When you install the Stick Up Cam Elite you’re going to also have to run a Power-over-Ethernet cable. This means professional installation or some DIY skills may be required.
Placing a Ring Spotlight Cam
Like the Ring Stick Up Cam, the Spotlight Cam’s multiple power variations are designed to be extremely versatile when it comes to where it can be installed. Whether you need to light up a dark corner of your yard, the side of the house to chase away some pesky raccoons or supplement your Ring Doorbell in covering your front lawn, a Ring Spotlight Cam has got you covered.
The Spotlight Cam is designed to be a theft deterrent. In conjunction with the powerful Ring app you can create and customize your own motion zones so you can focus on the most important areas of your front or back yard. With built-in spotlights and night vision, you’ll get great video from your camera day or night, with or without the lights on and have the ability to light up dark spots in your yard. Even better, if you catch a suspicious stranger at your home, you can use the powerful siren to scare them away.
Placing a Ring Floodlight Cam
The Floodlight Cam is a larger unit that needs to be wired into a home’s junction box. As such, it is designed for outdoor use and will require a bit of DIY if you’re going to install it yourself. The benefit of such a powerful unit though, is that it can easily cover large chunks of your house’s exterior with a camera and spotlights, leaving only dark corners and side yards to be covered by smaller cameras such as the Spotlight Cam.
Ring’s Floodlight Cam is designed to be the centerpiece of your setup. When mapping out your home and determining where you need camera coverage, you can place a Floodlight Cam to protect the largest areas of your home such as front lawns or backyards. The night vision 1080p HD camera offers you great visuals of your home day or night while the two powerful independently pointed floodlights will bathe your home in illumination.
Greater security for your home and loved ones
As you can see, placing your security cameras doesn’t have to be complicated. A little planning and consideration of your unique situation is all it takes to secure your home and loved ones!
